Larissa Ione

Dining with Angels is a book full of fun extras from Larissa Ione’s Demonica universe that falls between Her Guardian Angel and Cipher in the series chronology. It’s half original short stories featuring favorite series characters and half cookbook featuring recipes connected to this world. Among the short stories, we have Declan and Suzanne (Her Guardian Angel) who are trying to work out the issue of Suzanne worrying about Declan being injured in the field while working for DART, along with an update about her new cooking show. There’s a great story about Wraith and Serena (Passion Unleashed) as they try to figure out a way to tell their son, Stewie, that Serena isn’t his biological mother. Reaver and Harvester (Reaver) make a guest appearance on Suzanne’s show, before a quick visit to Reseph and Jillian. Thinking that Harvester doesn’t like her job as Heavenly Watcher of the Four Horsemen, Reseph checks into getting her reassigned before they share some couple’s time. Shade and Runa (Desire Unchained) also share a passionate moment while discussing their family. Reseph and Jillian (Rogue Rider) have an argument when she decides she wants to move but he doesn’t. Ares and Cara (Eternal Rider) celebrate the impending birth of their little one with a baby shower, which gets interrupted by the arrival of said infant. Last but not least, Larrisa Ione has Eidolon and Tayla (Pleasure Unbound) over for dinner and an interview.

I love this series and the characters, so as always, all the stories were wonderful. Even though they’re short, they’re meaningful in some way and well-written, giving fans a peek into their favorite characters’ lives. I loved seeing all the couples’ growing families and some of those who don’t have kids thinking about it for the future, which I’m sure will tie into the brand new spin-off Demonica Legacy series. The continuity among the tales was great, too. Most of the stories show the characters engaged in some kind of preparations for Ares and Cara’s baby shower, which of course culminates in their story. There’s also a running bit about Azagoth shutting down Sheoul-gra, leading to some chaos, and Lilliana still residing with Ares and Cara but getting closer to wanting to go home as the birth of her baby nears. Neither is fully resolved by the end, but it looks like their story will continue in the next book of the series Cipher. The narratives also tie in with the recipes in that most of them are supposedly Suzanne’s, and several of the characters cook the various dishes within the plots of their tales. Overall, I really enjoyed this part of the book, but fans should be aware that in order to make the book a little more “family friendly,” Ms. Ione removed all the colorful f-words she’s known for, replacing them with another amusing word, and although there’s a fair bit of sexual tension, it all culminates behind closed doors.

The other half is the cookbook with each story being complemented with recipes that tie into it and the characters being represented. Eg. Wraith and Serena have romantic/sexy food, Shade and Runa have family friendly food, Ares and Cara have food for celebrations that also has a Mediterranean flair, etc. I have to admit that unlike Larissa Ione, I’m not much of a foodie. I can appreciate good food, but I’m also a picky eater, so I can be pretty hard to please. After perusing all the recipes, I’d say probably less than half of them appealed to me and were ones that I might be adventurous enough to try. However, take that with a grain of salt. I know many people who would be happy to give them all a try and if I wasn’t so finicky, I might, too. I’m also not much of a cook, but if I get a hankering for any of the recipes that sounded interesting, I’m sure I could get my daughter who loves to cook to whip up something for me. That being the case, I’m not entirely sure if the print version was worth the hefty price tag for me personally, but your mileage may vary. I’ll admit that it is a very pretty book with color photos of some of the foods and the pictures of sexy models and fancy formatting that begin each section. I may not get as much practical use out of it as some will, but as a big fan of the series, I don’t regret my purchase either. Overall, it’s a nice addition to the Demonica world with plenty of tasty tidbits of both the culinary and storytelling variety that will whet readers appetites in more ways than one.… (mehr)

Quickie Review (May contain spoilers, fair warning upon reading this review.)

Hades is the next installment in the "Demonica Underworld" series that features the 1001 Dark Nights series. I really was excited to read Hades. I love him as a demi god (in fact he is probably my favorite other than Poseidon) and I was curious to see how Larissa Ione would handle his character. I adore a tortured hero and he was such a tortured hero. My heart went out to Hades, he really had been neglecting himself and been torturing himself. We really see him work on redeeming himself and I admired this element within the story. I also was curious to see how this romance would develop. The heroine was so likeable. I enjoyed her journey and seeing her fight for Hades was so empowering. Loved their fun witty banter that these two have together and mix that in with the suspenseful plot in the underworld was so intriguing. We also have a forbidden element to their romance. We see the ways in which they learn to fight for each other. And Azagoth was pretty funny in this one lol Typical Ione male. The more I read this world the more I want to read more of the Demonica world. If you are a fan of this world, highly recommend these novellas. So well done!… (mehr)

I haven't read Ione before, which I guess is some sort of paranormal romance reader sin right? Like admitting I've never read Anita Blake (I haven't) or enjoyed Christine Feehan (I did at one time). I just haven't been interested before. BOUND BY NIGHT possibly has changed my mind.

And just so we're clear Nuh-hun esu...vedi had better mean H and A because otherwise Ione, you and me are gonna have a talk about setting a girl up for epic romance. Oh but if G and K are in the offing I'd be happy there too. I'm not as keen on G and Z.

Also my god that cover is hot. That is a gorgeous lovely picture that does nothing to make me think of vampires, but yeah I can see why Riker made an impression on Nicole.

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My only real complaint, and this isn't a complaint so much as a caution, that even when the main conflict is resolved (which is Nicole's kidnapping) there's still a good quarter of the book left. There's a few more obstacles before HEA is reached--a rival gang's revenge, Riker's past kicking him in the nads, overcoming Nicole's fears and that pesky fertility problem. A couple are better fleshed out and sublty introduced throughout the novel then others.

One was downright contrived feeling, but ended much better then I could have hoped for.

Getting to the good points--which there are many--we'll start with Riker and Nicole. Neither is a prize honestly; Riker is a jerk, angry, vengeful and stubbornly stupid. Nicole is...actually fairly much the same, though less vengeful and more recklessly stupid. Granted they both have *very* good reasons to feel as they do towards their respective prejudices and Ione makes it clear that even when they say they're over their issues, they're really not.

Its the small things. Nicole flinching when Riker moves his lips too close to her throat. Riker snapping if she uses the wrong word when describing her family's former vampire slaves. Ione pushes her characters until they have that talk no one ever really wants to have.

full review to be posted at Poisoned Rationality… (mehr)