4.75 Stars

I just finished reading Book 11, Revenant, and once again Larissa Ione has delivered a story that keeps you involved to the very end.
It flows & keeps in line with the other 10 books of this series. There are no 'Blah Blah' moments. Every word is a real part of Revenant & Blaspheme's story. Any moments of reference to things that happened in past books is actually a part of the story & not one of those moments where you have to skip pages of repetitiveness. In fact, I don't think ANY of her books do boring!
High Octane Baby! Now that is my kind of story.
Lets face it...... You cannot go wrong with a Larissa Ione book! ( )

Still loving this series!!!(3.5 stars) ( )

Ohhhhhh….this book is good! It’s real good. I just love the big vocabulary I pulled off there but that’s what I think. I have been a fan of this series since the first book. The characters and world that Larissa Ione has created has sucked me in and I’ll be sorry when this series ends. This has been rumored to be the last book but at the beginning of the book the author tells us that she promises that the ride isn’t over yet so there could be more books. Yay!

For five thousand years or as Revenant puts it, “Five thousand f**king years” he believed he was a Fallen Angel but everyone had lied to him. Not only did they lie but his memories had been taken away from him twice. He was an Angel who was born and raised in Sheoul. His mother was captured by Satan while pregnant with twins. Heaven made a deal with Satan so his mother had to choose which twin to keep and which twin to give to Heaven. She chose to give his twin, Reaver or Yenrieth (his Heavenly name) to Heaven. Revenant was fed demons blood when he was just hours old. He never had a chance. You can’t enter Heaven with demon blood and as far as he knows, there is no way to cleanse it from his body.

Revenant was tortured and had to watch his mother be tortured for years. He was taken away from his mother at the age of ten to work in the mines of Sheoul as a slave. Any time he did something wrong or didn’t follow the rules his mother was tortured so now he follows rules relentlessly.
After his mother’s death, he became a bad bad angel or a very good fallen angel depending how you look at it. Now that his memories are back, he is angry and confused. He wants to forget the last five thousand years…if only for a few hours and he knows just the person to help, a False Angel named Blasphemy who he has been a little obsessed with lately. But Blasphemy is blowing him off….and not the way he wants her to.

Blasphemy has a secret all of her own that she does not want anyone to know because it could get her killed. Her mom performed a spell when she was born to disguise her as a False Angel but the spell is wearing off. She was born a Vyrm, someone born to an Angel and a Fallen angel, which is forbidden by Heaven and Sheoul. Both Angels and Fallen Angels hunt down and kill all Vyrm because some Vyrm have the ability to look into the eyes of an angel or fallen angel and a moment later, everyone in his family falls dead. Vyrm have a 50/50 chance of being good or evil. Blasphemy is good.

Blasphemy is attracted to Revenant but fears that he will kill her if he finds out what she really is because he always follows rules.

Raphael, the arch angel, has promised Revenant that if he delivers Gethel who is pregnant by Satan (Yep, she’s Lucifer’s baby mama) to him, he will cleanse him from the demon blood so he can enter Heaven. Raphael is a real dick and Revenant does not trust him. Why are the angels making him jump through hoops when entering Heaven should be his birth right! But until his blood is cleansed, things like trees, grass and flowers in Heaven will die if he enters. Satan, on the other hand is demanding that Revenant kill an angel or two or three to show his loyalty to him. If he can’t live in Heaven, Satan can find him anywhere on earth and Sheoul. He can’t piss off Satan and Sheoul is the only thing he has ever known. Revenant has a big choice to make.

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Revenant is the twelfth book of the combined Demonica/Lords of Deliverance/Demonica Underworld series. As the title implies, this one is about Revenant, who we found out in a previous book is Reaver’s twin brother. He was born and raised in Sheoul as a fallen angel, but only recently recovered memories that prove that he’s a full angel who never fell. Still, he isn’t exactly being welcomed into Heaven, so he’s trying to figure out exactly where he belongs. He’d already briefly met Blaspheme who he believes is a False Angel. She’s a doctor at Underworld General, but what no one knows is that she’s really a vyrm, the forbidden offspring of an angel and a fallen angel, in disguise. Revenant decides to pursue her romantically, but at the same time, he wants her help. The one thing that Revenant has decided is that Lucifer must be neutralized before he can be reborn in his new, more powerful form, so Revenant asks Blaspheme to give Gethel an obstetrics house call, hoping that they can figure out a way to kill her or Lucifer or both. Things don’t entirely go as hoped for, leaving Revenant in a race against time to come up with a different plan. Meanwhile Blaspheme’s False Angel enchantment is rapidly wearing off. When Rev finds out the truth can he forgive the deception when he despises lies, and if so, can he break the Watcher rules, something he never does, to save her?

Revenant and his twin Reaver were born in Sheoul while their mother was being held captive there. However, a deal was made in which Reaver was taken to Heaven, while Revenant stayed in Hell. Because he’s Reaver’s twin, everything that happened to Reaver also happened to him, so when Reaver lost his memories, Rev did, too. And when he got them back, so did Rev. Now Rev remembers the entire truth of his torturous existence in Sheoul, as well as Reaver’s rejection eons ago, and is rather bitter about all of it. A part of Rev wants to be welcomed into Heaven, but since he was given Satan blood as an infant, he’s tainted and can’t enter Heaven without destroying parts of it in the process. So, he’s trying to figure out exactly where he belongs. For millennia, all he’s known is being Satan’s minion, and when Lucifer was killed, he became Satan’s right-hand man. So, the one thing he doesn’t want is for Lucifer to be reborn. When Gethel, the fallen angel carrying Lucifer, needs medical attention, Rev goes to Blaspheme, the only doctor he feels he can trust, hoping that she’ll find a way the end the pregnancy without him getting involved, because to do so would make him a target for Satan. Although he’d been deeply attracted to Blas, he didn’t count on falling for the presumed False Angel, and the more time he spends with her, the more his own goodness resurfaces. But when he learns the truth about her, he’s extremely upset at her deception. Rev hates lying and learned a hard lesson at a young age that makes him a stickler for following the rules, but he may have to engage in some deception and rule-breaking of his own in order to save Blas when her enchantment fails, as well as save the world from the new ultra-powerful Lucifer. In many ways, Rev is the classic tortured hero we’ve seen throughout the Demonica series, and there are definitely places where that part of him shows through, but I ultimately didn’t feel like it went quite as deep as it could have. I also felt like he came on a little too strong with Blaspheme in the beginning, making me a tad uncomfortable. As a result of these things, although I liked Rev, I didn’t fall for him in quite the way I have with most of the other heroes of the series.

Blaspheme is a vyrm, the forbidden offspring of an angel and a fallen angel. Because of unusual and dangerous powers they possess, vyrm are hunted down and put to death by both Heaven and Hell, along with anyone who helps them, so Blaspheme’s mother placed an enchantment on her at birth that makes everyone think she’s a False Angel. However, the spell has a limited shelf life and is starting to wear off, and angels are already coming after her and her mother. It also required the sacrifice of a real False Angel, something that Blas is determined not to do again. As a result, she’s desperate to find a work-around, but because of how hated vyrm are, she doesn’t know who she can trust with her secret and also doesn’t want to put anyone else at risk. Then Rev comes along, propositioning her at every turn. Although she’s attracted to him, she doesn’t need any more complications in her life right now, but eventually he becomes too much to resist. He also drags her to Sheoul to provide medical care for Gethel, something she doesn’t really want to do. But it opens up a possibility for Gethel’s and Lucifer’s enemies to destroy them once and for all. Along with Reaver and Eidolon, they come up with a plan, but things go sideways. However, the search for a solution for Blaspheme’s problem sparks a brainstorm for Rev on how to take out the bid baddies, but it’s one that might ultimately kill him in the process. Overall, I liked Blaspheme quite a bit. Her belief in Rev and her love for him helps him to become a better version of himself. But much like Rev, I felt like her characterization could have gone a little deeper. She just wasn’t quite as interesting of a character as many of the other heroines of the series have been.

Being part of a long-running series, there are some common characters, although not quite as many, who have significant roles. All the Sem brothers, Eidolon (Pleasure Unbound), Shade (Desire Unchained), Wraith (Passion Unleashed), and Lore (Ecstasy Unveiled), make appearances, but Eidolon was the most crucial to the plot, with Wraith getting in a few of his amusing one-liners. All of the Horsemen show up as well, but Thanatos (Lethal Rider) probably played the most important role. Of course, Reaver (Reaver) is definitely a pivotal character, and I was glad to see him and Rev finally mend fences. His mate, Harvester, also appears, her power and health waning as Lucifer feeds off his siblings’ energy. She also makes an important visit to Tracker (her former warg slave who used to be known as Whine). He later becomes the hero of the book, Bond of Destiny. We’re also introduced to some new Sem brothers Eidolon has hired at UG, and one of them, Raze, goes on to become the hero of the book, Base Instinct.

Overall, Revenant was another good addition to the series that was well-written and well-plotted. I enjoyed it, but I didn’t end up loving it like most of the other books in the series so far. It was hard for me to put my finger on exactly what the problem was, but I think it was mainly that I felt the characterizations weren’t quite as good as they could have been. As a result, I didn’t fully connect with Revenant and Blaspheme in the way I wanted to. Perhaps because I didn’t feel strongly connected to them as individuals, I also didn’t entirely feel the emotional and romantic connection between them as a couple. Don’t get me wrong, there are some sweet, heart-clenching moments, but for some reason, they weren’t quite enough for me. However, I thought that the story itself was pretty well-done, adding crucial events to the overall series story arc. In that way, it was classic Larissa Ione storytelling. She keeps readers on the edge of their seats, making them think all might be lost and then turns everything around in a believable way to give the hero and heroine their HEA. I’ve heard that Revenant was originally conceived as a finale to the series, and if it had been the end, I might have been more disappointed. But since I already know it’s not, I can honestly say that it was good. Now I’m looking forward to continuing with the Demonica Underworld stories soon. ( )

I just love Larissa Ione’s Demonica series. Revenant is Reaver’s twin, separated from him at birth, but raised in hell instead of heaven. This one was really great not only because we continued in the angels world, but because we got to explore the tortured brothers relationship theme as they were split at birth, one sent to heaven, and one to hell, which has turned Revenant into something of a bad boy.

Blasphemy is an interesting character as well, a part-angel who has been hiding out for years under the protection of her mother and working as a doctor at UG. They have some steamy chemistry! Adding to everyone’s troubles is the fact that Satan has gotten a fallen angel to try to reincarnate his murdered son Lucifer by carrying him to term as a full-grown baby/man, which would obviously be bad for the forces of good. Much interesting development and world-building as always, although my very favorite part was seeing bitter, angry Revenant discover if maybe he could have people who cared about him after all.

Please excuse typos/name misspellings. Entered on screenreader.
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