Redonk Nutshell: Death confronts the woman who took advantage of him and inadvertently set in course the apocalypse

Book 3 in Larissa Ione’s series featuring the tales of the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse! YAY! I was looking forward to this. I’ve enjoyed this series, and we get a nice build up from the last book into this one. Here’s a quick set up:

Thanatos, a/k/a Death, is royally pissed because Regan Cooper seduced him (under the influence) and ran off. Besides the obvious reason for his irritation, the big reason for his anger is up until this point he thought his virginity was his agimortus, or rather his seal.  He’d been keeping himself chaste for thousands of years because he thought him having sex would turn him into the true incarnation of Death. And that’s really not his idea of a good time.  So when Regan has her way with him, he’s livid. When she runs off and his siblings (Famine and War) subdue him against his will in order to give him time to chill out.  What Than doesn’t know is that Regan is now pregant. With his kid.  And this kid is part of a greater prophesy that somehow ties into the possible end of the world.

If you’re new to or unfamiliar with this series, the premise above either really intrigued you or left you giggling to yourself. It sounds ridiculous, but it works.  When Than manages to get away from his “imprisonment for his greater good,” he tracks down Regan, fully intending to blast her ass into the next life. Then he realizes she’s pregnant with his son and that, well, sorta changes things. Instead, he takes Regan in (against her will) and pretects her against all the factions looking to use her, and their kid, in their plans for world-ending stuff.

If you’re sensing my latent snark, point for you. Don’t get me wrong – I liked this book.  It was…fun.  I really, really liked the premise of this series and I was looking forward to seeing where we were going.  Unfortunately, I found myself glazing over from time to time amid the plot jumping back and forth between so many characters.  If you’re not familiar with Ms Ione’s world featuring demons and vampires, you’re probably going to be in the same boat I was.  I’m vaguely familiar with it, having read her first Demonica book and the other Lords of Deliverance books.  But I had a hard time getting into, or even caring, about supporting character’s quirks or mannerisms that, undoubtedly, were likely appreciated by followers familiar with this entire world.  I wanted to follow Than and Regan only, and while the main conflict in this book centers around them, there’s some significant action involving supporting characters as well that I really just…didn’t give a crap about.  *sigh*  Then there’s the whole repetitive story arc that Than and Regan gradually fall into, and it’s obvious what’s going to be happening to them.  They’re madly attracted to each other, but there’s distrust.  They start to like each other, then some shit hit the fan and they don’t trust each other.  They gradually come around and realize they’re in love with each other.  Then there’s the whole apocalypse complication…it’s just…meh.

There’s one more book in this series, and it’s centered around the bad-ass of the series, Pestilence, who’s been nothing but a horrific thorn in everyone’s side from book one.  I can honestly say I’m not sure if I’ll read it or not.  I just don’t know.  I think I might be done with this series, and that makes me sad.

Generally, you get what you expect going into this book.  Lots of sexual tension, a delicate game of political play between angels, vampires and demons, and a somewhat predictable plot with a HEA ending.  It’s not a horrible book, it just didn’t quite live up to what I was hoping for.  I seem to be in a minority on this one – many of my fellow bloggers loved this book.  Maybe it just caught me on a bad day.

Lethal Rider by Larissa Ione (Lords of Deliverance book 3)

Rating: C

Romance: 2/5                  Raunch: 4/5