Review - Desire Unchained by Larissa Ione

"It had been at least two decades since Shade had awakened on a strange floor, hung over and without a clue to his whereabouts.  The heavy weight of a manacle around his wrist and the sound of a rattling chain made him smile.  It had been even longer since he'd been in this situation and chained up.
Cool.
Sure, he preferred the females to be the ones in chains instead of him, but he'd roll with it."

Ahh the glorious beginning to Ione's second installment to her Demonica series perfectly introduces us to a closer look at Shade.  Always the adrenaline junkie, Shade works as a paramedic at the demon hospital with his brothers Eidolon and Wraith.  His personal life is chock full of the same high, case in point see above lol.  Add a healthy dose of sarcasm, predatory instinct, and a bone deep loyalty to those he selectively allows into his inner circle and you have the perfect recipe for my favorite of the brothers! :)  Now on to a review of the actual novel and away from my obsession...



While out on an ambulance run, Shade and his half sister Skulk are captured and held captive by the demon body part traffickers we met in Pleasure Unbound.  Now we find out the mastermind behind the whole operation, a deranged mad"man" whose actions go above and beyond to make the brothers' lives complete sucktown (yes that is my word and no you can't use it ;p).

Now for some background on Shade, he is a victim of Maluncoeur, a curse that states he will slowly turn noncorporeal if he ever falls in love.  This entails a never ending hunger, thirst, and sexual appetite without the means to satisfy any of those problems or have any contact with any corporeal being.  Basically he gets entrapped in the "inbetween" where he can watch, observe, and go mad (nasty lil bugger eh?).  The maniac is well aware of this curse, and uses it as part of his ultimate plan.  He captures one of Shade's ex-lovers, Runa, and puts temptation right under Shade's nose.  Of course, Shade starts falling for Runa and his brothers scramble to find an anti-curse before he disappears completely. In the midst of all this, Mr. Looney Tunes hell raiser rages and pulls a couple more strings ultimately making the three brothers think Sheoul is a vacation spot comparatively.

The action rolls off the pages thicker than the first installment in the series.  There is always some new plot point just around the corner to take you off guard once again.  I found myself laughing out loud, boiling with rage, screaming at Shade, and literally even shedding a few tears as the pages flew by.  The last couple pages are kinda lame, ok I found them really lame, but the fact that Wraith's book is next helped me get over that part pretty fast. :)

Definitely check this novel out, but make sure to read the series in order!

Rating: 5/5

~Helena