Review: Pleasure Unbound by Larissa Ione

In a place where ecstasy can cost you your life…

She’s a demon-slayer who hungers for sensual pleasure—but fears it will always be denied her. Until Tayla Mancuso lands in a hospital run by demons in disguise, and the head doctor, Eidolon, makes her body burn with unslakable desire. But to prove her ultimate loyalty to her peers, she must betray the surgeon who saved her life.

Two lovers will dare to risk all.

Eidolon cannot resist this fiery, dangerous woman who fills him with both rage and passion. Not only is she his avowed enemy, but she could very well be the hunter who has been preying upon his people. Torn between his need for the truth and his desire to find his perfect mate before a horrific transformation claims him forever, Eidolon will dare the unthinkable—and let Tayla possess him, body and soul… (from larissaione.com/blog)

I don't remember where I first saw these books but I do remember hearing my mother's voice in my head telling me that I'm not old enough to read them. They look pretty naughty all around; with Pleasure Unbound, the first in this series, the cover, the title, the little tagline all suggest that you'll definitely get an education if you read it. That would probably be true if I hadn't been reading paranormal romances for a while now but you know what? If you manage to skip over the many sex scenes, it's a better than average book for its genre. In fact, it can hang with the big dogs like J. R. Ward, Lara Adrian, and Nalini Singh.

Obviously with a series name like Demonica, you can figure that demons are going to be pretty prominent here. There's lots of different demons, different races of demons, and that's interesting. There's also different religious beliefs here too; not all demons believe in Satan but instead worship God and yet others are atheistic. Our heroine, Tayla, is a demon slayer for an organization that considers themselves protectors of humankind. She's also got a personal vendetta against them and so when she discovers that demons are not all the slavering baby-eating types she thinks, her world gets turned upside down. She and Eidolon's, um, compatibility, makes it much more confusing. Tayla has had a pretty lousy life and she has devoted herself to the Aegis, the protector-people group, and holds on that much harder to her beliefs. Lots of angst and pain here.

Eidolon, on the other hand, is a surgeon. Trained at Harvard's med school no less and has his own preconceived notions about the Aegis and it's murderers. Saving Tayla's life was a difficult choice for him because of all he and his forty-odd brothers have suffered at the hands of the slayers. Eidolon is also facing some hard changes up ahead; he's a Seminus demon and he's reached a point in his maturity where it is time to either find a female demon who he can take as his mate forever and ever or become a serial rapist. Apparently Seminus demons are all about the nooky. Who knew? Eidolon doesn't want to lose his identity but doesn't want to be with just anyone - he wants love. He wants the HEA along with his mate and their children but is running out of time and the more he gets to know Tayla, the better she's looking to him as a woman, not just a slayer or a potential mate.

I liked both Tayla and Eidolon. I could have lived with less of the sexual innuendos from Eidolon and his brothers. I liked the hospital too; picture the tv show ER but replace everyone with demons, wargs (aka werewolves), vampires, etc. Decent plot too with lots of deception and revelations, betrayals and uncomfortable truths. I'm hoping to read the second book, Desire Unchained, very soon. Eidolon's brother, Shade, has a starring role in Desire, as well as a love-curse. Should be interesting.

I've had this book for a short while and have managed to collect the first four in the series over the last few months but what made me pick it up yesterday was something I recently saw on Smart Bitches, Trashy Books. Go HERE to read the article Sarah wrote about ebooks and customer service. As someone who recently bought a nook, it had me gnashing my teeth. Check out the comments and you'll see what I saw: one classy writer chick. Larissa Ione impressed me there that day and made me happy that I paid cover price for my copy of Pleasure Unbound. Larissa's fifth book in the Demonica series, Sin Undone, comes out on August 24th.