Guest Review: Lethal Rider by Larissa Ione - 5 Wine Glasses!

Lethal Rider 
(Lords of Deliverance #3)
by Larissa Ione 
Paperback,464 pages
May 22nd 2012 by Grand Central Publishing
ISBN 074995552X

They're here. They ride. The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse.
Born of a match between good and evil, four siblings stand between hell's minions and everything they want to destroy. They are the Lords of Deliverance, and they have the power to ward off Doomsday...or let it ride...
LETHAL RIDER
Thanatos, the most deadly Horseman of the Apocalypse, has endured thousands of years of celibacy to prevent the end of days. But just one night with the wickedly sexy Aegis Guardian, Regan Cooper, shatters centuries of resolve. Yet their passion comes with a price. And Thanatos must face a truth more terrifying than an apocalypse-he's about to become a father.
Demon-slayer Regan Cooper never imagined herself the maternal type, but with the fate of the world hanging in the balance she had no choice but to seduce Thanatos and bear his child. Now, as the final battle draws closer and his rage at being betrayed is overshadowed by an undeniable passion for the mother of his child, Thanatos has a life-shattering realization: To save the world, he must sacrifice the only thing he's ever wanted-a family.

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Crystal L's Thoughts:
Favorite Quote (because I may feel like it applies to my life sometimes): “Crazy? try ceiling-licking, rabies-frothing, dish-ran-away-with-the-spoon-in-fucking-sane." --Thanatos”


Let me just say Larissa Ione is a MASTER at world building. Her books are so in depth, so vividly described, so utterly imaginative (but yet they feel so real to you) that I can honestly say that I rarely 'fall into' a book the way I fall into hers. With Lethal Rider it certainly doesn't hurt that our hero Thanatos (otherwise known as Death of the Four Horsemen), is a tattooed and pierced intense guy, that if he existed in real life would have to seriously worry about me becoming stalkerish. I mean sure, he's not perfect. If you piss him off badly enough the souls trapped in his armor can escape and kill you. But we girls can work around that, right?

So, Thanatos has remained a virgin for (read this number closely peeps, cause it is SCARY) 5,000 years because he and his siblings believe that if he remains celibate his seal will not break, and then he won't turn into the demonic form of Death. But at the end of the previous book in this series, Immortal Rider, we learn that Regan, an Aegis soldier has been given a drugged bottle of wine for her and Thanatos to share. Once the two start to partake of the roofied wine, well needless to say she popped Death's cherry. This was, equally in turns, a good and bad thing. The good thing was that Thanatos learned that his virginity was not his agimortus (the event/person that would break his seal). The bad thing is now he doesn't understand what his agimortus is now. Well, he doesn't understand it until he tracks down Regan for some good ol' fashioned revenge just to find out that - SURPRISE - you're gonna be a Daddy! No Thanatos understands his prophecy was referring to his 'innocent' child's life, and not his actual 'innocence' as in his virginity.

Our girl Regan is a complicated chick, that once you delve into her psyche isn't actually all that complicated. She has a lot of issues spawning from what she is, which is not demonic, but not a normal human either. Her parents checked out on her in the worst ways possible, even if they kind of couldn't help it, and the Aegis agreed to raise newborn Regan. However, Regan has spent her life knowing that normally the Aegis would put someone like her 'down', so she does her best to make sure she is indispensable to them. So when the Aegis says 'Go get yourself knocked up by Death', well she goes and gets herself knocked up. Even if after the time she's spent with him she comes to realize that he's not the douche she originally thought him to be, and starts to gain feelings for him. Now she can barely look him in the eye after his confrontation where he tells her that she used him, and she violated him, and he's going to damn well make her pay for it. She goes through a horrible case of self loathing that you really wish you could reach into the book and give her a comforting pat on the back for.

This story is amazing and a must read. Of course, you need to read the whole series in order to understand the events taking place, but I promise you, it's more than worth it! Ione spins a tell like you wouldn't believe, and she gives you interesting new twists to things you've read about before. Such as where our society has at times clumped beings such as 'Death', the 'Grim Reaper', and 'Hades' all in one person, she gives each entity their own unique place that makes you think Ione has a genius-like brain for this sort of thing. So needless to say, this book gets a five wine glass toast all the way, and if I had that pesky barrel of wine button that I mentioned once before, she'd totally have that instead. Enjoy Horsemen groupies! And I tattooed Thanatos' forehead with 'MINE', so hands off!

Rating: 5 Wine Glasses