Review: Revenant

Revenant (Lords of Deliverance #6)

by Larissa Ione

Blurb:

HELL HATH NO FURY . . .

For five thousand years, Revenant believed he was alone in the world, a fallen angel beyond any redemption. Now he finds he has a twin brother who had all the light and love Revenant was denied. Caught in a tug of war between Heaven and Hell, he must weigh his thirst for revenge against his desire for a mysterious female named Blaspheme—a female whose very origins could deliver him into salvation . . . or destruction.

LIKE AN ANGEL SCORNED

Blaspheme has a deadly secret: she's the forbidden offspring of an angel and a fallen angel. Hunted by both heavenly and satanic forces, she has survived only by laying low and trusting no one. When Revenant claims he can save them both, how can she possibly believe him? But the powerful angel is persistence incarnate and for Blaspheme, there's no place she can hide in Heaven or Hell where he won't find her.

Themes:  Demons, angels, paranormal

Rating: 5 stars

Heat Rating: 

Review:

The end you’ll never see coming and the beginning to another adventure for two deserving individuals that you’ll never want to put down.   Revenant is the story that you never realized was being written the entire time you read this longstanding series,  put together so beautifully that all the little things that seemed completely insignificant in previous stories come together in the ultimate battle between good and evil and everything somewhere in between.  Ione has yet to write a single story that didn’t grab my by the soul and reel me in to the tale of these amazing and deadly characters, but I never could have imagined just how invested I would become in the story of a character that I just only met in the last novel.  When the end arrives, bringing with it world changes, deadly compromises and the true love of two characters that should never have worked, you will find yourself wiping the tears from your face as you put down the book and wondering what book could possibly come next to fill the hole left by the devastation this story caused.  Ok so maybe it seems I’m waxing a bit poetic about this story but really that’s the only way I can explain how much I loved Rev and Blas’s story of betrayal, forgivingness, and self-realization, not to mention one of the best—and most unorthodox—love stories I’ve read in a long time.

With so much going on in this story and so many plot twists I don’t want to spoil, I’m going to have to skip my normal recap of the story and just jump right in about what I loved.  First you have to understand that when Ione writes a story, no matter the expected darkness of her characters, they are never just black or white, good or evil, but live in the world of shades of gray and all the spaces between evil and good.  Revenant is one of the darkness characters that have been found, even in this series or demons and “other”, having lived his entire life as a fallen angel, serving Satan himself, only to discover that he’s never been Fallen and finds himself ascended to the illustrious label of Shadow Angel, the equal and opposite to the most power angel ever, the Radiant, who happens to be his twin brother, Reaver.  Blas on the other hand has lived her life, hidden amongst and away from those that would kill her simply for the circumstances of her birth, but has always refused to give into the true darkness that resides in us all, instead caring for others, no matter how dark they are or what they may have done in their pasts.  A man that values no life but his own meets a woman that cares for all life, even to the detriment of her own… what could go wrong when two such as that begin a relationship?

If you have read any of the stories in this series you will enjoy getting to see the whole team come together in the end to win the final battle and bring peace to the world, but like me you will never have imagined that the others in the series were written just so that Rev had all he needed to defeat the forces of evil.  All the little details that might have been overlooked in past stories come together into a ultimate combination of circumstances that were needed for Rev to meet his destiny, though no one—character or reader alike—could every have seen the truth of that headed our way.  Revenant was a dark, broody, sexy and dangerous man, but when he comes to care for Blas it becomes obvious that all he’s ever needed to make him into the angel he was always meant to be is a reciprocated love for a good woman.   I was surprised by all the revelations in Rev’s past, but with each new tragedy that was revealed and each new test of his mettle I found myself falling deeper into love with him and wishing that I had a man just like him for myself.  Rev truly is the perfect blending of light and dark, with a lot of sexy, spicy passion thrown in to make him the hottest commodity on the block.  Blas was an intriguing woman herself, with dark and dangerous secrets and an unending ability to care for those in need and sacrifice herself for others, a true angelic presence that was sorely needed in Rev’s life.  
If you haven’t read the other stories in this series you will find yourself having to take in a lot of detail so that you can follow along, but I guarantee as soon as you get to the end you will have to go back to number one and live the stories for yourself.  The passion between Rev and Blas is amazing to witness, though sometimes it leads to the darker side when they are arguing zealously, giving you a moment’s hesitation about whether Blas will remain safe from Rev, but in the end the true greatness of Rev is his ability to forgive and embrace those that have wrong him in the past and find a way to bring them into his inner circle.  I will never understand just how Larissa is able to keep all of this straight in her brain and then let it flow so magically across the page, but even not being able to understand it I can thankfully experience and appreciate through her stories and the sometimes convoluted connections that flow through the whole series.  A dark and sensual masterpiece that I know will be added to my rereading list.   

*eARC provided by publisher (via netgalley) for the purpose of an honest and unbiased review.  No compensation was provided.