Eternal Rider (Lords of Deliverance, #1)

by Larissa Ione

The prophecies were there but no one listened. Until now. They are the Lords of Deliverance and they have the power to usher in Doomsday . . . or prevent it.

His name is Ares, and the fate of mankind rests on his powerful shoulders. If he falls to the forces of evil, the world falls too. As one of the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse, he is far stronger than any mortal, but even he cannot fight his destiny forever. Not when his own brother plots against him.

Yet there is one last hope. Gifted in a way other humans can't - or won't - understand, Cara Thornhart is the key to both this Horseman's safety and his doom. But involving Cara will prove treacherous, even beyond the maddening, dangerous desire that seizes them the moment they meet. For staving off eternal darkness could have a staggering cost: Cara's life.

• ISBN10: 0749955422
• ISBN13: 9780749955427
• Publish Date: 7 April 2011 (first published 1 January 2011)
• Publish Status: Active
• Publish Country: GB
• Publisher: Little, Brown Book Group
• Imprint: Piatkus Books
• Format: Paperback (B-Format (198x129 mm))
• Pages: 432
• Language: English

Reviews

[kimbacaffeinate]

Caffeinated Aspect:

• I love Ione’s interpretation of the Four Horsemen and the Apocalypse. The Four Horseman consists of three brothers and their sister. We learn of their history and it was fascinating. Reseph- the Horseman Pestilence has had his seal broken, and disease is spreading throughout the world. The next seal to break will be Ares (War), and together the remaining siblings must stop the Apocalypse and find a way to save Reseph. Limos, is slated to become the bride of Satan and Thanatos will become Death.

• This story belongs to Ares, who represents War and Cara a human healer. I found Ares to be strong, and full of anger (and rightly so). Ares is very rough around the edges, and at times he behaved like a Neanderthal. He does have redeeming qualities, and we slowly come to learn them. Cara is one tough cookie, and boy is she stubborn. I enjoyed their interactions and bickering. Which I found to be hilarious at times like a mouse talking back to a lion.

• The characters especially the Horseman are complex, and their histories are rich. I am eager to get to know each of them.

• This is a dark fantasy that is intense with one action scene after another. Ione brought the world to life and did a great job of fleshing out the four horsemen and side characters.

• The romance is hot and err savage. This is War after all; you didn’t expect he would be cuddly did you? So it was hot, primal and intense. Ione still managed to make me see Ares tender side, and I was rooting for this couple.

• Ares is torn between stopping the seal from being open, and his feelings for Cara and the tension was addictive.

• Hellhounds, Demons, Angels, and humans working together, betrayal, back-stabbing, and quests for needed artifacts. I loved all of these aspects and Ione brought me a panoramic view.

Decaffeinated Aspects:

• While this is the first of the Deliverance series, it is a spinoff of the Demonica series. Eternal Rider is a dark paranormal that has elements of high fantasy from its world building to its multitude of characters. Some readers may be better severed to read the Demonica series first.

• Ione did an excellent job of explaining the world, the history and prophecy, and I liked her interpretations of Revelations. This is not a one sitting read, plan to spend a little time with this book as you will need to digest and process information.

• I am very curious about the angel Reaver and want to know more.

• There were a few editing errors but with a plot this complex I immediately noticed. I found the need to double check mentions in previous chapters regarding the seal to be sure I hadn’t misunderstood.

• There is violence, death, and abuse.

Eternal Rider was a captivating and intense tale, and I am looking forward to continuing the Lord of Deliverance series. The next books are as follows: Immortal Rider, Lethal Rider, Rogue Rider and Reaver. Revenant is due to release November 2014. There are also a few novellas in this series.

[Melanie]

I really enjoyed this book. Ares is a great character. I cannot what to read Limos' book.

I love that we still have the same characters as the Demonica series.

One of the best books I have read this year. Can't wait to continue the story of the Four Horsemen of the Apocolypse.

[Cocktails and Books]

Kick Ass!

[Linda]

WOW, what a book! Great to read more about the world of the demons and angels, and to get more information about them, as well as of the horsemen.

I was SO happy Cara lived in the very end, she and Ares are so good together, and I was crying when he proposed to her, too cute for words, and even more so because he had always thought that emotions would be his downfall, it was excellent to see him realize that it made him stronger.

[Ing Cruz]

My Synopsis:
We got a glimpse of Ares the second Horseman of the Apocalypse at the end of Sin's book. Eternal Rider opens up with the history of how the Four Horseman came to be and gives us a glimpse of what was happening to them during Sin's story. The story itself picks up six months after Sin Undone. Ares and his remaining siblings whose Seals have not been broken are on the hunt for their brother Reseph aka Pestilence. Each Horseman remains good and fight on the side of good until their SEAL is broken. Each Seal has a trigger known as agimortus that will cause their SEAL to break. With Reseph the Warg war and the virus spread by Sin triggered the breaking of his SEAL. Reseph is now on the hunt for the agimortus that will break Ares SEAL. If Ares's Seal is broken it will not be a good thing. The Apocalypse will be in full force and the demons in Sheoul will have a field day on the mankind. Ares and the two remaining siblings, Thanatos and Limos are trying to stop this from happening.

Cara Thornhart is a human who is still recovering from a trauma. A creature who looks like an ugly dog is left in her care after he is found injured. Cara has a gift that allows her to communicate with animals and heal them. Since her gift killed previously she has been hesitant to use it. Seeing the creature suffering she hesitantly helps and ends up being bonded to a hellhound instead. The hellhound she is bonded to ends up in the hands of a Fallen Angel who is Ares agimortus. The Fallen Angel is on the run from Reseph, who is intent on killing this Fallen Angel to break Ares's Seal. Since Cara is now bonded to the hellhound she is able to locate it. With this discovery Ares will use her to track his agimortus. Things take a turn and Cara ends up becoming Ares's agimortus.

Ares is a warrior and will protect Cara with his life so that his Seal does not break. Ares feels no emotion or so he thinks! :) Cara has now become the most hunted person in the demonica world. With her life dependent on this hard and emotionless warrior will she come out of this experience alive? You'll have to buy the book to find out........... :)

My Thoughts:
With the start of this new series Larissa delivers again with in your face nitty gritty dark violence and sexiness. The Four Horseman fit flawlessly into this world building that she had already introduced her readers in the Demonica series. With Ares and Cara's story she takes us deeper into the battle between good and evil.

Ares is another great hero to add to Larissa's collection of yummy demons. He's big, badass, tortured and sex on a stick. He has been raised as a warrior and thinks like a warrior. No emotions and no ties. He's had to cut himself off emotionally to keep himself from being hurt again. Being alive for centuries, he has learned that any emotional attachments leads to weakness, that an enemy can use against you. When he meets Cara he is instantly attracted and doesn't like it one bit. Humans have no place in his world especially female humans. The harder he tries to avoid any emotional feelings toward Cara the more he finds himself drawn to her and her kindness. I loved Ares. I think he is now my second favorite hero from both series. My heart belongs to Kynan but boy did Ares come close from moving Kynan over! :) When he tries not to care he finds himself caring anyway. I like when the hero thinks they're all emotionally cut off and when that one girl comes along all these pesky feelings start surfacing. It's so cute.

Cara is strong. I like strong heroines. When she first gets thrown into this world she is understandably confused and emotional. She was all these things but it wasn't the emotional hysteria that gets old. She processes the information and goes from there. I personally would have been huddled in the corner sucking my thumbs! But heh..that's me! :) Once she sees pass Ares's emotional armor she dives right in and tries to get him to open up. She doesn't take crap from him and goes toe to toe and expects him to treat her as an equal who can handle herself. No mousy wimp for Ares.

The sparks between these two was crazy. Talk about verbal foreplay. I could literally feel myself melting in a puddle during one sexy shower scene! Hmmmm....getting visuals! The romance and characters were developed nicely. I could understand why both characters were attracted to each other. The chemistry was there and the development of the relationship was on point for me. I never once thought why the heck do these two people even like each other. This is always a plus in my book! Plenty of smoking moments between the two to keep me satisfied.

Larissa's world building was easy to follow in my opinion. I do recommend that anyone who starts this series should read the Demonica series first mainly because I think they'll enjoy it even more. For fans of the Demonica series we gets glimpse of our favorites. My favorite couple Kynan and Gem make a special appearance that I love. We catch up with the lives of the Demonica boys. She wove them into the story effortlessly that it did not take away from the main storyline itself. It was good to see Arik play a bigger role. I can't wait for the next book in this series to learn more about Thanatos and Limos. It was a wonderful start to this new series. I highly recommend this book for fans of the Demonica series. I was not disappointed.