Audio Review: Desire Unchained by Larissa Ione

Title: Desire Unchained Series: Demonica #2 Author: Larissa Ione Publisher: Hachette Audio Format: MP3, 10hrs 51mins Published: February 1, 2011 My Copy: Audible.com Rating: Buy: Shade is a demon with heart, but like his brothers he’s harboring a dark secret, one that brings him, and his lovers, to their knees. As a Seminus demon he’s destined to bed as many women as he can—unless he bonds with a life mate, a situation that his nemesis uses to great advantage. Determined to make Shade pay for a wrong he didn’t commit, his evil brother Roag kidnaps him and forces him to bond with the one woman Shade never thought he’d see again. The one woman who has the ability to steal his heart. The one woman who will never understand the darkness that lives within him. Runa succombed to Shade’s charms a year ago, and she thought he was the perfect guy—until she found him in bed with two other women. In her haste to escape the mortifying scene, Runa found herself on the darkened New York City streets where she was attacked. Her attacker didn’t kill her, but he did mark her forever—he was a werewolf, and now, so is she. Runa shows up at Shade’s apartment looking for him, and revenge, but finds herself kidnapped by Roag. In Roag’s dungeon, Runa and Shade find themselves forever changed, and forever bonded as lifemates. As they make their escape and race to warn others about Roag’s evil plans, Runa and Shade must find a way to save themselves before their destiny, and Roag’s vengeance, destroys them all.

Shade didn’t really do much for me in Pleasure Unbound so I was skeptical about how much I’d enjoy learning about his story. Desire Unchained didn’t blow me away like its predecessor did but it’s still a good read. We finally get to learn about the curse that kept coming up in the first book. The reveal was a tad anticlimactic in my opinion. For me, Gem and Kynan sort of stole the spotlight too. I think I enjoyed their interactions more than what was happening between Shade and Runa. Oh well!

The first half of the book is great. I’m particularly fond of Runa. She went from being a weak, love struck human to a don’t-mess-with-me werewolf. Shade didn’t expect his ex lover to come back for him with a vengeance (and claws!). I liked how every time the seminus demon would try to pull the same stunts he used to pull on the wolf; she’d push back and put him in his place. You don’t survive a werewolf attack without growing a backbone! I enjoyed seeing a character learn from her mistakes for a change. Runa was on the verge of falling into her old habits with Shade more than once only to realize what was happening and then she’d conscientiously take steps to change directions. I admired her knack for dealing with Shade and the way that she overcomes being a victim.

The big bad wasn’t much of a surprise, in fact, his name is mentioned several times in the blurb which I found a little disappointing. Larissa could have played up the mystery a bit more and the same thing goes for Shade’s curse. After finishing Pleasure Unbound, I was definitely curious to learn more about it but I found the truth to be somewhat of a let down to be honest. Ione’s characters and her Demonica world are so well-developed that I expected something similar with regards to these two elements. I just found that she gave the information up either too easily or simply didn’t elaborate enough on them. Maybe I’m just nitpicking but I’d expected more.

That’s not to say that there aren’t some tender moments between Shade and Runa because there are. In fact, I was on the verge of tears more than once which never happened while I was reading about Eidolon and Tayla. Gem and Kynan are amazing in this novel. With the way that things end between them in Desire Unchained, I’m really hoping that they get a book of their own, or a spin-off, or a novella, or… something! Because their story is just begging to be told!

Desire Unchained has many of the same elements that made me fall in love with the first book of this series but on a more subdued level. It’s good but it’s just not terrific. Although, many of my fellow reviewers seem to disagree with my point of view on this; which is fine, to each their own! Wraith’s story is up next and I hope that Larissa nails this book because I think it has the potential to be pure gold. Fingers crossed!

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