Rogue Rider by Larissa Ione: A Review

ARC provided by www.Netgalley.com

Lords of Deliverance Book 4
Grand Central Publishing

November 20, 2012
ISBN-10: 0446574481
ISBN-13: 978-0446574488

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Jillian Cardiff came to this remote mountain town to forget the demon attack that almost killed her. Instead, she rescues-and falls for-a gorgeous stranger who has no memory of anything other than his name. Handsome, charming, and protective, Reseph seems like the kind of man whom Jillian can trust. But with hints of a troubling history of his own, he's also the kind of man who can be very dangerous . . .

Reseph may not know why he mysteriously appeared in Jillian's life, but he knows he wants to stay. Yet when Jillian's neighbors are killed, and demon hunters arrive on the scene, Reseph fears that he's putting Jillian in danger. And once it's revealed that Reseph is also Pestilence, the Horseman responsible for ravaging the world, he and Jillian must face the greatest challenge of all: Can they forget the horrors of a chilling past to save the future they both desire?

Oh. OH. Larissa Ione, you crafty, talented, sneaky lady, you.  You totally snuck up on me with Reseph.  First, after reading the first 3 books in the Lords of Deliverance and witnessing the hell & havoc that Pestillence aka Reseph wreaked on not only the world, but his own friends and family?  Yup, I had my doubts.  I LOVE, love a great anti hero ~ give me bad ass who's a marshmallow on the inside for his heroine and family and a total Bad Ass MoFo for everyone else any day ~ but I didn't see that you could pull it off with Reseph.  He went just TOO bad to be pulled back.

We start off Rogue Rider with Reseph having been flung back into the human realm from Sheoul, stripped of all his memories save his name. He doesn't remember the death and destruction he wrought as Pestillence, nor the family and friends he has as Respeh.  When Jillian rescues him from the snow pile he's landed in, she's nervous about taking a complete stranger ~ especially one who is also a complete stranger to himself, as well.  Jillian is scarred from a Demon attack she suffered during the chaos of Pestillence's reign, and she's retreated to her moutain cabin & solitude to heal and find peace.  She's done a pretty good job of it, but she has a hard time trusting people, and most especially men...but there's something about Reseph that just calls to her, and his body?  Yeah, that's singing all KINDS of tunes to her feminine side. 

While Reseph can't remember everything, he DOES know that he can sense evil closing in around Jillian, and he's got to stay close to her to protect her ~ and he's drawn to her in a way he doesn't need his memories to know he's never been drawn to any other woman.  She calls to him on every level, and she gives him a sense of peace of he knows he's never had.  But the Demon disturbances happening close her cabin quickly draw the attention of The Aegis, and the newly formed DART, in the form of characters we've met come to love in previous books.  It's quickly discovered that Reseph isn't dead like they'd all believed ~ and the time that Reseph has Jillian is growing shorter and shorter. 

There was SO much packed into this book ~ Gah, I so don't want to spoil things for anyone, but I have to tell you how the first part of this book was about Reseph & Jillian. How they find each other, how they begin to heal one another, and how they start to love on another ~ the second half is how Reseph's family discovers he's till alive.  I totally LOVE Larissa because of the real way she handles things ~ they didn't jump for joy because he was alive.  They had reactions all over the board, but bottom line?  They were REAL ~ and they had to struggle to sepearate the brother Reseph from the destructive entity known as Pestillence who'd become their for so long.  He'd done so many terrible, hurtful and yes, unforgivable things to them and theirs ~ and while they, too, have the Seal and the bad side, THIS had been their reality.  They had lived it.  And unfortunately, so had Reseph.  And he wants to destroy himself for what he'd wrought as Pestillence ~ but that very thing could yet release Pestillence on the world again.  Can his love for Jillian be his salvation?  Can they REALLY heal one another? 

And oh, YEAH.  There are some MAJOR revelations in this baby!  And hints about what's to come in future books, which Larissa has told us will transition back into the Demonica world more fully. While we truly never left, we've been so fully submerged into the Apocolypse & The Horsemen that's had our full attention.  I have to say that there are very few authors out there that have Larissa Ione's skills at world building ~ she's Amazingly skilled.  She makes you feel it, smell it, hear it ~ you are IN her world when you're reading her books. 

Amazing and thrilling end to the Lord of Deliverance!  BRAVO!! 

Reseph is an Anti Hero I'd love to have ride up and sweep me up any day! 

Now...WHEN is that next book out??