Reviewed by Kati Dancy
Grand Central Publishing
4 out of 5 stars

The first in the Demonica series, Pleasure Unbound was one of my favorite romances of last year. In it, Larissa Ione introduces us to a dark and lush world where humans and demons coexist for the most part without the humans being aware of the demons’ existence.

Shade is a Seminus demon, which means he’s a sex demon, who has been love cursed after an ill advised rendezvous with a warlock’s bride. The curse will kill any female who Shade develops true feelings of love for. Shade is made for sex; his power exists in knowing exactly what a female wants and granting those fantasies. He also is able to release women from pain or guilt they carry around. Shade also has some healing ability, which makes him a perfect paramedic for Underworld General Hospital, the demon hospital that he and his brothers run. Shade is approaching full maturity at which time he will become fertile and capable of impregnating any species of demon. Little does Shade know, one of his past liaisons is going to be entering his life under dire circumstances.

After a weeks-long affair with Runa Wagner, Shade abruptly ends things because he was starting to feel something for her. Prior to ending things, though Shade cured Runa’s brother of a demon born illness that was slowly leaching his life away. The night that Shade ends things, Runa is attacked by a warg, a werewolf, and is changed. She blames Shade for his rough treatment of her which caused her to be out the night she was attacked. She’s vowed to enact revenge upon him. When Runa finds she’s warg, her brother takes her to an army installment where he serves and they inject her with meds that help her to control certain aspects of her illness. She can shift at will, a skill very few warg’s possess.

Runa and Shade meet again while both being held captive by Shade’s lunatic older brother, who Shade thought was dead. Shade is repeatedly tortured and is kept in a cell with Runa. Soon, his brother concocts a plan that mates Shade and Runa together, forcing him to mature even faster and forcing his bonding, and the turmoil of emotion that goes with it. Runa must let go of her distrust and anger with Shade in order to escape and work with him to defeat his brother, who is out for revenge.

The book is wonderfully imaginative and creative. But it features a very complicated mythology, and even with the glossary provided at the beginning of the book, I had a hard time keep track of the many, many species of demons that are referenced throughout the story. I really loved Shade, throughout the story he fights his feelings for Runa, in order to try to protect her proving himself to be noble although he never thinks of it that way. For her part, Runa is pissed off for a good portion of the book, and I’ll be honest, I have a hard time with heroines who hold a grudge, especially because yes, Shade was careless with her feelings, but he was not responsible for what happened to her. It takes quite some time for her to come to that conclusion, and I kept wanting to smack her upside the head and say, “hey, wake up and deal with the situation, rather than blaming Shade.”  I felt that the book was a “tweener” book which moved the story ahead, setting up a larger mythology, but it was very complicated. That being said, the chemistry and heat between Shade and Runa are very well done, and extremely lush. And in the end, I liked them both quite a bit.

Overall, the book is a successful entry into the Demonica series, but probably will not end up being one of my favorites. I love the inventiveness and dark sexuality of the series. This book can stand alone, but some of the secondary characters who I expect will have stories in the future, are introduced in Pleasure Unbound, the first in the series. For that reason alone, I’d suggest reading it first. If you’re looking for a solidly written, unusual paranormal book, Desire Unchained definitely fits the bill.