A review by tanyad74
Cipher by Larissa Ione

4.0

I received this book for free from Tour Group in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.

I was so excited for another book in the Demonica World! I'm missing some of our main characters from the series as we concentrate on these new ones in the novellas. However, I am enjoying these characters as well.

Cipher is not the warrior that you see in most heroes. His specialty is computers and coding. Bael knows this and has planned to be able to take advantage of it once the evil from being a fallen angel starts to take over Cipher. He also needs something from Cipher and has assigned Lyre to be his handler and try and get the information from him.

I enjoyed seeing a lead male character who was not totally focused on hand to hand combat. Not saying he wasn't good at it when needed, but it was not his main skillset and that was refreshing. I knew Lyre didn't fit in from the beginning and her reasons for becoming a fallen and signing up with Bael were going to be regrettable. She was not going to be hard to turn onto Cipher's team.

With the worry of the evil taking control, and possibly alienating himself from Azagoth, Cipher needs to get out of Bael's realm ASAP. I enjoyed seeing Cipher as he discovered his fallen angel powers. When I found out why he was struggling with flying and control, I was surprised, but not surprised in a way about the cause of the problem. Nothing is too evil for this realm.

We also get a surprise on the Azagoth front which I loved. He is still the fearsome Grim Reaper, but Lilliana is such a calming factor in his life. He just needs to learn how to be in a relationship. It's going to be interesting to see how he fares with Lilliana's surprise. I'm so glad the next book will be back to him. He really seems to be struggling and I want to see him work it out.

I really enjoyed Cipher and the adventure we are taken on between the two competing realms. Bael is crazy to try and take on Azagoth. It's going to make for an interesting fight. The side characters from Cipher, mainly his friends from Sheoul-gra are a lot of fun and persistent in their intent to rescue Cipher and make sure he hasn't turned evil while in Sheoul. I thought we got to see a good family dynamic between those in Sheoul-gra. A safe haven in the Grim Reaper's realm. Who would of guessed?! I think I would definitely recommend this read before the upcoming release from the series. There is quite a bit of Azagoth and Lilliana in Cipher and I think the background is going to be good for reading the new book. I'm so glad Larissa Ione is going back to this series.
 

 

 

Excerpt

Lyre watched Cipher try to get his powers and wings under control for just over twenty-four human hours.

It hadn’t gone well. His wings seemed to have minds of their own and his fallen angel gifts were powerful but unpredictable, like natural disasters spawned by a child’s imagination.

Finally, after he exploded a tree with a superheated stream of blue light and nearly fried himself with the blowback, she called down to him.

“You hungry?” she yelled. “Because I could eat.”

He let out a frustrated shout accompanied by a stomp of his foot, and a crack appeared in the ground under the sole of his boot. A deafening boom and a slow rumble started up, and within seconds the crack lengthened and began to widen as the walls collapsed and chunks of earth tumbled into the fissure.

That couldn’t be good.

“Run!” she shouted

He sprinted toward her, away from the growing gap. And then, suddenly, he spun around and ran toward it.

“Cipher! No!” What the hell was he doing?

She extended her wings, ready to go after him as he leaped across the fissure. He wasn’t going to make it to the other side of the sheer cliff face. Not if his wings wouldn’t work—

His great wings flapped, lifting him easily skyward. He banked and soared in a glorious, elegant arc. A shout of pure joy rang out as he flew toward her, reminding her of the excitement she’d felt the first time she’d tried out her fallen angel wings. Hers had taken a year to grow, but it had taken only minutes to get them working. Cipher had to be thrilled to finally have his under control.

Folding her own black leather wings against her shoulders, she watched him come in for a landing, but as he did, one wing went rogue, freezing in a closed position. He clipped a tree and went into an unrecoverable spin before hitting the ground and tumbling to a stop next to her.

She coughed at the resulting cloud of dust. “That was graceful.”

He eyed her from where he lay sprawled in the dirt. “Tell me you got that on video.”

She didn’t want to be charmed, but she laughed anyway. Humor was something she missed since entering Sheoul. No one had a sense of humor here. And those who did seemed to have found it puddled on the floor of a torture chamber.

“No such luck,” she said.

“S’okay. But I’ll bet it would have gone viral.” Wincing, he shoved to his feet and tried to push his left wing into the retraction position. “I don’t get it. I can’t control these things. It’s like they’re fighting me. They don’t feel right.”

They didn’t look right, either. Marred by what seemed to be scars and ragged edges, they weren’t like any newbie wings she’d ever seen.
“Hmm. Maybe they were damaged by the restraints.” She moved around behind him, silently admiring his broad, muscular back. It would look even better with scratch marks from her fingernails after a long, sweaty round of sex.

 

 

Trailer

 

This review was originally posted on Rantings of a Reading Addict