Scan barcode
A review by katyanaish
Pleasure Unbound by Larissa Ione
3.0
***3.5***
It's a tough one to rate. Because, let's face it, the primary draw of this book is the smexy scenes, and they are indeed yummy. But let's talk about the story for a minute.
I didn't like Tayla. Crusader-types are my least favorite brand of character. You know what I am talking about. These are the ones who work for Team Good Guy, as an utterly uninformed foot soldier. Knowing nothing, they are content to slaughter Team Bad Guy, simply because their bosses say that it is The Right Thing To Do. Our heroine is fervent in her belief that the world is a black and white place, and that everyone on Team Bad Guy must be smited, for the good of the world.
Blind true-believers aggravate me, in real life and in books. And it is even worse, because this book opens with the demons - Team Bad Guy - saving Tayla's life. They treat her at their hospital, knowing what she is, and she sees first hand that they are not all evil. Does evil run a hospital? Does evil take care of their enemies, treat them honorably when they are wounded? Despite evidence right in front of her stupid face that maybe things aren't as black and white as she has been told, she persists in her crusade. She actually says, as she is being driven home, that all demons are evil and must die. Clearly, the world would have been a better place had the demons let her die. She only comes around to thinking that "hey, demons can't be ALL bad, right?" when she finds out she IS one. Fuck her.
Then the story moves on into the too-often tread path (or at least it seems so, lately), of - Uh Oh! - turns out that Team Good Guy is not just misinformed, but they are actually doing Bad Things. The heroine has been unwittingly (because she is witless) participating in Bad Things.
The end of the story felt pretty anticlimactic for me, but that was because nothing was resolved except the relationship drama. I am guessing that the author decided to span several books with this demon-part-resale story arc? But it undermines this book, I think, because there is literally not a single bit of story resolution in this book.
As for secondary characters... I didn't like any of the Aegis (no, not even Kynan) because they are all True Believers. Like I said, Crusader-types don't do it for me. Okay, maybe all the Guardians aren't explicitly evil (like I said, completely unresolved story), but they ARE all implicitly evil - they have happily been slaughtering, indiscriminately, without knowing anything about these demons. They are all a bunch of sheep.
And the demons... most of them are assholes. I mean, seriously. Wraith? Total asshole, and also, apparently a murderer. Shade? Moderately decent, but can still be shockingly douchebaggy. Gem? Douchebag. I didn't like her just jumping up out of nowhere, springing this whole other life on Tayla, and then being a bitch when Tayla didn't take it well. If Gem is really jealous of Tayla, she's an idiot. I seriously don't have anything else to say about her. If she spent ANY time looking into their life AT ALL, she knows there was nothing good there. Hell, in the glimpses we got, I know there is nothing to be jealous about there. It was the only area where I had an ounce of sympathy for Tayla. But Gem, with her jealousy, and her condescension ("you should have done something so much better with your life, I mean, look how awesome I turned out!"), and frankly her utter lack of spine really pissed me off. She's happy enough to spring the "You're my sister, you're part horrible evil demon, but get the fuck over it already because I need your help" on Tayla when SHE needs something, but Tayla has needed GEM for her whole fucking life, and Gem couldn't grow a pair to help her supposed sister. I wish Tayla had told her to fuck right off. Tayla was so desperate to have a place where she belonged that she wound up in a cult (because that's all that Team Good Guy ever really is), and her sister, despite watching her life like a twisted stalker, just sat back and let it all happen. Fuck her.
Also, my sympathy for the demons is complicated by the fact that, as a whole, they really do seem to be a pile of murdering, raping bastards. I mean, they all talk about rape as if it is a casual, possibly-unfortunate-but-not-unaccepted commonplace thing. And murder - of humans - seems pretty commonplace too. At several points, it is mentioned that the High Council Muckety-Muck of Team Bad Guy allows them each one human kill per month. Are you serious?! It is almost enough to make you think Team Good Guy had the right idea.
Soooo... yeah. *shrug* I have the first 3 in this series, and I suppose I will read them eventually, but... not in any hurry.
It's a tough one to rate. Because, let's face it, the primary draw of this book is the smexy scenes, and they are indeed yummy. But let's talk about the story for a minute.
I didn't like Tayla. Crusader-types are my least favorite brand of character. You know what I am talking about. These are the ones who work for Team Good Guy, as an utterly uninformed foot soldier. Knowing nothing, they are content to slaughter Team Bad Guy, simply because their bosses say that it is The Right Thing To Do. Our heroine is fervent in her belief that the world is a black and white place, and that everyone on Team Bad Guy must be smited, for the good of the world.
Blind true-believers aggravate me, in real life and in books. And it is even worse, because this book opens with the demons - Team Bad Guy - saving Tayla's life. They treat her at their hospital, knowing what she is, and she sees first hand that they are not all evil. Does evil run a hospital? Does evil take care of their enemies, treat them honorably when they are wounded? Despite evidence right in front of her stupid face that maybe things aren't as black and white as she has been told, she persists in her crusade. She actually says, as she is being driven home, that all demons are evil and must die. Clearly, the world would have been a better place had the demons let her die. She only comes around to thinking that "hey, demons can't be ALL bad, right?" when she finds out she IS one. Fuck her.
Then the story moves on into the too-often tread path (or at least it seems so, lately), of - Uh Oh! - turns out that Team Good Guy is not just misinformed, but they are actually doing Bad Things. The heroine has been unwittingly (because she is witless) participating in Bad Things.
The end of the story felt pretty anticlimactic for me, but that was because nothing was resolved except the relationship drama. I am guessing that the author decided to span several books with this demon-part-resale story arc? But it undermines this book, I think, because there is literally not a single bit of story resolution in this book.
As for secondary characters... I didn't like any of the Aegis (no, not even Kynan) because they are all True Believers. Like I said, Crusader-types don't do it for me. Okay, maybe all the Guardians aren't explicitly evil (like I said, completely unresolved story), but they ARE all implicitly evil - they have happily been slaughtering, indiscriminately, without knowing anything about these demons. They are all a bunch of sheep.
And the demons... most of them are assholes. I mean, seriously. Wraith? Total asshole, and also, apparently a murderer. Shade? Moderately decent, but can still be shockingly douchebaggy. Gem? Douchebag. I didn't like her just jumping up out of nowhere, springing this whole other life on Tayla, and then being a bitch when Tayla didn't take it well. If Gem is really jealous of Tayla, she's an idiot. I seriously don't have anything else to say about her. If she spent ANY time looking into their life AT ALL, she knows there was nothing good there. Hell, in the glimpses we got, I know there is nothing to be jealous about there. It was the only area where I had an ounce of sympathy for Tayla. But Gem, with her jealousy, and her condescension ("you should have done something so much better with your life, I mean, look how awesome I turned out!"), and frankly her utter lack of spine really pissed me off. She's happy enough to spring the "You're my sister, you're part horrible evil demon, but get the fuck over it already because I need your help" on Tayla when SHE needs something, but Tayla has needed GEM for her whole fucking life, and Gem couldn't grow a pair to help her supposed sister. I wish Tayla had told her to fuck right off. Tayla was so desperate to have a place where she belonged that she wound up in a cult (because that's all that Team Good Guy ever really is), and her sister, despite watching her life like a twisted stalker, just sat back and let it all happen. Fuck her.
Also, my sympathy for the demons is complicated by the fact that, as a whole, they really do seem to be a pile of murdering, raping bastards. I mean, they all talk about rape as if it is a casual, possibly-unfortunate-but-not-unaccepted commonplace thing. And murder - of humans - seems pretty commonplace too. At several points, it is mentioned that the High Council Muckety-Muck of Team Bad Guy allows them each one human kill per month. Are you serious?! It is almost enough to make you think Team Good Guy had the right idea.
Soooo... yeah. *shrug* I have the first 3 in this series, and I suppose I will read them eventually, but... not in any hurry.