Reaver by Larissa Ione [Review]

Reaver (Lords of Deliverance #5) by Larissa Ione
Format: paperback
Source: purchased
Disclaimer: As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases.
Date read: September 3, 2014

Lords of Deliverance
1. Eternal Rider
2. Immortal Rider
3. Lethal Rider
4. Rogue Rider
5. Reaver - Paperback | Kindle
6. Revenant

Larissa Ione
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Synopsis (Goodreads):

WARRIOR OF HEAVEN

Reaver is an angel with a past, a record, and a less-than-heavenly attitude. Powerful enough to fight alongside the fiercest battle angels-and crazy enough to risk his wings on a one-way mission to hell-he's agreed to go where no angel has ever gone before...to steal the most seductive and dangerous prize of Satan himself.

ANGEL OF HELL

Harvester is one of the Fallen, a once-heroic angel who sacrificed her wings to work as an undercover agent in hell. But now her cover has been blown, and she's been doomed to an eternity of agonizing torture. Even if Reaver can snatch her away from Satan's lair, even if they can fight their way out of the underworld's darkest depths, there is one thing Harvester can never escape-her newfound thirst for an angel's blood...

Thoughts on Reaver: Going into this book, I had NO CLUE how or if Harvester was going to be likeable enough for me to see her ending up with Reaver. I had this same problem with Reseph in book 4 (that all worked out in the end, btw. Reseph was a pretty cool dude when he wasn't being plague --ha! PLAGUED! -- by Pestilence.). Harvester had a lot to atone for and she didn't have the excuse of being ridden by her evil side.

Well. Wait. Let me revisit that. There was definitely more to Harvester than she let on. She gave up a lot to do what she did. She did awful things to make everyone believe she was Fallen and she did it for a very specific reason. So... she kinda was riding the evil train along with Reseph.

Not going to lie, her plight got to me. Not just the giving up her wings thing, either. The whole "trapped in hell with no chance of rescue because everyone who knows she's not really evil will disavow knowledge of her" thing. Dude. That seriously sucks.

And Reaver. He wasn't being entirely unselfish when he made the choice to rescue Harvester. He wanted something from her. But he was also unwilling to leave a fellow angel who had willingly allowed herself to be corrupted to help his children in the hands of a being who would torture her for all eternity. That sounds like a  no-brainer, but so many of the other angels just handwaved her sacrifice and went their merry ways. NOT COOL, ANGEL DUDES!

Basically, I ended up liking Harvester. She's prickly and not always nice, but she has good reason to be. Reaver had to come to some hard realizations about the him from before and reconcile the woman Harvester was and the deeds she did with the woman he rescued from the pit. They both had some mental reconfiguring to do about one another and that made it a fun ride.