Demonica Series: Passion Unleashed

Passion Unleashed is book 3 in the Demonica series and it is by far my favourite book in the series. 

Our hero is Wraith and he's a lovable, messed up, sarcastic moron. He's Eidolon and Shade's younger brother and this boy has been harbouring a death wish for a long time now. And his brothers have always managed to pull his dumb butt out of trouble. Unfortunately, Wraith, after a night of looking for trouble, lands himself in a jam that not even his brothers can get him out of.

He's been infected with a poison that has no cure. Bad enough that Wraith's dying, but it turns out that his life is tied to the existence of Underworld General. If Wraith dies, the hospital will be destroyed.

This is where Serena Kelley comes in. Serena is an archaeologist/treasure hunter and has been charmed by angels. As a result of this, she can never be harmed. Ever. But there's a catch: her charm only remains intact so long as she stays a virgin. If she gives it away, her charm will be given to the person she does the nasty with. Now, Serena may have been willing to consider giving up her charm if she didn't have one little problem: she's suffering from a demonic disease with no cure. The second she gives up her charm, the disease will progress rapidly and kill her within a few days. 

When Wraith is told about Serena, he decides to go off and seduce her. He knows what the consequences are of taking Serena's charm, but what is one human life compared to all that his brothers have worked for, right? So off Wraith goes to Egypt, where Serena is looking for some mystical something-or-other. He thinks that this will be one simple wham-bam-thank-you-ma'am kinda deal. After all, Wraith's a Seminus demon and he's never been turned down before. Easy peasy.

 No such luck.

Serena likes him well enough, but there is no way she's going there with him. She has things to do, so he can either help or get lost. So what if she has kinky dreams about him? There is a ginormous difference between fantasy and reality. 

Wraith decides to stick around and try to work his incubus magic on Serena. He seriously needs that charm because it's now worth more than just his life and the hospital's continued existence. But, for the first time, Wraith is having a serious problem: his conscience, dormant for most of his life, has just kicked in. Not only is he wildly attracted to Serena, but he likes her. 

I absolutely adored these two together. I didn't particularly approve of Wraith's motives for pursuing Serena. He lied to her so many times throughout the book. Serena thought his name was Josh for about 80% of the story. I don't care if he was doing the knight-in-shining-armour thing a lot too. The dishonesty was not on.

All that aside though? 

I love Wraith! You know that long list of fictional boyfriends we all have (don't look at me like that! I know you have one)? Wraith made it there within the first three chapters. He's such a moron. But a cuddly moron. He tries to act all rough and tough, but he loves his brothers so much. And he tries to keep an emotional distance between him and Serena, but he's just this big teddy bear. 

Serena held her own as a character too. She was no push over. She told Wraith when he was being a moron, and the fact that he's hotter than the sun didn't sway her when it came to the issue of sex. She hung tough for most of the book, only giving in when she had an emotional connection to him.

Passion Unleashed tied up a couple of loose ends and introduced a few new characters. The major loose end was Kynan and Gem's relationship. 

New characters include the sweetheart fallen angel, Reaver, and the sexy-as-sin new guy, Lore. Definitely looking forward to finding out what their respective deals are.

Just to share a few of my favourite quotes:

An example of Wraith seriously distorted priorities:

The worst part about dying slowly wasn't the dying part. It was the fact that the poison had all but killed Wraith's libido. 

Wraith doesn't like the succubus working as a doctor at Underworld General. If Wraith is unwilling to have sex with someone, it means that she is spectacularly unpleasant.

Even if it wasn't physically impossible for succubi and incubi to screw, he wouldn't touch her. In the dictionary, the word "bitch" ran and hid from her.

Shade is filling Wraith in on a few things he's missed since going on his seduction mission.

"...Our other brother, but he's in chains. He's also a total dick. You'll like him."

Know what I'm really liking? This series. Give it a try if you haven't already.