Legacy of Temptation by Larissa Ione: review

4/5 stars on Goodreads

Legacy of Temptation by Larissa Ione

Legacy of Temptation starts a new Demonica spin-off series, Demonica Birthright. I’ve been reading these books since they first began to appear 16 years ago, and although this one has a 30-year time-jump, the complex world and the characters are the same, and everything felt familiar.

The premise is the same too: humans still hate and mistrust demons, and at the centre of the hatred and misinformation is the Aegis agency. It felt a bit dated—haven’t they learned anything in thirty years?—but the plot that was based on the hatred worked fine.

Demons have their own agency, DART, for fighting evil demons. An exchange program between the two brings humans in the middle of demons, and things don’t go well. The focus is on Logan, the son of one of the four horsemen, Thanatos, and Eva, a spokesperson for the Aegis. She’s the typical brainwashed hater that the series has introduced before, difficult to like at first, but with demon trouble of her own. And she does change in the end. Logan is the typical hothead hero with a good heart.

A romance happens, sort of. The two barely interact during the first third of the book, and right after things start to warm up, the plot takes a turn that basically ruins the chances for any romance. Logan and Eva spend most of the book apart, dealing with their own family dramas and other emergencies, and the romance is very much like an afterthought. The spicy scenes are stolen moments in the middle of drama, sex for sex’s sake, and they don’t feel very romantic. It’s not the emotional rollercoaster of the earlier books, but love is declared and a happy ending is had, so I guess it’s a romance.

But the book is full of supernatural action of other kind. Lilith is on the loose, causing trouble for Logan. A demon colleague of his is about to turn permanently evil, and the hunt for him is on too. And there’s trouble brewing in heaven, with different point of view characters. It makes for an exciting book, but it also feels like a setup for the series to come. There will be interesting action. I hope there will be better romances too.

I received a free copy from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.