Title: Legacy of Chaos
Author: Larissa Ione
Series: Demonica Birthright #2
Pages: 427
It’s been 30 years since the events of Reaper and the world has changed a lot. Humans know about demons now and all the original couple’s children have grown up. Stryke, son of Shade and Runa (Desire Unchained), is a supergenius who has created countless high tech pieces to identify and stop demons. His drive to create these pieces is due to a tragedy that happened in his early 20s that led to the death of his younger brother. When a DART technomancer starts working on a project at his company, Stryke finds himself struggling to keep her at a distance, especially while they are dealing with demonic attacks.
As someone who has been reading this series for 15-ish years, I love that there is now this spin-off series with the original couple’s children. I love returning to this world because it feels like coming home, but also brand new because so much has changed since that original series.
Stryke is the outcast of the family because he has pushed everyone away. He doesn’t have a great relationship with anyone in his family anymore because he believes they all blame him for his brother’s death. Stryke is dealing with a lot of guilt, grief, PTSD, and fear of letting anyone close again. His story was very emotional because we see him trying to hide his trauma by pushing everyone away, but Cyan is not letting that happen with her. She sees him and makes him confront his traumas and work through his issues with his family, his guilt, and with sex. After meeting Stryke in the previous book, I wasn’t expecting to like him but this book quickly changed my mind.
Cyan is a technomancer who can control technology and code. She is struggling to deal with the loss of her best friend and her fiancé that happened at the hands of a StryTech weapon. She goes into working with Stryke angry and hateful, but that changes as she gets to know more about him and his struggles. I love that she got him to work through his issues by relating it to learning and his need for knowledge. It was a unique way to get through to someone but it really worked. Also I just loved how accepting Cyan was of Stryke and his idiosyncrasies. She really just understood him and his quirks and didn’t try to change them really.
These two had a very emotional and intense relationship. I really enjoyed the pacing and progression of their relationship, especially with everything else that was happening in this book. This just ended up being a really great relationship about overcoming trauma, rebuilding relationships, and finding love.
While the relationship was wonderful, this book also had so much going on with the worldbuilding. Heaven is still all messed up and it just keeps getting worse. I was not expecting the Gabriel situation to end that way and I am very interested in seeing what happens to him next. This one also deals with a portal into Hell that is unleashing demons onto Earth and it involves a lot of unique creatures that are new to this series. Basically, a lot happened outside of the relationship that kept me hooked to the story and I really can’t wait to see how all these different events will play out in this series.
Overall, this was another fantastic book. I can’t wait for the next one, especially since there were so many big reveals right at the end of this book. I need to know what is going to happen next with everyone and who will fall in love!
TW: death of a sibling (a child); guilt and grief; death of friends; PTSD; claustrophobia; suicidal thoughts and actions discussed; miscarriage discussed;
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Previous books and reviews for the series:
Red-Haired Ash Reads 