I didn’t come into Burn for Me (2014) by Ilona Andrews (a husband/wife writing team) with very high expectations. Although I like romance, especially suspense and action-oriented romance, I generally don’t like magic. Fantasy is not my go-to genre. But I saw a review on Cannonball, needed something to read, and tried to be open-minded.
Burn for Me is Book 1 of the Hidden Legacy Series, which includes three books–all of which I read shortly after reading this one. Because I don’t know how to classify books, I would have called it an action/romance with magic, but it seems other reviewers are calling it urban fantasy. The main protagonist throughout the series is Nevada Baylor. She lives in Houston, in a world where magic is a large part of life and a major part of your social standing. Primes are people with the highest level of magic, and thus the highest social standing. Because magical ability is passed down through blood, bloodlines and marriage are very important to the magical families at the top of the hierarchy. In some ways this is reminiscent of Regency era romances where snobbery about bloodlines abounds.
Nevada Baylor took over her father’s private investigator business after his death. Even though she is young, she has a great deal of responsibility on her shoulders. Nevada runs the business that takes care of her whole family, including: her two sisters, mother, grandmother, and cousin. Her main concern is making sure they will be okay. Nevada is very good at her job because she can tell when people are lying to her.
When another young prime starts running amok around the city, Nevada is hired/forced to go after him by the prime that holds the mortgage to her business. She realizes this is akin to a suicide mission, but really has no choice. To complicate things, Connor “Mad” Rogan has his own interest in the case. Mad Rogan is another Prime, powerful and rich beyond comprehension, known as a psychopath, and famous for leveling an entire city with his powers. Nevada and Connor begin working together out of necessity as they figure out what is going on and try to save Houston. For most of the book, Mad Rogan is too dangerous and crazy to be likable, but there is something about a man who is able to do almost anything to protect you. I always thought powerful, arrogant men were a turn-off for me, but Andrews makes me like Rogan despite myself.
I was surprised by how much I liked the magic in this book. Instead of feeling random and contrived, it made the story and the characters’ relationships richer. People are gifted by different magical powers. Nevada’s are all mind-related. She can tell if people are lying and sometimes see what they are thinking, while Mad Rogan can move objects and destroy things. Other people can talk with animals or even change their appearance. It also helped that Nevada could hold her own because Rogan can be a bully, and he would have been wholly unlikable if she couldn’t stand up to him. Burn for Me sets up the romance between the two, but leaves most of it for the next two books.
You can find all of my reviews on my blog.
I really liked this one and enjoyed the whole series. I’m hoping they will write more.
Obviously, I’m slightly biased, having been a huge fan of Ilona Andrews and all their books for years, but as a reader of a lot of paranormal/urban fantasy (which can very easily be described as action/romance with magic, but possibly doesn’t work as well with book sellers or male readers), I really do think they are better than most at interesting and complex world-building. They’re also good about including not just cool protagonists, but minor supporting characters that still feel fleshed out and interesting, adding a lot to the stories.
If you like Burn for Me, the rest of the trilogy just keeps getting better. The third book made it onto my top 3 of the year.
I have read the other two. I even went ahead and bought them because I didn’t feel like waiting for them to become available at the library (which is very unusual for me). I think I’m interested in other Ilona Andrews, though, if you have any suggestions of where I should go from here.
“Can you recommend more Ilona Andrews?” is pretty much music to my ears. :D
Their earliest (and still ongoing series – although it’s being finished by May next year) is the Kate Daniels books, where Magic Bites is the first book. Very important to note – this is their very first published work, and it’s much more rough and not as great as their later novels. They themselves frequently recommend people start with Magic Burns, the second book in the series, as the tone is bit off in the first book. I tend to recommend people start at the beginning, but be aware that Kate herself, especially is not “all there” as a protagonist yet and to please continue and read book 2 before making any sort of judgement on the series. Most people I’ve recommended the books to are usually thoroughly hooked by book 2 or 3, so give the series a chance. They have such an interesting take on paranormal world-building, magic, use of mythology from all over the world and characters you really grow to love. In the Kate Daniels books, a love interest is introduced early on, but it’s a pretty slow-burn romance, and you have to wait until book 4 before the books have more romance than mystery, magical hijinks and action.
They’ve also written a four-book series of slightly more romance-focused books called The Edge, where each book is about a separate couple, but all the books are loosely interconnected and set in an alternate reality to ours – where parts of the books are set in “our” world, parts in a wholly magical realm, and quite a lot in a sort of in-between realm, called “the Edge”. The first book is On the Edge and even though the hero can to some come across as a bit of an arrogant alpha male, he’s certainly got nothing on Connor Rogan, and as the story goes on, we see that Rose, the heroine, may have gotten a slightly incorrect first impression. Book 3 in the series Fate’s Edge is probably my favourite.
Every year for the last three years, they have also, both as a challenge to themselves and a gift to their readers, published a book in installments on their website. They can’t really go back and edit much as they’re writing an installment a week or so, and the stories can take interesting turns because of this. Once they finish each story, they take it down long enough to edit out the worst kinks, and then self-publish the books. The first one of these Innkeeper Chronicles is called Clean Sweep and the books are more of a mix between fantasy and science fiction than their other works. There are so far three Innkeeper novels (with some surprising cameo appearances from supporting characters in some of the later Edge books in one) and from news on their blog, they’re about to start another installment quite soon. They’re currently asking the fans for suggested names for the new story.
That’s pretty much my comprehensive sales pitch for all of Ilona Andrews’ books. With very few exceptions, I have absolutely adored everything they write (and even their less-great stories I like a LOT), and I have recommended them to a lot of people successfully. Even if you don’t normally like paranormal fantasy, their books are very worth making an exception for. I hope you find something in their back catalogue that you enjoy.
Thank you so much for all the info! I’ll definitely be reading more of them next year!