Liviania’s review of Burn for Me (Hidden Legacy, Book 1) by Ilona Andrews
Urban fantasy published by Avon 28 Oct 2014
I will read anything by husband-and-wife team Ilona Andrews. I love the Kate Daniels series, which seems to just keep getting better. The Edge books have provided some of my favorite romances in recent years. Andrews knows how to build sizzling tension between a heroine and hero, and how to situate that tension in an intriguing, well-designed world. In the Hidden Legacy series, magic is hereditary, with strong magic users breeding to create stronger magic users. The strongest of all are known as Primes, and they come from the select families who rule. When one Prime goes rogue and threatens to burn down Houston, Nevada Baylor is chosen for the job because she’s expendable.
Nevada is the type of heroine who appeals greatly to me. She loves her family, she takes pride in her work, and she has a good idea of her limits. She wouldn’t take the job of tracking Adam down except for the fact she’ll lose her business if she doesn’t. She lives with her mom, her grandmother, and lots of teenagers, so the business is necessary. Now, Nevada has magic but keeps it secret. She knows when people are lying, and would be used as an interrogator if her secret got out. It quickly becomes clear that Nevada has much more magic than she realized, which I found a bit boring. I like seeing a woman who was in over her head figure out clever ways to get her job done. Her increased abilities will obviously be important later in the series (“hidden legacy” come on), but it feels like a lazy way to solve the conflicts in Burn for Me.
Now, Mad Rogan is an interesting sort of romantic hero. That is, he really isn’t one at all. Since Burn for Me came out from Avon, I expected it to be the start of a paranormal romance series like the Edge series, with each couple one and done. But Hidden Legacy is more in the vein of Kate Daniels. Things have barely started between Mad Rogan and Nevada. Mad Rogan would be perfectly happy to have sex with Nevada, because they’re both attractive and attracted to each other. Nevada puts the kibosh on that because Mad Rogan is perfectly happy to kill people. Not just people who threaten him, but people who annoy him or otherwise inconvenience him. He’s only involved in Nevada’s case because a favorite cousin begged him to help her son, who is under Adam’s dastardly influence. Nevada is understandably put off by his lack of concern for life. Andrews has a long way to go to redeem Mad Rogan and make him believable as someone Nevada would love, not just lust after.
That isn’t to say that they don’t have chemistry. They do, and their banter as they travel around Houston to solve the case is hilarious. Speaking of Houston, Andrews has it down cold. I’ve lived in the city more than half of my life, and I could still recognize it despite the crazed magic users running around. (All the best families live inside the loop, of course.) I think my only issue in the setting is when Nevada and Mad Rogan fight some people in the Galleria’s parking lot and yet there are no bystanders and the only vehicle destroyed is a bus. The Galleria parking lots are insane, and I fully believe that a Houston driver would run over the most fearsome magic user alive if they saw an open spot. (I might have circled around one or two of the lots trying to park today.) The half-magic Atlanta is one of my favorite parts of the Kate Daniels series, and it is even more fun to see that inventive worldbuilding applied to my hometown. I’m eager to see even more of this world in the next book. (People living in Jersey Village might be slightly less thrilled with this version of Houston.)
The plot of Burn for Me moves fairly quickly. Nevada and Mad Rogan take awhile to make real progress in the case, and are usually at least a couple of steps behind, but there’s lots of action to keep things exciting and to force them to rely on each other. It quickly becomes evident that the volatile Adam is no mastermind, so there has to be someone pulling his strings. I look forward to seeing that conspiracy unravel in future Hidden Legacy novels.
I have high expectations of Burn for Me because of the name on the cover, and it lives up to them. Andrews’ new series has caught my attention. I’m really not sure how they’ll make the romance between Nevada and Mad Rogan work, but I have faith that they’ll manage. Burn for Me is a hot read that promises even better things are yet to come.
Grade: A-
Summary:
#1 New York Times bestselling author Ilona Andrews launches a brand-new Hidden Legacy series, in which one woman must place her trust in a seductive, dangerous man who sets off an even more dangerous desire . . .
Nevada Baylor is faced with the most challenging case of her detective career—a suicide mission to bring in a suspect in a volatile situation. Nevada isn’t sure she has the chops. Her quarry is a Prime, the highest rank of magic user, who can set anyone and anything on fire.
Then she’s kidnapped by Connor “Mad” Rogan—a darkly tempting billionaire with equally devastating powers. Torn between wanting to run and wanting to surrender to their overwhelming attraction, Nevada must join forces with Rogan to stay alive.
Rogan’s after the same target, so he needs Nevada. But she’s getting under his skin, making him care about someone other than himself for a change. And, as Rogan has learned, love can be as perilous as death, especially in the magic world.
Read an excerpt here.
