Early Review – Burn for Me (Hidden Legacy, Book 1) by Ilona Andrews (4.5/5 stars)
Reading Level: Adult
Genre: Urban Fantasy
Size: 400 pages
Publisher: Avon
Release Date: October 28, 2014
ISBN-13: 978-0062289230
Stand Alone or Series: 1st book in the Hidden Legacy series
Source: ARC from Amazon Vine
Rating: 4.5/5 stars
This is the first book in the Hidden Legacy series by husband and wife writing team Ilona Andrews. I got a copy of this book to review through the Amazon Vine program (and I was super excited to get it). I love their Kate Daniels series and also really enjoyed The Edge series. This was a very well done book, with an excellent new magic system and world and very engaging characters. I enjoyed it a lot.
Nevada is working as an investigator and just barely keeping her family afloat. Their agency is owned by a parent agency that blackmails Nevada into taking case in which she has to hunt down and bring back Adam Price. Adam is a Prime of the pyrokinetic kind, Primes are incredibly powerful magic users and Adam has gone rogue. It is basically a suicide mission. Then Nevada is kidnapped by the crazy dangerous Conner “Mad” Rogan, despite a tumultuous meeting Nevada realizes that working with Mad Rogan might be the only to accomplish her mission and come out alive.
This was a very well done urban fantasy/paranormal romance novel. There is some excellent back story here as we learn how people got these crazy magical abilities through the Osiris vaccine. This means that the powerful have been divided into Families with magical abilities and the Families do whatever they have to to keep this power.
There is an interesting new magic system as well. Many of these magic powers breed stronger with each generation, but some of them die out. We are only introduced to some of the variations in magic ability in this book.
Nevada is a passive truthseeker, which means she can passively tell if someone is lying or not. She has worked hard not to develop her magic any further since she doesn’t want to become a tool for the military or government to use in questioning people. She is in a tough situation trying to provide for some younger siblings and dealing with her disabled mother.
Nevada’s family was a lot of fun. Her grandma is a crazy mechanic of sorts, her mother is a tough as nails war-vet, and her brother is a super computer genius.
Mad Rogan was another intriguing character. He has got this “more powerful than god” type of magic going on and is definitely alpha male. However, he is not so alpha male that he is blind to the abilities of those around him. He respects Nevada’s strengths and doesn’t hesitate to trust her to do what she does best.
Nevada and Rogan have very combatative and tumultuous type of relationship. This is where the romance comes into the story. There are a couple torrid makeout scenes and quite a bit of Nevada drooling over Rogan’s abs (something I could have done without).
The plot mainly involves Rogan and Nevada trying to hunt down Adam before he destroys the whole city. Some ancient artifacts get involved which really makes things interesting.
Overall I really enjoyed this start to a new series by Ilona Andrews. I would compare this series more to The Edge books as far as amount of romance goes. Still, there is quite of bit of action here as well. I enjoyed the new world, the new magic system, the action scenes, and the engaging characters. I think fans of Ilona Andrew’s books will be very pleased with this new series. I can’t wait to read the next book!
This book goes towards the following reading challenges:
– You Read How Many Books? Reading Challenge
