Early Review – Sanctuary (Roman’s Chronicles, Book 1) by Ilona Andrews (3/5 stars)

Reading Level: Adult
Genre: Urban Fantasy
Length: 152 pages
Publisher:‎ NYLA
Release Date: July 30, 2024
ASIN: B0D1GQPN83
Stand Alone or Series: 1st book in Roman’s Chronicles, part of the Kate Daniels World
Source: eGalley from NetGalley
Rating: 3/5 stars

“It’s not easy serving Chernobog, the God of Destruction, Darkness and Death…especially during the holidays; and especially when you’re out of eggnog and one of your pesky, freeloading mythic creatures has eaten your last cookie.

Roman would like nothing more than to be left alone, but when a wounded boy stumbles into his yard and begs for sanctuary, Roman takes him in. Now elite mercenaries are camped out on his property, combat mages are dousing the house with fire, and strange priests are unleashing arcane magic. They thought Roman was easy pickings, just a hermit in the woods, but they chose the wrong dark priest to annoy. For while Roman might be patient, he is the Black Volhv, filled with the love of his terrible god. For his adversaries, it’s a fight to the death, but for him, it’s just another day in the neighborhood.”

Series Info/Source: This is the 1st book in Roman’s Chronicles a spin-off series from the Kate Daniels World. I got an eGalley of this to review through NetGalley.

Thoughts: I wanted to give this four stars because I wanted to love it, but after writing this review I just can’t. I didn’t even really like this one, so even three stars feels high to me. I have loved so many of the Kate Daniels’ books that I wonder if my expectations were too high. This book is the start of another spin-off series in the Kate Daniels world this time following Roman, a minor character from the original series that serves the God Chernobog. I was actually hoping this was a new project for them rather than yet another Kate Daniels extension.

We start off with Roman enjoying the Christmas holidays off from his godly duties…that is until a wounded boy wanders onto his property and begs sanctuary. Shortly after that, mercenaries start attacking Roman and his creatures in an effort to get to the boy.

I did not engage with this book very well. A lot of it feels like a lecture on Russian folklore/mythology rather than a good story. I also couldn’t remember Roman from the original series (my husband has read the series more recently and tried to explain to me how Roman relates to everything else). Again, this may be on me…I read a lot of books and a lot of them have characters named Roman in them… Even after having my husband remind me, I only had vague inklings of the part Roman played in the original series.

This felt a bit fan fiction-like to me and not as professional as other books they have released. I am usually a huge Andrews fan and was very excited to see this was coming out. I was just completely underwhelmed by it. There are long portions of the book that were fight scenes that were hard to picture despite the huge amount of description. This was broken up by journeys to a godly dimension where dreamlike scenes took place. I did not have any connection to the characters and found all the terminology thrown at the reader made things even harder to visualize. Despite this being short, I struggled and was happy just to get through it.

I did find some of the Russian folklore intriguing, but so much is thrown at the reader at once that it feels more like an info dump than a story. I think the index should have been put at the front of the book so readers could read that before trying to dive into all this Russian terminology. It was hard to picture the creatures and follow some of the story because of this.

I can’t help but sigh at the fact that this is another first book in a new Kate Daniels spin off series…are any of these series going to go anywhere? What happened to the Aurelia Ryder series and the Iron Covenant series? It would be great to get completion on one of those series before yet another spin-off series is started, and on such a minor character too. I just feel like there’s no cohesion here. Which I guess…if they can sell it, then why not.

My Summary (3/5): Overall this was disappointing to me. I am a huge Andrews fan and generally love everything they write. However, this book felt off to me. The writing wasn’t as professional; the balance between character development, action, and story wasn’t there. The way this alternates between battles and mythology info dump was jarring and had me struggling to stay engaged. Not to mention the disappointment at yet another spin-off series being started but all the other spin-off series being left unfinished.