Burn for Me

Burn for Me (2014) Ilona Andrews

This is the first book in the Hidden Legacies series. It ends, not with a cliff hanger, but not as cleanly as it could.

Nevada Baylor runs her family’s detective agency. Her father’s death put the family deeply into debt, and the agency that bought their mortgage owns the business–and in many ways Nevada herself.

Connor “Mad” Rogan is a prime, head of his house, and a force of destruction, used by the army for years in their war in South America. He’s retired from the military, but his reputation isn’t any better now he is a civilian. He’s also after the same thing as Nevada, but neither knows it yet.

Years ago when aristocrats were expected to serve in the military, they began practicing with swords as soon as they could walk. Now Primes practiced drawing arcane symbols.

This is an romantic fantasy set in a world parallel to our own, with the difference that magic works there, and is the force that runs the planet (rather than oil, as we have in our world/time).

I’m rather conflicted about this book.

As always, I enjoyed the writing. And I very much liked Nevada. And her entire family.

However, I was frustrated by the ending, and, well, this is a boinking book. Or rather, it would be a boinking book, if there was boinking. Instead there was a lot of discussion about physiques and such.

As we know, that’s just not my thing, and as usual, I kept skimming those passages wanting to get back to the good parts.

Another negative: Mad Rogan is a jerk. Yes, he has his good points, but he’s a still a jerk. I don’t WANT Nevada to fall in love with him. I want her to find someone who isn’t a big furry jerk. I don’t always dislike jerks, after all, I ended up falling in love with Ronan in the Raven Boys series, but Ronan is a teenager, so a lot of his behavior can be forgiven. Mad Rogan? Is not a teenager. I just want Nevada to run the other way and find someone who isn’t a jerk.

Another problem I had was Nevada’s powers. And her ignorance of them. From what we see her do, it seems like she’d have to be an idiot not to realize she’s a prime. And yet…

Don’t get me wrong. I did enjoy the story. But there were things that bothered me, and kept me from loving the story the way I normally do Ilona Andrews books.

ALSO, I HATE the cover the book ended up with. HATE HATE HATE. And I hate it EVEN MORE after I saw the cover that was rejected.

Ready?

THIS COVER.

THIS COVER IS AWESOME.

I would immediately pick this book up to read. It has a strong heroine who powerful and taking action. I LOVE covers like this, but instead we get some moody, shirt falling off for no good reason and in no normal manner… thing.

I just can’t even with the cover they got, and I can’t EVEN MORE when I see what they could have had.

Avon? YOU SUCK.
Rating: 7/10

Published by Avon

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