Tuesday, September 9, 2014

*Gizmos Early Reviews* Burn for Me (Hidden Legacy #1) by Ilona Andrews

**I received this book free from Avon in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.**

*Synopsis*

Nevada Baylor is faced with the most challenging case of her detective career—a suicide mission to bring in a suspect in a volatile case. 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 or 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.


*My Thoughts*

Burn for Me (Hidden Legacy #1) is the first book in a new series that features 25-year old Nevada Baylor as the primary storyteller. Set in an alternative Houston, Texas where magical users rule the city, Burn For Me kicks things off into high gear with plenty of intrigue, action, suspense, and plenty of temptation. 

Toss in the dashingly dangerous, arrogant, and powerful Connor "Mad" Rogan who has the ability to level cities, and you have the makings for some very serious competition to the Kate Daniels series. Here is a world where magic matters, and those that don't have it, don't matter. Those with Magic have status, wealth, choice of who they marry, and control over everyone's lives. Those who don't struggle to be relevant.  

Nevada is the owner and primary investigator of Baylor Investigative Agency which has a high rate of success. It is a family run business that includes her mother, grandmother, sisters, and cousins. I'm pretty sure that fact alone makes this story unique from others. I'm sure you might find a family enterprise that is this dug into a story, but probably not as interesting as Nevada's mother and grandmother or Bern and not in the Urban Fantasy/PNR arena.

When Nevada is pulled into a meeting with the head of the Company that owns BIA, she finds herself between a rock and a hard place. Her mission: find and bring back a powerful Prime magic user to his mother, or forfeit everything that she's worked so hard to build up. Nevada has a secret she has hidden away from everyone, including her family. She is an extremely rare Truthseeker who can tell whether someone is lying or not.

I have little in the way of major complaints about Burn for Me. The plot kept things straight forward. The mystery and Nevada's mission makes you sit up and take notice. It's Ilona Andrews after-all. They do what they do. They create interesting characters and creative worlds with almost non-stop action.

The sexual tension between Nevada and Rogan is off the planet. Since this is the first phase of that relationship, I fully expect that the tension and romance to become even more intense as the series progresses. You may need to find a fan to cool yourself off folks, because it's about to get steamy in here. 

However, I would plead to the writers that they need to stop with the repetitiveness. I don't see the point of repeating the guys name over and over and over again, instead of shortening it to just Rogan, or his first name. It's like calling Curran by his full name each and every time there was an interaction between him and Kate or someone else. Not happening. I will also challenge the authors to find a veteran who is still wearing his dog tags after leaving the service. That too is a bit ridiculous.  

I know there are going to be comparisons between the Kate Daniels and Hidden Legacies series. It can't be helped when you have two alpha males like Rogan and Curran dangerously lurking in the shadows trying to bring down their apparent mates without regards to what the female actually wants. It also can't be helped when you have two dynamic female characters in Kate and Nevada who stand up to brutes, and shove them back into their boxes.  

I love the fact that Nevada wasn't written to cower to anyone, especially Rogan. She's focused on her family, she enjoys her job, she's not about to go down without a fight, and she won't allow anyone to tell her what to do even after being kidnapped, chained, and magically tortured for information. She uses her abilities not to torture anyone, but to discover the truth before bad things happen.

Obviously, this is the first book in a new series, thus there are plenty of open ended questions that will eventually need to be explored as the series progresses. Of course, now comes the impatient waiting until next year for the next installment.  


Author - Ilona Andrews   Title - Burn for Me (Hidden Legacies # 1)   Published by Avon   Expected Publication: October 28, 2014   Genre - Urban Fantasy Romance   Format - Paperback 384 pages







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