I picked up Burn for Me while it was on sale a while back because another member of the Unapologetic Romance Readers group had given it a really good rating. And Ilona Andrews does really good paranormal fantasy with romance elements, which is right up my alley, so it was perfect. But it sat on my Kindle, unread, until I slotted it into my reading challenge for "A book by two authors," because "Ilona Andrews" is actually a pen name for a husband-wife writing team, Ilona and Andrew Gordon. This isn't actually hard to find--they're very open with it--but it's not apparent by just looking at the book cover.The best-known books by these two are the Kate Daniels books. Burn for Me and the other Hidden Legacy books take place in a different world from Kate's story. In this world, a substance called the Osiris Serum was discovered in the nineteenth century and unlocked magic in many people; the unlocked magic became genetic, and in our current time, despite the serum no longer being in use, magic is still rampant. Heroine Nevada has magic that allows her to tell when someone is lying, though she hides it because she doesn't want to be forced to become a human lie detector for the government, military, etc. Instead, she runs a private investigation business that brings in money for her family. But when bad boy Adam Pierce starts burning things down in Houston, Nevada is put on the case of bringing him back to his family against her will by the man who "owns" her family for various reasons. And to make things worse, she ends up falling with bad man Connor Rogan, aka Mad Rogan, aka the Scourge of Mexico, who can literally level cities with just the power of his mind. Yikes.
I really, really enjoyed this. I stayed up too late reading it, which I haven't done in a long time, and immediately bought the second volume, White Hot. Nevada is an imminently likable character. She is smart and gorgeous and can kick butt, which is all par for the course in this genre, but her devotion to her family is something new, because most people in this genre tend to be orphans or estranged from their families, for some reason. Her sad and quiet mother, her kooky grandmother, and her annoying-but-helpful younger siblings and cousins were all so charming and really added a lot to this book. I have mixed feelings about Rogan--and I actually wasn't sure if he was going to be the love interest for a while (I thought maybe something would end up happening with Adam) because he and Nevada don't meet until so far into the book. But he's a little psycho. Nevada is keenly aware of this herself, and purposefully keeps distance between herself and Rogan because of it. But Rogan is the very typical paranormal romance alpha male, and he is determined to have Nevada. Which really makes her resistance of her, her shutting him down and backtalking, even though she is definitely attracted to him, even more admirable.
Of course, the fact that this is a three-book series and this is only the first book probably helps, too. But what's best about this is that Rogan is fucked up and brutal, yes--and Nevada doesn't let him use that as an excuse. It's not "Oh, he's broken, he will be so sweet and perfect once I fix him!" Instead, it's "Yes, he's sexy, but he is dangerous and probably doesn't want me for more than sex and I really cannot deal with that now, so I'm going to nope out of here as fast as I can." This is the type of stuff that strong heroines are made of, and I really liked it.
This is a great, fun, sexy paranormal fantasy/mystery--there's no sex here (though Nevada is interested, somewhat despite herself) and the tension is really drawn out, so don't expect a resolution in that department. But White Hot is already shaping up pretty well, so I have hopes there!
5 stars out of 5.
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