A review by tessisreading2
Blood Heir by Ilona Andrews

3.0

I enjoyed this, but it felt very... fan-service-y, for lack of a better word. Julie (now Aurelia) is ridiculously powered-up in every conceivable aspect, up to and including being breathtakingly gorgeous and a literal princess, and it makes it hard to empathize with her; she never feels in actual danger. Pacing-wise, a lot happened in the time between the end of the KD series and this book and it's clear that information is withheld from the reader (and in some cases from Julie, but mostly from the reader) in a puzzle-creating way that I find kind of... obnoxious. It's too hard to ignore the authors behind the curtain pulling the strings. Kate had secrets, but she didn't have all the answers. Julie, frankly, does - she's even got a magical pocket universe where she can get information from her evil-but-sort-of-reformed grandfather, plus her grandmother is an ageless magical queen regnant who's just a phone call away - so when she doesn't it's clear that information is being withheld and it's annoying.

There are also just too many fan-favorite characters (and new characters who are designed to be fan-favorite characters). The book is at its strongest when it embraces ambiguity - e.g. the Pack politics in Atlanta are clearly a mess, and either Julie's old frenemy Ascanio has become ambitious and reckless to the point of evildoing or there are hidden screw-ups that Julie doesn't know about yet - but pretty much everyone we meet is known and beloved and therefore in no actual peril. The villain is a literal baby-eating god from Arizona but the tension in the book feels lackluster, honestly.

I'm really hopeful that now that the setup is over and done with, we'll get to some actual plotting and drama in the next two books of the series. When all is said and done, I enjoyed the chance to spend more time with the characters.