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A review by cassandra67b07
Blood Heir by Ilona Andrews
5.0
3/22 update--re-read on audible audio. I really like the narrator for this one. Good work on all the distinct voices and the pacing of the story. Glad I nominated it for the Hugo even though most of the voters don't seem to care for paranormal or urban fantasy unless McGuire is writing it.
1/21 original review: I keep searching for an urban fantasy author whose worlds can draw me in the way that Ilona Andrews does. And there's just no one like them. The creativity and inventiveness, research, scrappy heroines with smart mouths, and the heroes who would die for them just continue to pull me in. And once there, fans never want to leave. Which is how this whole book got started as Andrews explains in the Afterword. 2020 was a dreadful year and out of that pain when the pandemic got serious in NYC a fan working in healthcare asked for more in Kate Daniels' world. And the husband and wife writing team delivered with this "Eight Years Later" centered on Julie Olsen-Lennart who is back in Atlanta and on a mission.
It's a mission with high stakes as so many of their heroines have to face and Julie does it with style, intelligence, and some really strong one-liners. Underneath it all is her caring heart and her desire to save her family and her city.
It's tremendous fun seeing all the older characters again who have not frozen in place but gone on to other things. The younger characters are caught in some old patterns but the end of this installment provides hope that they can break out of them. Fascinating mythology, thrilling fights, surprise appearances, and Julie's grit kept me turning pages. The main plot is resolved but all the groundwork is laid for a spinoff series, so I hope it does well.
There might be a very slight tinge of fan service here, but I'm a fan and I like to be serviced--so there.
On a final note-the artwork by Luisa Preissler is stunning. I hope to see more book covers and supplemental art by her.
1/21 original review: I keep searching for an urban fantasy author whose worlds can draw me in the way that Ilona Andrews does. And there's just no one like them. The creativity and inventiveness, research, scrappy heroines with smart mouths, and the heroes who would die for them just continue to pull me in. And once there, fans never want to leave. Which is how this whole book got started as Andrews explains in the Afterword. 2020 was a dreadful year and out of that pain when the pandemic got serious in NYC a fan working in healthcare asked for more in Kate Daniels' world. And the husband and wife writing team delivered with this "Eight Years Later" centered on Julie Olsen-Lennart who is back in Atlanta and on a mission.
It's a mission with high stakes as so many of their heroines have to face and Julie does it with style, intelligence, and some really strong one-liners. Underneath it all is her caring heart and her desire to save her family and her city.
It's tremendous fun seeing all the older characters again who have not frozen in place but gone on to other things. The younger characters are caught in some old patterns but the end of this installment provides hope that they can break out of them. Fascinating mythology, thrilling fights, surprise appearances, and Julie's grit kept me turning pages. The main plot is resolved but all the groundwork is laid for a spinoff series, so I hope it does well.
There might be a very slight tinge of fan service here, but I'm a fan and I like to be serviced--so there.
On a final note-the artwork by Luisa Preissler is stunning. I hope to see more book covers and supplemental art by her.