Burn For Me, Ilona Andrews
Girl meets boy, boy bundles girl in rug, and whips her off to his fortress of solitude where he chains her to the floor and tortures her for information is not the most promising start to a relationship, but they make it work.
In a world where mage families are almost immune to the law, Nevada Baylor is a PI, well, the PI, for her small family-owned firm. The Baylor agency sticks with the safe stuff: cheating husbands, insurance fraud, and the like and steers clear of the Primes who run the mage familes. But they're mortgaged to the much larger, and Prime-run, Montgomery agency, and Augustine Montgomery has few qualms about blackmailing Nevada into taking on a job that isn't so much career suicide, as suicide suicide. Spoiled wild-boy Adam Pierce just burnt down a bank in central Houston, killing an off-duty cop, and his mother, Prime of her House, wants him found and returned to her before the cops can shoot him for resisting arrest. The problem for Nevada being that Adam Pierce isn't just a pyromaniac, he's a prime pyromancer, quite capable of burning her to death with just the power of his mind.
Nevada has a secret ace up her sleeve - she knows when people are lying. And a few questions in the right places get her a fleeting meeting with Adam, who turns out to have all the emotional maturity of a toddler on a sugar high. And it's in the immediate aftermath that Nevada runs into the other bad boy in the case, Connor 'Mad' Rogan, Prime of his House and one time weapon of mass destruction for the United States government, who isn't after Pierce, but his sidekick in the arson, Mad Rogan's 16yo cousin, and who'll take whatever measures are necessary to find him.
Shenanigans ensue.
White Hot, Ilona Andrews
Nevada Baylor is just getting used to the idea that her truthseeker magic may be as strong as any Prime's when another Prime-related case drops into her lap. The lawyer wife of animal mage Cornelius Harrison was just murdered, along with three other lawyers and their security team. Their employer is giving him the cold shoulder, and no one else will take the case. If the Pierce case skirted the mage Houses, this one is going to take Nevada straight to their heart, and her secret may be at risk. And then she discovers that the security team worked for Connor, and he's out for revenge.
Come for the shenanigans, stay for a Mission Impossible heist played out with two ferrets and a Chinese ferret-badger.
Wild Fire, Ilona Andrews
Nevada's secret is out, everyone knows there's a new Prime truthseeker on the scene. And that includes Victoria Tremaine, scariest truthseeker in the country, a woman for whom ethics are things that happen to other people, now revealed as Nevada's grandmother, and scary-granny wants her granddaughters back in House Tremaine. That's bad for Nevada, worse for her teenage sisters, because Nevada's the one who got the least scary talent. But now she has Connor to back her up, if she can just get him to understand the difference between backing her up, and taking over. As if that wasn't problem enough she also has another case, and this time it's for Connor's ex-fiancee.
Houston may not survive the shenanigans.
*****
Girl meets scarred, brooding, billionaire veteran isn't exactly an unknown trope in romance, and this series - there's another three books involving middle-sister Catalina - is definitely in the romantasy end of the genre paddling pool. But it's well imagined, the world-building and magic systems are solid, and it also stands up a fine urban fantasy, while each case is a perfectly presentable mystery. I bought them because they were cheap (£2 each on Amazon), but I was pleasantly surprised by how good they are, particularly the characterisation - there's a bait and switch with Nevada's attitudes in the first book that is pure delight.
Wicching Hour, Sea Wicche 3, Seanna Kelly
It's the grand opening of Arwyn Corey's gallery, and all her dreams have come true. But you can't have dreams without nightmares, and it's time to run down the sorcerer responsible for so much death and despair. But before that there's another serial killer to be hunted down, and a betrayal that will destroy the foundations of Arwyn's life.
I was a bit annoyed about that betrayal, because it's thrown in, and then any chance of resolving it, or even understanding it, is whipped away. But otherwise a nice addition to the series.
Night Owl Books, Seana Kelly
A spin-off novella from the Sea Wicche books, and actually a re-read from earlier in the year, but I'm pretty certain I never reviewed it.
Orla is a literal night owl, proprietor of Night Owl Books, hidden up a lane in rural Monterey, opening hours 8PM til 6AM, and an Eagle-Owl shifter. When a woman runs into the bookstore after a terrifying encounter with a man on the road, Orla finds herself drawn into the activities of the unofficial local magical law enforcers - though a couple of them do have actual badges, and one is a very attractive bear shifter. They're quickly sure that the man is a werewolf, and that Orla is precisely his type, which raises one possible, if dangerous, method of catching him.
Orla's an interesting character, the writing is 1st Person, and the fourth wall appears to be something she has no truck with. She says teachers kept assuming she was autistic, but it's just part of being an owl shifter, but I'm really not certain that makes any difference. Understanding other people and social interactions are definitely works in progress for her, which makes for an interesting viewpoint character.
It's a shortish read, and having a quarter of the Kindle page count turn out to be a preview of Wicching Hour struck me as a bit naughty.
Re-reads
The Taellaneth, Vanessa Nelson
Five book series: Arrow is the much-abused half-human gofer for the elf-adjacent Erith and their government, the Taellaneth. Sent to aid the werewolf-adjacent Shifkin investigate the murder of their leader's mate, she's about to find out that the demon-adjacent Usurji have returned, and the Taellaneth are about to find out that abusing Arrow may not have been their brightest idea.
The world-building is a bit shaky in places - we never really get a good explanation for how the humans, and their technology, ended up squeezed in between the Erith and the Shifkin, but the characterisation is fine and Arrow may be one of my all-time favourite characters.
Outcast, Grey Gates 1, Vanessa Nelson
Max Ortis is a Marshal, one of the handful of people charged with protecting the city from the monsters that regularly emerge from the mists and jungle that surround it. In theory the marshals don't get involved in law enforcement, but someone is killing mages, and Max has a horrible feeling that the serial killer is trying to reopen the gates to the demon realms. And seeing as Max was the person who had to shut them again last time, even if no one believes her, she's really not eager for a repeat performance. Meanwhile, reminders of her previous life as an apprentice of the Order of the Lady of Light keep cropping up in the shape of Bryce, tall, brooding enforcer for the Order.
The worldbuilding here is decidedly shaky, there is no way that the city has a functional economy, it doesn't even have an agricultural sector as far as I can see. But I like the characterisation, and the mystery is serviceable.
Called, Grey Gates 2, Vanessa Nelson
The Huntsman Clan are up to something, and Max is worried that abducting and killing young people may be the least of it. Meanwhile the city is running out of fuel, so the Marshals, police, and the Order are going to have to run a convoy through to the refinery that used to be part of the city before the jungle claimed it.
The plotting's as shaky as the world-building in this one, but I still like the writing and characterisation.
Bewicched, Sea Wicche 1, Seana Kelly
Arwyn Corey is a multi-talented artist, working in both paint and glass, and she's about to make her dream come true by opening her gallery in an old cannery on Monterey's sea shore. But Arwyn is also a witch (well, half-witch, half-sea fae) and her mother and grandmother are insistent she join the family council, because they think there's an evil sorcerer out there. Not to mention there's a detective she went to school with who has heard that Arwyn is a psychic and is desperate enough to ask for her help in a child-abduction case. And to make matters worse the hot werewolf building her deck is really distracting.
I still think the title should be punished for crimes against spelling, but these are a fun read.
Wicche Hunt, Sea Wicche 2, Seana Kelly
Arwyn is trying to get her gallery ready for its grand opening, but werewolf boyfriend Declan is pretty distracting, and he's still going to have to fight the local Alpha to the death if he wants to stay with her, meanwhile Detectives Hernandez and Osso have not one but two murders they need help with, and the sorcerer who killed her aunt is still out there. Scariest of all, Arwyn may be about to meet her father for the first time.
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