OMG what a book!

I love everything written by Ilona Andrews and this latest offering is no different. The audiobook narration is superb and the story is brilliant. My only regret is I read it too quickly.

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3.5 stars

This book wasn’t as good as earlier ones in the series, and it read more like a young adult book at times with overly cheesy dragged out relationship moments (rather than ones with depth) and very convenient luck in fight scenes. Ilona Andrews usually takes her books a step above that. However, she does set the bar high with her other books, and this still has many good points.

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Finally Catalina comes into her own

I love Ilona Andrews’ books. The first trilogy centred around Nevada, the oldest sister, was my favourite of all of their books. (Ilona Andrews is a husband and wife writing team). When the series continued with Catalina as the main character I really wanted to love it, but I didn’t. In books 3.5 and 4 Catalina just didn’t make as satisfying a ‘heroine’ as Nevada.
Not that Catalina wasn’t likeable. She was and I’d love her as a friend, but I don’t want my kick-ass heroines to be wracked with anxiety, shyness and self-doubt. I have enough of my own!
I think I understood where the writers we’re going with her. She had to be a unique character, different from her sister, and we’d see her grow and develop over time. But I just couldn’t help feeling disappointed at the end of book 4. It was a great book overall with fantastic writing but still, I couldn’t help comparing it to Nevada’s first book, and it fell short.
The other thing that really bothered me about book 4 was the way that Nevada is written out of the story to leave Catalina as head of the house. I felt it was totally out of character for the Nevada that we saw in the first three books. In book 1 she’s willing to give her life to stop her family from losing everything. In book 4 we find out she’s stormed off in a huff because the family is trying to prevent her from working herself in the ground. She dumps the business and the ‘house’ that she persuaded them to form, and buggers off with her billionaire husband. And she leaves them struggling financially, at a crucial and dangerous time, with poor security staff. I thought “What a b**ch!” and it left me feeling angry at a character that I really love. But I was pi **ed at the authors for making me angry with Nevada 😆. In most good stories the characters have to be in a difficult place at the start but PLEASE - you could have done it without smearing Nevada’s good name! So I came away from book 4 not knowing that I really wanted to carry on with the series.
However, as with all good stories, it’s all coming together in book 5. Catalina is becoming a formidable head of the house and we see that she probably makes a better one than Nevada would have. Alessandro is back and he’s a changed man. Obviously it takes Catalina a while to forgive him but we finally see them getting together. The main plot is fast-paced, unique and very engaging. And we find out the reason that Nevada abandoned them, so I understand and forgive her! I was left feeling happy and satisfied at the end of this book.
I can see what the authors were trying to do in book 4, but despite being a great fan of theirs, they nearly lost me by the end. Catalina just didn’t seem to match up to her sister and it left me disappointed and edgy. Perhaps we could have come into Catalina’s character arc a bit later when she was perhaps 23 or 24 rather than 21. And please don’t make me hate Nevada again, even if it is only for one book ☹️. Overall an excellent read that I’d recommend to anyone but you really need to start at the beginning of the series.

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1 person found this helpful

Artificially Slowed Narration Speed

Overall I enjoyed this novel.
However I found the speed of the narration to be annoyingly slow.
It seems as though the producers wanted to artificially increase the play-back time. Which was a huge shame as I was about to abandon listening to this audio book, when I discovered that the player speed could be adjusted.

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Enchanting

loved it cant wait for next installment well written entertaining, likeable characters excellently read charming stories

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The series is still going strong

Ilonas plots are always well thought out and never simple or obvious.
The romance is on a slow burn (though it does move on in this story).
I liked the narrator and happily listened to her for hours and and I'm happy to do so in future publications

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Emerald Blaze

As she invested a death she realised their is an intelligence under the water and expanding, who are feeding the creatures within the swamp with the missing people. Read brilliantly again by Emily Rankin.

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