Burn For Me and White Hot (Hidden Legacy #1 and #2) by Ilona Andrews

Amy  


urban fantasy, romance

Nevada runs her family’s small private investigation firm which is a small subsidiary of a much larger company, run by a powerful, magical House. When the parent company assigns a hazardous, impossible job to Nevada’s firm, she knows they are probably going to fail. But the alternative is bankruptcy. She must try her best to locate a criminal before he is killed or arrested and bring him to his family. In the course of her investigation, Rogan kidnaps her, thinking she is tied to the criminal, and she miraculously convinces him to let her go. From then on, the two of them have similar goals.

The first couple pages of Burn For Me quickly described the world in which this book is set. A serum had been discovered in Europe in the 1800s. This serum brought out magical powers in people. Though the widespread problems with people having unpredictable superpowers eventually became evident and the serum usage halted, these powers spread across generations throughout the globe until the current day.

While this summary of the setting seemed a bit abrupt and pointedly informative right at the beginning, I did appreciate knowing what was going on from the beginning. Some books have annoyed me by thrusting me into a nonsensical, unfamiliar world without explanation. Ilona Andrews also successfully introduced the reader to a large cast of characters, little by little, so that you could keep track of them. 

I soon found myself extremely invested in Nevada’s difficult situation. She’d been forced to do the impossible as a pawn in a larger game. I thought her adventure was really fun!

The book cover and title implied that this book was a romance but it really wasn’t so much a romance as an adventure with some mutual physical attraction. After finishing this novel, I saw there were novellas from Rogan’s point of view and I quickly found those on Andrews’ website and read them too. I plan to read the sequel to find out what happens next to Rogan, Nevada, and her family.

The audiobook narrator is Renee Raudman. She sounds a bit like Ellen DeGeneres. But she has a terrific vocal repertoire and is also a good voice actor. I didn’t love her chosen voice for Rogan, but maybe I just don’t like a Texas accent. Funny—I just looked to see if I’ve heard her narrate anything else and I had heard her narrate another book by Andrews back in 2019! And, back then, I also said she sounds like Ellen DeGeneres! I give her an A for this one.

Picking up where Burn For Me left off, Nevada is hired to find a killer. Before you know it, Rogan’s also involved and, together, they encounter a multitude of dangers and manage to survive through their own magical powers and heroics. The romance between the two is unavoidable as they get to know each other better through their time together.

Unlike Burn For Me, I would classify this one as a fantasy romance. This is a fun series to be reading during the summer and I’ll be reading more of the books, although I probably won’t blog about the rest of them unless there is something new to say about them. For the most part, I anticipate just enjoying the ongoing formula of these novels. FYI, this series has the altogether too common fantasy trope of the heroine surprisingly having previously unknown super abilities. But the writers do a good job with it. (Ilona Andrews is the pen name for a husband/wife writing team.)

Again, Renee Raudman did a terrific job with her narration. I think Rogan’s voice is starting to grow on me.