#ilona andrews

So I started sketching Andrea in her beastkin form and Ascanio in his warrior form and I think I’m maybe just drawing furries??

Erra’s rad Mesopotamian blood armor vs Kate’s… less impressive version ✨

I’m reading Blood Heir right now and decided I had to draw Erra before trying to figure out Julie’s new face :p

Może się wydawać, że sekunda to niewiele, ale ludzki umysł jest niesamowity. W sekundę może podsunąć nie jedną, ale dwie krótkie myśli, na przykład „o kurwa” i „zaraz umrę”.

„Magia wskrzesza” Ilona Andrews

– Tylko biedni ludzie są cudaczni. Bogaci są ekscentryczni.

„Gunmetal magic” Ilona Andrews

– […] Gniew jest potężnym uczuciem. Wiele spraw budzi wściekłość. Frustrująca robota, niska pensja, uciążliwe godziny pracy. Ludzie pragną przedmiotów i czują się poniżeni przez tych, którzy je mają, czują się pozbawieni tych dóbr, bezsilni. To pożywka dla gniewu. Złość narasta i gromadzi się, a gdy nie znajduje ujścia, przeistacza człowieka. Tacy ludzie są niczym odbezpieczone strzelby, gotowe wypalić w chwili, gdy dostrzegą cel. Chcą tylko kogoś skrzywdzić. Potrzebują tego. […] Ludzie mają skłonność do dzielenia świata, wrogowie po jednej, przyjaciele po drugiej stronie. Przyjaciele to ci, których znamy. Wrogowie to ci Inni. Innym można zrobić wszystko. Nieważne, czy ci Inni są winni jakiejś zbrodni, bo najważniejsze w tym są emocje, nie logika. Widzisz, rozgniewanym ludziom nie chodzi o sprawiedliwość. Szukają oni jedynie wymówki, by dać upust własnemu gniewowi. Kiedy stajesz się ichniejszym Innym, przestajesz być osobą. Stajesz się ideą, abstrakcyjnym uosobieniem wszelkiego zła na świecie. Wystarczy najdrobniejszy powód, a rozedrą cię na strzępy. A najłatwiejszym sposobem, żeby zacząć postrzegać cię jako Innego, jest znalezienie różnic. Odmiennego koloru skóry, języka, miejsca pochodzenia. […] Tak dzieje się na okrągło. Każde pokolenie wynajduje sobie własnych Innych.

„Magia zabija” Ilona Andrews

Nie cenię szczególnie tragedii. Łatwo zasmucić widza, pokazując mu coś tragicznego. Wszyscy wiemy, kiedy dzieje się coś przykrego, ktoś umiera, ktoś traci ukochanego, kończy się miłość. Znacznie trudniej rozbawić widza, bo co śmieszne dla jednego, drugiego może nie bawić.

„Magia zabija” Ilona Andrews

Znajdź czas i miejsce, gdzie nikt nie będzie ci przeszkadzał, i wyobraź to sobie. Wyobraź sobie najgorszy scenariusz, jaki może się zdarzyć, wyobraź go sobie z możliwie najdokładniejszymi szczegółami. Przeżyj go, poczuj strach, poczuj ból. Zmuszanie się do czegoś takiego jest straszne, ale po wszystkim niepokój odchodzi. Nie znika całkiem, ale daje miejsce na tyle spokoju, by móc funkcjonować.

„Magia zabija” Ilona Andrews

– […] Jak można zabić tysiące ludzi za nic?

– To nieludzkie.

– Nie, to ludzkie. W tym tkwi problem. Ludzie, szczególnie ci nieszczęśliwi, potrzebują idei. Chcą gdzieś przynależeć, pragną być częścią czegoś większego, ważniejszego, i pragną, by ktoś im przewodził. Łatwo być trybikiem, nie trzeba myśleć, nie ponosi się odpowiedzialności za nic. Wykonuje się tylko rozkazy. Robi to, co ktoś powie.

„Magia zabija” Ilona Andrews

Nawet jeśli uda ci się uciec, to doświadczenie okaleczy cię na zawsze, bo rany emocjonalne nigdy nie zasklepiają się do końca.

„Magia zabija” Ilona Andrews

Wszystko to okazało się kłamstwem. Zdrada była tak straszna, że coś we mnie pękło i cała w środku wrzałam gniewem. To bolało. Bolało spoglądanie na to wszystko oczami dorosłego. Miałam ochotę krzyczeć, kopać, walić pięściami, dopóki cały ten ból ze mnie nie ujdzie. Gdybym usiadła i pozwoliła sobie nad tym rozmyślać, załamałabym się.

„Magia zabija” Ilona Andrews

Pewien mędrzec powiedział kiedyś: „Ludzki umysł to miejsce, gdzie emocje i rozum toczą niekończącą się walkę. Pechowo dla naszego gatunku uczucia zawsze wygrywają”. Lubię ten cytat, bo wyjaśnia dlaczego mimo iż uważam się za dosyć inteligentną, co rusz robię coś wyjątkowo głupiego.

„White hot” Ilona Andrews

Ludzie kłamią z wielu powodów: by ocalić swoją skórę, by wydostać się z kłopotów, by uniknąć zranienia czyjś uczuć. Manipulatorzy kłamią, by dostać to czego chcą. Narcyzi kłamią, aby zrobić większe wrażenie na innych i samych sobie. Niepijący alkoholicy kłamią, by odbudować swoją poszarganą reputację. A najczęściej ze wszystkich kłamią ci, którzy najbardziej nas kochają. Życie to wyboista droga, a oni chcą nam ułatwić ją tak, jak tylko to możliwe.

„Burn for me” Ilona Andrews

Books I Read in 2022

#4 – Emerald Blaze, by Ilona Andrews

• Rating:5/5 stars

I love it, I love it to pieces.

I already liked Alessandro just fine because I could tell some sort of wonderfully juicy vulnerability was hiding under that smooth exterior, and now it’s on full display (at least to Catalina and the readers.)

I already liked Catalina just fine because she was struggling to come into her own under an overwhelming wave of outside pressures, and now she’s much more confident and cannier about how she presents herself to others, manipulating them by showing them different faces. (ie, she’s more like Alessandro from the previous book, even if she keeps insisting she’s starting to become her grandmother.)

So the romance is a grand roller coaster of fun and the right amount of angst.

But what really stepped up in this novel compared to the earlier installments in the series was the main plot. Stakes were definitely raised, to the point where I’m actually worried that Ruby Fever won’t be able to raise them further–our plucky heroes having to deal with something that is a literal existential threat to humanity feels really big and possibly un-toppable.

Add to that the continuing presence and expansion of the family surrounding Catalina–bringing Runa in from former-client status to almost-family is a good call, for basically the same reasons I was happy to see Cornelius stick around. Leon and Bern are still awesome. Grandma Frida is still a total badass. Arabella is starting to grow up a little more and got an excellent chance to be clever in a plot-relevant way. I love all them all!

Waiting for the next book is going to be hard.

Books I Read in 2022

#1 – Sapphire Flames, by Ilona Andrews

• Rating: 5/5 stars

I’m hooked. I like Catalina better than Nevada, and Alessandro better than Rogan. This is the superior couple, and they’re not even a couple yet, because of Reasons.

Yeah, sometimes it felt a little juvenile in comparison, but Catalina is still having her coming-of-age arc that started in Diamond Fire. A large part of this plot is her growing up, in the sense of accepting her responsibilities. The central conflict of her possible romance with Alessandro is, in fact, those responsibilities. If sometimes her internal narrative sounds a little like adult authors trying too hard to sound like a teenager, I can forgive that in this case.

Alessandro is a witty and flirtatious playboy one second and a stone cold badass the next. There’s another conflict for you–who is he, really? What’s his deal? We know why Catalina doesn’t think a relationship between them would work, despite wanting one anyway. But Alessandro appears to feel the same way, even while we only get the barest hint of his reasons for that assessment. It’s vaguely tragic and maybe a little hammy, but then, so is he, with his “Instagram” persona. I still adore him.

I like the new direction the main plot is taking re: Catalina’s involvement in the larger magical society, I thought that was interesting. The revelation of a certain someone’s secret authority explains a lot, though still leaves me with some questions about the conspiracy that we apparently put to bed after the first three books–I’m not convinced there’s not more going on, still, given the suspicions I had then, and “Caesar’s” identity still hasn’t been settled. I haven’t forgotten about that loose end!

Happy to see the next book is out, sad to see book 6 isn’t expected until much later this year, because I’m sure I’m going to want it the second I’m finished with book 5.

Books I Read in 2021

#138 – Diamond Fire, by Ilona Andrews

• Rating:4/5 stars

I congratulate this novella for doing something I rarely see them do: tackling a story idea that suits itself to the novella length. A few romance novellas I’ve read are glorified short stories with thin plot and extra padding, but by far most of them are actually novel- or near-novel-length ideas with rushed pacing and something else cut for time, be it character development, setting description, whatever. Novellas frequently try to do too much, and this one felt like the perfect length for what it wanted to accomplish.

It also serves as an excellent bridge to cross over from Nevada’s POV in the first three book and this novella’s prologue, to Catalina’s POV. While she’s stepping into Nevada’s role in the story as protagonist, and into her shoes as well in-universe as a private investigator, her methods, personality, and character voice are all distinct, even with a relatively short amount of time to nail them down. Catalina does not already have years of experience dealing with people, and it shows; this also naturally leads to the touching moment at the end when Rogan’s mother steps up to be Catalina’s mentor.

The major flaw I felt this had was to populate Rogan’s extended family with so many people. I understand that as a mini heist mystery, we had to have a decent field of suspects; but when Catalina herself mentions that the long Spanish names are confusing, especially when there are so many of them, I groaned a little at the obvious lampshading of an author-created problem. It’s not that I had trouble tracking the most important ones once their subplots were set up, but I did wonder why there were a generous handful of names leftover that didn’t end up being important to the plot at all. Couldn’t some of those have been trimmed out during the editing phase?

After reading this, I’m really looking forward to the next book.

Books I Read in 2021

#137 – Wildfire, by Ilona Andrews

• Rating: 4/5 stars

A solid conclusion to Nevada’s trilogy within the larger series, but it fell down on enough minor stuff that no matter how much I enjoyed parts of it, it’s not a five-star finale.

I love that Cornelius, the client from book two, is still around in his new capacity. Compared to Rogan he’s definitely painted as a beta male and less desirable (not that he’s remotely a love interest possibility in universe, just in general) but I love that he’s a good, caring dad, he’s intelligent and willing to learn from his mistakes, and he’s constantly surrounded by animals like a Disney Princess. A+ supporting character.

I thought the conspiracy plot was finished off well (aside from that one all-important detail, which I’ll get back to later) and most of the action surrounding it was fine. I did think that the Final Boss himself was a bit of a letdown, not in terms of power, but in terms of plot importance–the encounters with his henchmen earlier had more personal stakes, and the escalation to “but now we have to save the city from this semi-madman who wants to destroy it to escape the consequences of his actions” was a pretty big jump and somehow actually felt less important than saving the kids did earlier.

The weakest part of the book to me overall was Rynda, both in her capacity as client, and as Rogan’s ex. Sure, her husband was kidnapped and that’s what starts the plot moving, but at all points she’s a pretty terrible person to everyone involved (except her kids, in theory, though we don’t actually see her parenting them at all, they’re just props for her to worry about) and something about her behavior always rang false to me in a way that the story wasn’t accounting for. I understand that she’s supposed to be an empath who doesn’t use her powers because she’s convinced everyone hates her and she feels deeply unloved, which she then turns outward into being an off-putting person as a defense mechanism. But her excessively needy behavior and reliance on men to solve her problems never squared neatly with that, and her desperate attempts to get Rogan back, especially late in the story, were in direct conflict with what she’d said earlier about how she was actually frightened of Rogan. Also, Edward seemed like a decent guy in the end, so why on earth did he pine so bad for Rynda when she’s such an unlovable person, both in terms of suitability under House strictures (her genetic wild card status) and her general pattern of horrible behavior? What on earth does he see in her? I can’t understand it.

As for the very, very end, the epilogue…I’m not the greatest at figuring out mystery identities, but the unnamed man gives himself away with a key line of dialogue we’ve already heard him say, and we know that our intrepid investigators didn’t find the head of the conspiracy, so clearly that’s who he is. I feel great, in one sense, that I figured something out when usually I’d be scratching my head in confusion, but on the other hand, this feels so blatantly obvious that I almost don’t believe I’ve uncovered anything, that this is somehow another layer of plot confusion and maybe the head of the conspiracy is Somehow Good Actually. I genuinely don’t know if I’m overthinking this because I’m so unused to having this level of knowledge. I’m probably going to be second-guessing myself as the series moves forward.

Books I Read in 2021

#135 – White Hot, by Ilona Andrews

• Rating: 4/5 stars

Five stars for being an addictive read that I tore through in less than 24 hours. Maybe only four for the actual plot–this suffers slightly from what I presume is middle-book syndrome, where everything that’s up in the air at the end of the first novel (the romance, the conspiracy plot) still has to be an least somewhat unresolved at the end of the second so that we can tie it all up (hopefully) in the third.

As I said with Burn for Me, the primary romance dynamic is still roughly the same as Kate and Curran from the Kate Daniels series; Incredibly Powerful Alpha meets a Plucky Female Private Investigator who doesn’t put up with his bullshit. And yes, I still like it. But what I like more is that in between all these crazy action scenes, we get to know both of them better and both have moved away from that reductive framework I slotted them into at first. Nevada is defined by her love for her family and the pressure of her (at least partially self-imposed) responsibilities towards them. Rogan is struggling with how his highly unusual military service has affected his mindset and personality. Both seem to spend a lot of time wondering how tenable a relationship is for them beyond their wild and compelling sexual attraction, and that’s still a question at the end of the story, though matters have (*cough*) progressed in some respects.

As we get to know Nevada we’re also getting to know her family better, and I have to say I like them too. It’s only snippets at this point because there are a fair number of them as a supporting cast, but they not only feel like real people but interesting ones: I look forward to watching the younger ones come into their magic as the series progresses (because I peeked ahead and I know that one of Nevada’s sisters will move up to protagonist status.) Meanwhile, I will wonder quietly about potential future romances for Leon and Bern (extremely unlikely, I know, but an interesting thought exercise in what sort of stories they would star in) and look forward to both this arc’s conclusion with the next book, and the start of Catalina’s down the road.

Books I Read in 2022

#21 – Sweep with Me, by Ilona Andrews

• Rating: 2/5 stars

A return to Earth and the inn and Dina coincides with a drop in how much I like it, but we’re back down to the level of the first book, not its follow-ups. This was thin, and I was never able to engage much with either the Space Chicken plot (though I did very much like the illustration of one of them, and I did find them funny as occasional comic relief) or the “main” plot involving the Drifan. Either I missed something, or something that would have made the arc of her plot clearer needed to be included, because I just didn’t ever get what was going on there. Sure, she’s human, she misses Earth, I’m fine with her personality as a character, but why does she have to meet her uncle again and what are the stakes here? The motives behind the action didn’t track for me, and without that, the climax wasn’t particularly satisfying.

This is so short, as well, and romance in the main series plot is so incidental, that I didn’t even feel much at Sean becoming an Innkeeper and living and working with Dina. I should be happier for them, but there just wasn’t much meat to any of this, so I had nothing to sink my teeth into.

Books I Read in 2022

#20 – Sweep of the Blade, by Ilona Andrews

• Rating: 4/5 stars

The best of the series so far, and I don’t think it’s a coincidence I like it better because there’s more cohesive world-building as we dive deeper into vampire culture, and more romance, since this is functionally a spin-off where we have one book to get Maud and Arland together, rather than stretching it out over the course of a series.

I like Maud better than Dina as a protagonist, because she’s got more going on than the constant refrain of “make the inn happy, but also someday maybe find my parents,” which is certainly a reasonable goal but not a very exciting one because nothing ever happens to further it, it’s always just hanging over her head as a mystery. Maud, on the other hand, has a half-vampire daughter to raise and decisions to make about how best to do that, which give her much more immediate goals to pursue.

And also puts Arland in her way as a romantic hero. I’ve always liked him; in fact early on, when it still seemed he was one choice in a love triangle, I actually liked him better than Sean, who fortunately has grown on me since. But Arland shines here in his element as a leader of his people, as a skilled combatant, and as a stellar candidate for a step-dad. His budding relationship with Maud is tense and uncertain at first, and when she tosses barbs at him, he gives as good as he gets.

This wraps up their part in the larger story pretty neatly, and I doubt we’ll see more of them, but I’m glad we got this at all–I see a lot of other reviewers weren’t happy at the series going off on apparent tangent, but I think this was the best bit yet.

Books I Read in 2022

#19 – One Fell Sweep, by Ilona Andrews

• Rating: 3/5 stars

I liked this about the same as the one before it, which is to say, better than the series opener but still not nearly as good as most other IA books in other series.

While I like how this book makes it even clearer that Arland is no longer a romantic prospect for Dina, utterly abolishing the love triangle established in the first book, the main plot is darker even than the second book, and the stakes have yet again been raised, to the point where I question how the series can keep escalating threats while still having Dina and her inn Gertrude Hunt be capable of handling them. This one is such a doozy.

The B-plot of Maud and Helen is actually excellent and I have basically no complaints. Great new characters.

Even if I wasn’t the biggest fan of the main plot, I do like how it ended, and how the romance progressed. I think what I might be struggling with in this series is how minor the romance arc is. Yes, in Kate Daniels it took a while to get going, but once it was established the payoff was huge. In The Edge, the series was comprised of individual romance novels telling a cohesive story together. Hidden Legacy might be the best marriage of worldbuilding and romance I’ve seen in the genre as a whole. So this? This just feels lackluster by comparison. I thought I’d be getting more romance, and it’s just so tame.