Burn for Me
Ilona Andrews
- Publisher: Avon Books
- Year Published: 2014
- Date I read It: December 16, 2018
- Genre: Fantasy, Urban Fantasy, Paranormal, Adult, Romance
- Grade: A-/ 4.5/5 Stars
“You can’t just kill people because they annoy you.”
“You keep saying ‘can’t,'”
-Ilona Andrews
Nevada Baylor is a private investigator in a world where magic not only exist, almost everyone has it. Nevada’s family usually only takes on small cases like catching a cheating spouse. They aren’t able to take on bigger, more dangerous cases, but when Nevada is told to catch one of the most dangerous people in their city or lose everything her family has worked for she has no choice but to risk her life to catch this man who doesn’t care about anyone else’s life. She has to not kill him, but bring him back, which is harder then killing him. How do you bring back someone who has no regard for human life. Her search for him sends her right into the eye of another dangerous man, one known for his murderous past. He is a dangerous man, but with his help she might be able to catch the other dangerous man.
Later this year I read, Ilona Andrews’ Kate Daniels series and fell in love. Finding a good urban fantasy book is not an easy task. You have to wade through the mound of garbage to find that diamond hidden within. Most of urban fantasies are cliche garbage. Ilona Andrews writes diamonds. I only have one urban fantasy series that I love more then Kate Daniels. That would be Mercy Thompson, which is my all time favorite urban fantasy that I have read multiple times and I don’t think anything can beat. When I saw that Ilona Andrews had a another book series out that isn’t related to Kate’s world, at least I don’t think it is, I immediately wanted it. I really enjoy the worlds Ilona makes. Kate’s world was our world but without having electronics you could depend on. At any given moment you could have a power surge that would make cars and such useless. People usually traveled by foot or horses. In Nevada’s world, while magic has become apart of everyday life, it doesn’t effect the world like that, but it’s people. Everyone has magic pretty much and use it to do things they couldn’t normally do, sometimes making life worse. Magic is very depended on and sought after. Many people who have powerful magic are put into the army and used. Many of the characters is this world has military background. There’s also places in the book where magic has helped to destroy a town and now that town is basically a wasteland.
The magic concept in this book is not complicated. There isn’t a system that has to be used, or sacarfies that need to be made on a full moon. Magic is just a part of people. Even though the magic is basic in its structure, reading how characters used their magic was interesting to read. In this world there are ranks of how strong your magic is, the top rank being a Prime. Primes are capable of mass destruction. For example, regular magic users can do thinks like communicate with animals, summon poison flies. A prime can destroy a building without touching it, and that’s just them using magic at a basic level. If they were to go full power they could destroy a town. The two men who are introduced in Nevada’s life in this book are two primes. The villain who Nevada is trying to convince to go home and turn himself in is Adam. Adam is a prime who is pyrokinetic, meaning he can make fire. He burned down a bank with people in it and didn’t care. The other man is Conner Rogan, otherwise known as Mad Rogan, the Butcher of Merida, and Huracan(hurricane). Mad Rogan is known for murdering many people. He can slice out a chunk out of a building as if it was nothing, and to him it is. He is telekinetic, he can move things without touching them using his head. Adam and Mad Rogan are two people who are feared for their magic use and Nevada has caught both of their attention.
I know some people think that comparing books or characters are a bad thing, but I like to look at an authors previous work and seeing the differences in her worlds and characters. I liked to see if the characters are the same, or if the author knows how to write more than one kind of character. In Ilona Andrews’ case, she is able to write characters that are similar but so completely different.
Kate Daniels was a badass. She was a trained fighter that people knew. She radiated a badass aura at all times. There is no doubt that you don’t want to fuck with Kate. She doesn’t stand down, even if she knows she will die. She is stubborn and doesn’t care that your an alpha. She’ll look you in the eye and smile as you growl at her. Nevada is a badass, just in a different way. Nevada is not a fighter. Kate’s strength was her literal strength and magic abilities. Nevada is very smart and thinks out all the possibilities before engaging. Kate is the type who if a problem is prevented she would want to deal with it then and get it out of the way, while Nevada would rather take the day and think about which way to go about it. Nevada isn’t just a smart character though, she can be a fighter, just not in a physical way. There is times where Nevada gets angry and you see a glimpse of that Kate Daniels attitude that tells you to run. Nevada’s magic also isn’t useful in a fight, so she uses things like guns, tasers, and something that’s like a taser, and if she wants to shot you there’s a good chance she isn’t missing. My favorite moments of the book with Nevada was when she took charge. It was like Nevada became a new person. That second Nevada was angry and started commanding people you could feel this power from her. There’s also other differences between the two characters. Kate Daniels was a loner. She was raised being told that she was a danger to others and that no one could be with her, so she was always alone. Even by the end of the book, Kate has only a hand full of people she actually cares about. Nevada is a family person. She runs a business with her family that consist of her mother, grandmother, sisters, and cousins. She would do anything for them, including die. When one of them was messed with Nevada went into a rage mood. Nevada is a very family oriented person, while Kate is a loner. There is some things both of them have completely in common though. Both are very brave and selfless. Both have no problem dealing with alphas, murderers, people who radiate fear, and telling them no. They stand up for themselves and it doesn’t matter if you can rip them in half with your bare hands, or without even touching you.
Curran vs Mad Rogan. Curran is the definition of Alpha. His word is final, you don’t disobey him. He tries to control everything. Kate refers to him a lot as a control freak, and he is because he is an alpha who demands to be listened to, expect with Kate who he eventually sees as an equal. Curran is literally a beast at times. When you hear the stories of Mad Rogan, you would think he would be just like Curran, but he is almost nothing like Curran, which really surprised me. Mad Rogan’s personality was something I didn’t expect. Nevada refers to Mad Rogan as an alien in one part and I fully agree. It was like he was an alien trying to understand basic human emotion. He is a murder who was also a soldier for years that was used to pretty much destroy towns. He doesn’t feel the same ways or emotions that normal people do, but he wants to understand it. There is a part where he kills someone with a building, freaking out Nevada. He seriously asks Nevada if she would rather he do it in another way. He doesn’t want to freak her out so if there is a way he can kill people that is better for her then he will do it. There is also times where she tells him to stop killing someone who he thinks deserves it because their an asshole and he asks Nevada why she doesn’t want him to kill that person and why isn’t she angry. There are time where he asks these questions and they are sarcastic, but a lot of the times he is asking because he actually wants to understand. Also, Mad Rogan likes to joke and tease people. He is actually more playful in the book then he is ever angry. He is only truly angry a few times but for a lot of the book he is making jokes about him killing people, and teasing people. Based on the stories you heard from him you would of thought he was another Curran but he isn’t. If it wasn’t for the killing he would pass for normal.
Pro
- I love a book where the characters make me laugh. I take notes all through books and a lot of my notes in this one were just moments I found funny. Like Nevada buying a man a shirt because he is never wearing one, her being completely blunt to people like telling her boss he is a bad person, and things like her and her family hanging up multiple times on a man known for murdering people. There’s also a lot of moments Rogan made me laugh when he would kill someone as if it was nothing, and then make a joke about it a few paragraphs later. The book wasn’t cheesy funny, but genuine funny. It didn’t come off as trying to be funny, it just was. A lot of the characters had these little funny moments. Nevada’s family is a family you want to be a part of because every moments you are with them is enjoyable.
- The fighting. I’m someone who doesn’t necessarily care about combat in books since for combat I prefer visuals. I don’t usually care about reading it in depths. If there’s anything I like to read about combat it’s more like taction. There was no taction in this book, yet I loved the combat. I loved reading about Rogan picking up car parts and slicing people in half with it. I liked how simple it was written when Rogan just threw a guy in a lake and dropped building on him. It was literally written in a few sentences as if it wasn’t important because to Rogan, it wasn’t. I liked the null space where if a Prime used so much of their magic they literally became untouchable because it basically put them in a dimension where you could see them but that was it. The combat in this book was so good that I actually enjoyed reading it and didn’t feel like I just wanted to skim through it.
- Even though Adam was the villian, he was charming. A lot of times villains are portrayed as awful from the start with no good qualities as if there only personality trait was them being evil, which isn’t always bad thing because sometimes evil is just evil depending on the context of the character. For Adam, since he was well known, popular, rich, if he was just an evil asshole he wouldn’t be a good character. The fact that he is rich and popular would mean that he is charming. He was probably taught to be charming because it’s good for business and its how you get people to do things for you. Adam is also a manipulator, so it makes perfect sense for him to being charming. He didn’t care for people, but he could act like he did. He could make you feel like you were worth something to him because he wanted you to do something. He is a good villain because he a charming villain which makes him tricky. I also don’t really see books where the main character and the villian sit down and have chats while the main character knows that person is the villain. They did and each time it was a game of them trying to convince each other to do something.
- Like I said before Nevada is smart. She doesn’t rush into things and make stupid decisions like a lot of main characters. She needs to go into a bar to question people but she knows that it’s dark, and it will have a bunch of drunk men in there who will probably already be a little angry and won’t like a random girl in there poking around, so she goes home instead and decides to go in the morning because it’s safer. She thinks out everything before she does it. A lot of times characters rush into everything because it makes good content for the book. Nevada shows you don’t need to have a character do that. There are ways to make your character not make stupid decisions and still have the story progress and still be likeable. Even when Nevada has to put herself in a dangerous situation she makes sure to take precautions before going. She makes sure to think about what will happen if she does something and if it’s not a result she will like she will find another way to do it. She is a witty character who is actually clever.
Cons
- I was honestly to interested in reading that I didn’t find anything wrong. Even as i true to think about it, there was nothing I didn’t like about the book. I think i might actually prefer it to Kate Daniels, which I didn’t think I would. Even the writing was good,It was written in a smart way. Maybe i’ll see something wrong in the second one but i’m not going to try to find fault in something when I didn’t find fault in it while reading it. It’s not fair to the author so this book doesn’t have any cons to me.
If it’s not clear enough, I love this book. If you like Urban Fantasy and haven’t read this book yet then do it. I like that this isn’t a world of supernatural creatures but just people who can use different forms of magic because of experimentation. It was fun to read about people shooting fire, talking to animals, being able to tell if something was a lie, the magic circles. Ilona’s characters are realistic and entertaining to read. Nevada was a constant enjoyment and Rogan trying to understand human emotions was a different approach for a powerful man. It doesn’t seem like it is, but the way Ilona writes it is different then the ways it’s been done before. I honestly thought Rogan was going to be a character who was emotionless except for anger, but he wasn’t. This book blew away everything I had expected it to be and I love it.
“And let’s be honest, you weren’t exactly harmed. I even took you home.”“You dumped me on my doorstep. According to my mother, I looked half dead.”
“Your mother exaggerates. A third dead at most.”
― Ilona Andrews
Simplistic Reader 