Review: Blood Heir or where things can get nostalgic!

Hello everyone! I hope you all are well and happy! It seems like I may be able to write a review again, yay! This is my first review of the year, and since lately I wasn’t really feeling in the right mood for them I am really excited to be here with one!

Title: Blood Heir
Series: Aurelia Ryder #1
Author: Ilona Andrews
Page Count: 359

From Ilona Andrews, an all-new novel set in the Kate Daniels World and featuring Julie Lennart-Olsen, Kate and Curran’s ward.
Atlanta was always a dangerous city. Now, as waves of magic and technology compete for supremacy, it’s a place caught in a slow apocalypse, where monsters spawn among the crumbling skyscrapers and supernatural factions struggle for power and survival.
Eight years ago, Julie Lennart left Atlanta to find out who she was. Now she’s back with a new face, a new magic, and a new name—Aurelia Ryder—drawn by the urgent need to protect the family she left behind. An ancient power is stalking her adopted mother, Kate Daniels, an enemy unlike any other, and a string of horrifying murders is its opening gambit.
If Aurelia’s true identity is discovered, those closest to her will die. So her plan is simple: get in, solve the murders, prevent the prophecy from being fulfilled, and get out without being recognized. She expected danger, but she never anticipated that the only man she’d ever loved could threaten everything.
One small misstep could lead to disaster. But for Aurelia, facing disaster is easy; it’s relationships that are hard.

This book was all I was expecting and even more. It may be that I was in a bad case of Ilona Andrews withdrawal, because I really love her books, and Kate Daniel’s series is one of my favorite series ever so everything related is something I cherish. But it is all the same a great book in its own right.

It is true that I loved it so much because we get to see how the world goes on once Kate and Curran decided to retire, so to speak. And it is amazing to see their legacy. It is true that things aren’t amazing. Atlanta, and the world, were in a dire place before, and they are in a dire place now. (Hence the need for Aurelia to go back undercover, and do her best to keep her distance from her family). But it is just so good to see how much Kate accomplished. How much of the supernatural community retain its fealty to her. And the same goes for Curran and the wereanimals. It is true that they are all fractured, but they are not really divided as they were before, and it is just so good to see time and again how Kate influenced the world around her. It was bittersweet, because we kept glimpsing her around, in her deeds and in the memory of the people we met, even if we don’t get to see her. And I think that this bittersweet thing, this nostalgic wave was the best thing in it, the one that really did it for me.

But mind me, this is a really good book in its own right. I like the relationship between Aurelia and Erra and Roland. They weren’t my favorite characters, but seeing them with Aurelia eyes is interesting, and seeing how them are important to her help making them important for us. And then we get to see a lot of Derek (and I really love him, so I am so so happy to see him again. But I need to know more about him and his story between then, we we last see him with Kate and Curran, and now, when we see him again, so changed and so complex!) and Ascanio. Ascanio may not be my favorite character, that’s true, but he has his moments (and the part in which we learn how hard he is trying to watch the pack children is just too good to be true, really! It is sweet, and fun, and oh my, I really “pitied” him. Poor guy!!).

And then we have Aurelia/Julie. It is so good to see her all grown up. She is a wonderful young woman, self-assured, confident, she is a real kick-ass heroine, with the biggest heart ever. It is just so good to see how she become her true self, how she developed all that amazing potential, and seeing a MC so sure of herself (without being arrogant) it is just so good, and satisfying in some ways. I really loved to see her doing her things. She is really the best heir for Kate.

The only downside of this book is that I need the sequel, and I need it now, because I need to see how Derek and Aurora and Ascanio would resolve the situation. Mind me, I am not speaking about a love-triangle. This is not the point, at all. But we get a situation here, or two, and I need to see what would happen! I need it. Need it. Need it!

And that’s all for today! What do you think? Have you read this book? Or do you want to read it?? Let me know!

Happy reading!
S.