Review: White Hot by Ilona Andrews

White Hot by Ilona Andrews
Series: Hidden Legacy #2
Published by Avon
Published on: May 30 2017
Genres: Paranormal Romance, Urban Fantasy
Pages: 416
Format: eARC
Source: Author

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Nevada Baylor has a unique and secret skill—she knows when people are lying—and she's used that magic (along with plain, hard work) to keep her colorful and close-knit family's detective agency afloat. But her new case pits her against the shadowy forces that almost destroyed the city of Houston once before, bringing Nevada back into contact with Connor "Mad" Rogan.

Rogan is a billionaire Prime—the highest rank of magic user—and as unreadable as ever, despite Nevada's "talent." But there's no hiding the sparks between them. Now that the stakes are even higher, both professionally and personally, and their foes are unimaginably powerful, Rogan and Nevada will find that nothing burns like ice . . .

The first time I read BURN FOR ME, I had concerns about literally Mad Rogan. I mean, yeah, he was effing hot, but when Nevada had to explain to him, over and over again, why he shouldn’t (b/c yes, brat, we all know you can) kill people just b/c they annoy you . . . I repeat, I was concerned.

In WHITE HOT those concerns were answered, and HOO BOY, if I’d thought he was hot before . . . *chants* Tactile, tactile, tactile . . .

Nevada Baylor has a rare gift in a world that prizes magical ability above all things. In BURN FOR ME we learn why it’s been kept a secret—for her own mental health and happiness—but in the second installment of HIDDEN LEGACY, secrecy becomes impossible to maintain.

Her first “mistake” is using her Truthtelling to find the location of a kidnapped child. B/c now they know she’s out there. Then when a group of mercenaries attack her home and family (with tanks and summoned monsters and FIRE and shit), and the only way to get 100% reliable information from the lone surviving attacker is for Nevada to take it . . .

The more people who know about a thing, the harder it is to keep a lid on it.

And now that people outside her immediate family (who love her unconditionally) know what she can do, she’s faced with their fear:

People were staring at me . . . A couple of them gripped their weapons in alarm. I had horrified the professional soldiers. I looked at my mother. Sadness softened her face, her mouth slack.
It hit me. I was the monster on the street. Without me, they would’ve questioned and even tortured this veteran mercenary. They would’ve done it with the understanding that he would resist and he wouldn’t have faulted them for it, because in their place he would’ve done the same. There was a twisted kind of professional courtesy about it all. But me, I didn’t torture. I broke his will without even breathing hard. Each one of them could see themselves in the mercenary’s place. I could make them tell me all their secrets and that was more frightening than Rogan stopping a massive tanker truck at full speed.
I’d never felt so alone in my whole life.

But before it can swallow her whole:

Rogan stepped between me and them, his eyes full of something. Whatever it was—pride? Admiration? Love?—I held on to it like it was a lifeline. He understood. At some point in his life he had stood just like that, while people stared at him in horror, and he must’ve felt alone, because now he was here, and he was shielding me from their judgment.

*rubs fist over heart*

So even before we were given a legitimate explanation for the ease with which he snuffed out lives View Spoiler »he never emotionally left the war « Hide Spoiler I saw it. “It” being why these two were perfect for each other.

But as lovely as all that is, there is MORE to this story then a romance that gives you the swoons.

There is Nevada’s hilarious family. Like her grandmother, the mechanic who can communicate with armored vehicles and who claims spoils of war:

“What is it, Hanh?” Rogan asked.
“She marked all of the ATVs with her initials!” Hanh declared.
“Because they’re mine,” Grandma Frida growled.
“She doesn’t get all the ATVs.”
Rogan’s face took on a very patient look.
“Yes, I do. I tagged them, they’re mine.”

Her cousin Leon who commentates battle (and is not in fact a sociopath, I promise):

“I’m a veteran badass. I’ve seen bad shit. I’ve done bad shit. I’ve survived five months in a jungle eating pinecones and killing terrorists with a pair of old chopsticks. I’m one bad motherfucker.”
Behind me Rogan laughed.
“I’ve got two days to retirement. After I kill everyone here, I’ll go to my retirement party. They’ll serve shrimp on crackers and give me a gold watch, and then, I’m going to have my midlife crisis and buy a Porsche and . . . Oh shit, my head just exploded.”

And that, my friends, is only the beginning.

Things you learn in WHITE HOT:

1. Nevada is not the only magically gifted Baylor girl.

2. Rogan’s mysteriously mysterious background, both military and family.

3. Mr. Baylor’s mysteriously mysterious family.

And that’s just off the top of my head.

This is the third time I’ve read WHITE HOT (I beta read it twice last summer) and it will not be the last. This series has everything: romance, family, hilarity, a compelling story, a well-crafted and interesting world, GAH. I will come back to it over and over again, b/c it makes me FEEL things. When the villains are willing to sacrifice children as a means to an end, my RAGE is tangible. My heart breaks for Nevada when fear and ignorance make her feel like an abomination, and for Leon who believes himself mediocre in a family of exceptionals, I’m giddy as I watch Rogan pursue the woman he sees as living sunlight in a world of darkness, and a hundred other feelings besides. Not for the last time, I’m telling you that if you have not experienced the Andrews’ worlds, you are doing yourself a disservice. They are the BEST. Highly recommended.

BURN FOR ME (HIDDEN LEGACY #1) is on sale for $2.99, but that won’t last much longer, so get it while the gettings good.

Hidden Legacy:

My Review

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