Blood Heir by Ilona AndrewsBlood Heir by Ilona Andrews
Published by Self Pub on January 12, 2021
Genres: Urban Fantasy, PNR
Pages: 359
Format: eBook
Source: Purchased
Buy on Amazon
Goodreads
five-stars

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.

That ending!!

This is the first book in the Aurelia Ryder series that is in the Kate Daniels world. This book does not stand alone very well. It’s possible, and you won’t be confused or anything, but you’d just be missing so much.

For Kate Daniels fans, this is the serial that they originally started on their website as a way to alleviate the harshness of the first lockdown last year. This book is a gift and I loved opening it. It’s also a bit different from what they started on the blog, in case you’d read the free serial they started.

This book takes place ten years after the last Kate Daniels book and in it, Julie is now Aurelia. She is very much Kate’s daughter, and she has come back to Atlanta to save her mom. There’s been a prophecy, and she has spent the last 3 years or so trying to prevent it. She’s down to the wire. If Kate finds out she’s back home, she’ll die (the prophecy), so she has to hide who she is, which is going to be easier than you would think since she no longer looks like Julie. Magic has changed and shaped her into someone new. She smells different, she sounds different, she looks different. But fooling her family would never work. Kate would know her the second she saw her. So to protect her family, Aurelia must keep her presence a secret.

Aurelia is also trying to solve a murder that seems to be attracting a lot of attention from every person she’s trying to avoid. While she’s solving this murder, she’s posing as a Knight of the Order and she seems to be the only one who is actually getting anywhere in the investigation. However, of course, trouble keeps finding her. So in the course of avoiding her family, trying to keep a god from manifesting, trying to solve a murder, she sees her girlhood crush Derek. But he’s changed just as much as she has in the past decade, and she wants to know why. But she can’t or she’ll blow her cover. So she keeps trying to avoid him, and he keeps finding her. Meanwhile a god is literally manifesting and she is his target. She is far more powerful than anyone knows, and her job is to either kill the god, or keep him from manifesting. Whichever works. But Derek keeps finding her and while they make a great team, she needs to do this alone…doesn’t she?

This book was everything I wanted. But that ending! It was both everything and not enough. I want and need more. This book has only whetted my appetite for more. I want to know more about what’s going on in the Pack now. I want to see more of what’s going on with Derek. I want so much more! And I feel like a greedy jerk because there’s so much in this book already. The Kate Daniels world is one I never want to leave and I always have a book hangover afterwards. This book is no different. I went back in re-read certain parts slower and savored it. I tend to do that with this author.

This is a series that is worth the wait, so I’ll have to be patient for the next book. If you haven’t read this, I highly recommend this author, however I think you’d be missing a lot if you haven’t read at least a few of the Kate Daniels books.

***I bought this book

five-stars