It is time for
Nevada’s wedding and, if her little sister Cataline has anything to do with it,
Nevada won’t have to worry about anything except her poor taste in bouquet
But with intolerant,
demanding extended family with a ridiculous amount of secrets, a jewelry thief.
Oh and a poisoner
Most weddings don’t
have this much drama
It’s an Ilona Andrews
book. I will now run around, chuckling with glee. There is no such thing as an
Ilona Andrews book I don’t love - their work is designed to make me lose sleep
because putting their books down is impossible.
This story continues
the deadly magical and political world of the Primes - with a wedding. Nevada
and Rogan’s which, unfortunately, also involves a whole lot of Rogan’s less
than stellar relatives who are trying to ruin things in various ways
Our protagonist is
not Navada for once, but her little sister Catalina - and it gives me hope that
maybe we will be able to see future books with Catalina in the lead because she
is such an interesting character
I think it’s an
excellent contrast between Catalina and Rogan’s rich, spoiled cousins -
contrasting their entitlement with her hard work. But also contrasting how
young they are in comparison to her - how inept their plotting is, how basic
their plans are and how they clearly wouldn’t have worked. We see how mature
and competent Catalina is
And I think that really has to be emphasised. Catalina is competent, she’s extremely capable, experienced and knows a great deal about her work as an investigator. She’s a professional despite her young age and it shows everything about her skill and character - I like her
She also grows. We’ve
seen the Baylor family go through a lot - now exposed as having several Primes
and being acknowledged as an actual house in their own right. I like seeing how
Catalina is adapting to this - her fears and confidence, her ability and her
doubts but most of all her relationship with her magic. She has spent her whole
life being afraid of her magic but is now expected to embrace it - and with
that having to leave her own shell. Her growth through this book, of her magic,
her confidence and her courage in the face of the disdain of the wealthy
relatives all works so well
I also like her
relationship with her family - loving and challenging and they’re right, Nevada
shouldn’t have lilacs. I also like the introduction of Rogan’s mother, a Prime
telekinetic, extremely powerful, intelligent, interesting, determined and a
disabled woman who uses a wheelchair.
Ok, an issue - this
is a novella. And it has, what feels like, a bazillion characters. There were
so many characters, so many names and I quickly had no idea who anyone was. The
big call out scene was somewhat nonplussed by my simply not knowing who all
these people are or who these names were attached to
And this is fine -
you can still follow the plot and feel the full triumph of the moment. The
whole impact is still there, but I wonder if it would be a little more coherent
with my actually knowing who all these confronted characters are
I’m left hoping that
there’s more. The wedding cannot be the end. These characters have so much more
potential and there’s so much more they could do with Catalina and her sister.
