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To start off April, I decided to finally pick up the next books in what was former the Kate Daniels readalong. Now that the Kate Daniels series is officially over, we are moving over to the newest spin-off, Aurelia Ryder! The readalong is hosted by Heather, Stef and Megan and I think the plan is to eventually get through most of Ilona Andrew's backlist! For April the plan was to read the prequel short story The King of Fire and book 1, Blood Heir. The short story is available for free on their website, but it's also included at the end of Blood Heir. Since The King of Fire was pretty short, I didn't use it for either of my reading challenges, but I was able to use Blood Heir for the Love Has Sprung prompt first book in a series and the Taylor Swift Quarterly Challenge prompt Everything Has Changed (story has magic or spells).
Before we get into the meat of the review, let's chat about The King of Fire. It's a short story that is several years after Magic Triumphs, but several years before Blood Heir. We see Julie hanging out with Conlan in Roland's pocket dimension. She's trying to stay anchored as she's intentionally gotten herself captured by Moloch. She's there to try to bring him down since she was notified by Sierra (one of the witch oracles) of a prophecy that Moloch killing Kate would pretty bring a second apocalypse. Julie is going to try to stop it. We then get Julie leaving Moloch's fortress while it burns to the ground and she reveals to Erra that Moloch stole one of her eyes. Julie, badass that she is, stole one back and now has one of Moloch's eyes in her head!
Quick thoughts... this was such a good primer to get me back into the Kate Daniels universe. I was already really excited and hyped to jump in, but this was a good way to bridge what was going on and also give a hint to what was going on with Julie before being told in Blood Heir.
In Blood Heir Julie is back in Atlanta, only now she goes by Aurelia Ryder. She looks and smells different and is hoping that she doesn't get recognized. She has been told by Sierra that it's the last chance to keep the prophecy from coming true. She's in town to investigate a murder of a priest and the connections it has to Moloch. As she tries to avoid her friends and family (if they know she's there the prophecy will come to pass), she struggles with her sense of identity. While she knows that the people that actually know her shouldn't recognize her and it would be better if they don't, there's still a part of her that hopes that they do. When she ends up joining forces with Derek, now going by Darren, she's torn on her feelings. As Moloch's minions high priest starts going against Julie as well, things come to a head.
Oh my freaking goodness, this was so freaking good. How is it that every book I read in this universe by Ilona Andrews gets better and better. There is so much we need to learn about the time jump and I need to know it all! So, this is 8 years later and about 4 years after the short story. Julie has fully grown up and is a badass like Kate, but her own version. I love how the few people that realize who she is point out that she has similar tendencies as Kate and all the little nods were just so heartwarming. We also get to know that it didn't take long (two weeks) for Julie to reach out to Kate and Curran after leaving. There was so much going on in this book and I absolutely loved it and can't wait to read what happens next. Usually I would spend a couple paragraphs going over my thoughts and feelings on the book, but since there's already so much, I'll just keep it simple. This was absolutely amazing and if you've read the Kate Daniels series and haven't start this one... YOU NEED TO READ THIS BOOK!
I am just so happy to finally get back to more Ilona Andrews and can't wait to read what comes next. I haven't talked about it too much, but I did start a booktube channel where I mostly stick to doing vlogs and other fun random things. I vlog all of my reads, so you can check out my channel. It'll be included in week 14's vlog which will be out next Wednesday. Tonight is the live show as well and I can't wait to gush about this book with everyone else! I'll link to both videos when they are posted!
Have you read The King of Fire and Blood Heir?
Bookishly Yours,
Stasi🍎
STATISTICS: The King of Fire, Ilona Andrews, 4-stars, 0 days, eBook, 6 pages, published in 2018, indie published
STATISTICS: Blood Heir, Ilona Andrews, 5-stars, 1 day, Paperback, 375 pages, published in 2021, indie published
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