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As we reach the final few books of the Hidden Legacy readalong, it was time to start book 4, Sapphire Flames. This is also the start of Catalina's trilogy in the series. The readalong is hosted by Stef, Heather, Megan and Izzy. This was able to cover the Summer of Swoon prompt blue on the cover and the Hockey Champions Readathon prompt for Logan O'Connor (fan favorite author).
As the three-year grace period for emerging houses comes to an end for House Baylor, Catalina is trying to get everyone ready for whatever may come. As the new Head of House, she is also taking point as the lead investigator for their business. When she she is urged to take the case of her friend's Runa, she stumbles upon a larger plot. While trying to figure out who murdered Runa's mother and younger sister, she learns that several vials of the Osiris Serum went missing and are connected with the murder. When she approaches "Uncle" Linus for clarification on some things, she is learns about the theft and is named Deputy Warden for Texas. As the assassin house starts coming for Catalina, Alessandro finds himself back in Texas and unable to stay away from Catalina. As they start to get to know each other, Catalina tries to not fall for him too hard. Alessandro is hiding a lot of things and doesn't plan on sticking around.
Oh my gosh, oh my gosh, oh my gosh. This was such a freaking good book and I cannot wait to see what comes next for Catalina and Alessandro. Now, I have to prefece this with saying I loved Nevada. She was such a badass and super cool, but Catalina has stolen my heart. She is a lot more relatable to me and I loved seeing both her "Head of House" persona as well as who she is around her family, and then who is when by herself (and eventually Alessandro). As the reader you really get to see her doubts and struggles with keeping her magic contained. While Nevada was fairly blind to a lot of the workings of magic in the beginning, Catalina has had to study her magic most of her life to keep it contained. With the way her magic works it really broke my heart when she mentioned that she tends to push people away (that aren't family) because when she wants them to like her it's harder to control her magic. She is falling in love with Alessandro and wants him to fall in love with her, but it so worried that it'll be because of her magic (nevermind he's one of the few to be able to negate her magic).
As for the action of this, Ilona Andrews does such a good job. There is about a 3 year time jump from Diamond Fire and Catalina has gotten some training with Connor's mother. It was also nice to see Arabella and Leon also older taking more of larger role in the business. We get to see all most of the same side characters, but there are also some new ones that we really get to see fleshed out. I've said this before about Ilona Andrews, but the way that they create a world just feels so organic and real. Even if you see a character for a few pages, they don't feel one or even two-dimensional. I just love the way that world build and I think that every paragraph, every word, every letter just adds so much to the stories they create. It was also really neat to learn a lot more about Catalina's magic, especially as she's really starting to get comfortable using it.
I also want to mention that there are two short stories available on Ilona Andrews's website for free! 4.1 is A Misunderstanding and is a short scene about where Arabella and Leon are in the beginning of Sapphire Flames. We hear talk about closing out the Yarrow case and that there were some issues. Later on we get to hear more about what went down, but this was fun to really see what happened. This is from Arabella's POV, which is a first for this series. There is another short story listed as 4.2 in the series called Pay Me. It is noted that it takes place during Emerald Blaze though, so I will wait and read it until after I read that. I'll touch base on Pay Me in that review.
I am so excited to start Catalina's trilogy. While I wasn't nervous about the writing going in, I wasn't really sure who Catalina was. The novella Diamond Fire helped, but I have to say that Catalina is a new favorite character for me. The way that she really just holds it all together but isn't 100% bad-ass 100% of the time. She's also a little more bookish and nerdy in her bad-assery and I love that. She just really connected with me and I cannot wait to see what happens in the next book. We had some heartbreak at the end and I need to know what happens! Thankfully Emerald Blaze is already out!
Have you read Sapphire Flames?
Bookishly Yours,
Stasi🍎
STATISTICS: Sapphire Flames, Ilona Andrews, 5-stars, 0 days, Paperback, 393 pages, published in 2019, traditionally published
STATISTICS: A Misunderstanding, Ilona Andrews, 4-stars, 0 days, eBook, 13 pages, published in 2019, indie published
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