Advance Review: Diamond Fire by Ilona Andrews
Title: Diamond Fire (Hidden Legacy #3.5)
Author: Ilona Andrews
Publication Date: November 6, 2018
Publisher: Avon Impulse
Genre: Urban Fantasy
Find It: Goodreads, Amazon, B&N, Book Depository
Source: e-ARC from Edelweiss
Rating: 4 stars – stay up late
Nevada Frida Baylor and Connor Ander Rogan cordially invite you to join their wedding celebration. Summoning, weather manipulation, and other magical activities strictly forbidden.
Catalina Baylor is looking forward to wearing her maid of honor dress and watching her older sister walk down the aisle. Then the wedding planner gets escorted off the premises, the bride’s priceless tiara disappears, and Rogan’s extensive family overruns his mother’s home. Someone is cheating, someone is lying, and someone is plotting murder.
To make this wedding happen, Catalina will have to do the thing she fears most: use her magic. But she’s a Baylor and there’s nothing she wouldn’t do for her sister’s happiness. Nevada will have her fairy tale wedding, even if Catalina has to tear the mansion apart brick by brick to get it done.
Nevada Baylor and Connor Rogan are getting married! It’s the wedding of the century, with everyone in the magical community vying for an invite. Nevada’s sister, Catalina, steps in to help with the wedding planning after it becomes clear that Nevada may kill someone otherwise. Besides her wedding planning duties, she is enlisted by Rogan’s mother to help find a missing family heirloom. Catalina must navigate old family feuds, murderous enemies, and possible love interests in order to find the heirloom before the wedding is ruined and all hell breaks loose.
This is a transitional story meant to bridge the last book, Wildfire, which is told from Nevada’s point of view, to a new direction in the series focusing on Catalina. I think it functions really well on this level, shifting the focus from Nevada to Catalina in a very seamless way. Catalina has made appearances in the series before but she’s never been the main player. In Diamond Fire, she’s brought the to the forefront to lead the investigation on the theft of a priceless family heirloom.
Catalina’s very unsure of her magical powers. She’s spent her entire life repressing and fearing what she can do. During the course of her investigation though, Catalina must come to terms with her powers and use them to solve the mystery. Diamond Fire gives the reader a good glimpse of what’s going on in Catalina’s head, from her insecurities and doubts to her intelligence and big heart. I could relate to a lot of Catalina’s feelings.
As always, the Ilona Andrews’s writing is excellent. There are lots of funny moments and they continue to build the Hidden Legacy world, this time through Catalina’s eyes. Most novellas feel rushed or too short for me. However, while it doesn’t get too in depth, this was a good length and I felt like I got a full story out of it. Of course, Ilona Andrews left a few unresolved tidbits which I am sure will be explored further in the next book. Overall this was a very enjoyable, quick read and I can’t wait to see where Ilona Andrews takes us next.
*I received a copy of this book from the publisher via Edelweiss in exchange for an honest review. This in no way affected my review or opinion of the book.
