Tuesday, June 14, 2011

The Summer of Ilona Andrews

The last two weeks has been an amazing Ilona Andrews Read Festival for me. It started with the release of Magic Slays, which came out May 31st and I gobbled it up at the speed of light. It was amazing. I then felt the need to read Magic Bleeds, the book released last year, again because it had a been awhile since I read it, and I wanted to connect some of the plot points in my mind.

Next was Magic Mourns, a short story featuring Andrea and Raphael, that was in Must Love Hellhounds, which I somehow missed along the way. This is an amazing story and gives a cool little tidbit about Kate and Curran, which fans will love. This quote from Andrea was my favorite:

"If I weren't a trained professional, I'd have fainted from the sheer overload of his badassness."

I then ran out and bought Hexed, an anthology that also includes stories by Yasmine Galenorn, Allyson James, and Jeanne Steine. Ilona's story features Jim, the alpha of the Clan Cat, and Dali, the mystic vegetarian weretiger. Not only is the lore used in the story fascinating but Dali is an amazing character. Having read all of the Kate books, I've loved Jim for a long time, and wondered what kind of person would capture his attention. Dali is unique and powerful in an unexpected way.

I haven't done any teaser words in a long time but I'm going to do a list that combines one word goodness from all three stories. You'll have to read them to understand why:)

ILONA ANDREWS' TEASER WORDS
Ass fire
Fido
shade
Big gun
ice spider
K-Y
apples
roll over
sleepy
demon
mother
snail
webs
tofu
tall bed
freezer
undead knitting
babycakes
rocks fall
love rodeo
Bob

If you want to learn more about the books, the authors and the goodness you can visit their website here: http://www.ilona-andrews.com/

By the way, the ending in Magic Slays? BEST EVER.

~Brenda