Blood Heir: The Legend Lives On

If you’re a fan of the world of Kate Daniels, you’ll be thrilled to hear that Ilona Andrews is about to transport us back there. Blood Heir is the first of the Aurelia Ryder series – set eight years after the conclusion of Kate’s tale.

Julie Lennart, aka Aurelia Ryder, has changed in many ways over the course of those eight years. She left soon after the final battle, and now her friends and family would never recognize her. No, literally.

Magic can do strange things to a person’s body, such as giving them a new face. Yet that will be an advantage to Aurelia, as she must enter her home city unrecognized or risk having everyone she’s ever loved meeting a horrible end.

Writing

It’ll come as no surprise to fans that Blood Heir is an impressive and compelling read. You have nothing to fear if you love the original world and characters. All of that has once again been captured here.

Honestly, I was blown away by how much I loved this novel. And I went into it expecting to fall in love. The world and characters have changed so much, yet that strong foundation is still there. The framework, the magical systems, and the interactions. It’s all there. If anything, the intensity has gone up a few notches.

Blood Heir is a novel full of lots of surprises. Seeing how a time jump affects a series/world is always interesting. I was impressed by how Ilona Andrews (Ilona and Andrew Gordon) handled it here. While many characters have grown up, had children, and the works, none of it feels offhand. Every detail and change felt intentional and carried the chance to change the world as we know it.

This is an intelligent and sassy piece of work. Aurelia/Julie has grown so much, and while she’s been hurt a lot, she hasn’t given up. The romantic subplot certainly didn’t hurt the tension any, and overall this book left me desperate to see what happens next.

Development

Blood Heir is arguably one of the most fluid novels I’ve read in quite some time. Everything seemed to flow so naturally from one scene to the next. There was a constant sense of tension in the air – thanks to the many plots and developments the main character was dealing with.

It’s also a novel with plenty of nuances. I’ll confess that I loved this book so much that I’ve already read it four times (don’t judge). However, I’m bringing it up now because it felt like I picked up on something new each time I read it.

This means that each read-through sent me down a different spiral of thinking and theorizing. Who doesn’t love it when a book does that? Combined with all the character development happening all over, it makes for one memorable and easy-to-love read.

Conclusion

Blood Heir is, without a doubt, one of my favorite releases from 2021. It feels so good to start the year off by returning to a world I have loved for so long. And I hope that many other readers feel the same way.

This novel will joyfully welcome back the fans of old while encouraging new ones to dive in right beside them.

This review was originally written for Word of the Nerd, but has been ported over to Quirky Cat’s Fat Stacks now that the site has shut down.

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