JOINT REVIEW: Ruby Fever by Ilona Andrews
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Ilona Andrews’ new book in the Hidden Legacy series, the conclusion to Catalina and Alessandro’s romance, is now out. Here, Sirius and I review it together. –Janine
Janine: Ruby Fever begins with Alessandro proposing to Catalina and Catalina accepting his proposal. They are very much in love but in this book, they are not yet married. We also see the Baylors touring their new compound/complex, a former resort they now plan to turn into their home.
It wasn’t clear to me how they could afford the (multi-million dollar, I’m guessing) compound. Yes, they are a House now and yes, Alessandro is investing their funds superbly, but unless I missed something, they haven’t hired themselves out to do anything more than private investigation, and I don’t see them running a corporation like Augustine does with his own agency. They’ve also only been out as a House for two or three years, if I’m not mistaken, and Alessandro hasn’t been investing their money for more than a year at most.
Regardless, they are dealing with a missing quarter-million-dollar spider when they are alerted to the murder of Luciana Cabera, a high-profile politician who is also (a bit conveniently) Linus’s neighbor and was dining at a restaurant he owns when she was murdered by a telekinetic with a connection to Rogan.
After securing the scene and handing off a necessary (to prevent a panic) coverup to the FBI, they rush over to Linus’s house and find his guard/friend Pete murdered and Linus himself comatose. It appears Linus has taken a quadruple dose of a drug that blocks a mental attack and then locked himself in a panic room. Catalina now has a second murder to investigate and she has to transfer Linus safely to the Baylor compound before they are attacked. But first, she must deal with something Linus left her and with Konstantin Berezin, a Russian illusion mage and prince.
Konstantin shows up at Linus’s house and insists on holding a discussion with Catalina that she can’t afford to have right away, not while having to secure Linus and his house. The house contains the secrets Linus has protected in his role as Warden of Texas and a plethora of weapons he invented, and frankly I thought the fact that no one stole the weapons and Linus’s laptop while Catalina and Alessandro still investigating Luciana’s murder at the restaurant was hard to buy. Catalina understandably postpones the conversation and Konstantin indicates that this may be something she’ll regret.
The thing Linus left her is a pen drive where he reveals that he knows something about Catalina’s powers, and more. He begins to explain that Catalina’s powers will challenge her control of them and is about to tell her what to do about that when Catalina is interrupted. She doesn’t get back to the pen drive for a long time after that (also a little contrived) so essentially she has to figure this out on her own.
After they leave Linus’s house, Alessandro is called away to stop a school shooting and Catalina realizes soon after that her mother is in danger. She and Cornelius, who is with her, discover that their phones were hacked. Luckily (also a bit contrived) they connect with Arabella and she tells them where they can find Penelope.
From there on thing snowball into one danger after another, with plenty of attacks, battles, action, and mystery. Arkan, Alessandro’s archenemy, is clearly involved, and it’s time to end his existence for once and for all.
Meanwhile, Catalina and Alessandro face other obstacles. Alessandro has been taking phone calls in Italian, clearly keeping something from Catalina, and there’s also the not-so-small matter of whether Linus will ever wake up from his coma.
I thought the first third of this book was slow and I wasn’t that engaged in this part (the reason I noticed all the contrivances) but after that the book did become more entertaining and absorbing.
Neither Alessandro nor Catalina is as great as Nevada but I really liked them and their relationship in this book. I love the more secure and stronger woman Catalina has grown into, and I’ve enjoyed her journey including its culmination here. I loved that though her relationship with Alessandro was tested their trust in and commitment to each other never wavered. This was very romantic and something I’d love to see more of in books. I think that the authors handle this type of material really well (they did an excellent job of it in Wildfire also).
There is definitely some retconning and backfilling with some of the other characters here, though. Something that comes out about Augustine was jarring and read like a contrivance (perhaps to turn him into hero material?). Arabella is now a successful financial manager for the Baylors, but my husband reminded me that in the House trials scenes in Wildfire it was stated she wasn’t good at math.
Sirius: I liked the book well enough and there were things that I liked a whole lot, for example I loved Catalina’s character arc very much and absolutely agree that her relationship with Alessandro was great. This team writes couples in love without making them boring so well.
However, overall this is probably my least favorite book in the series. You said that for you first third was slow, right? It probably was for me as well, however second part was way too fast, and I think ideal pacing for me would have been something of a mixture between first and second part. Actually let me specify – I love how action packed these books were, love it, but what I need in between all the action is to take a breath sometimes and I felt like I was unable to do so not even after the first half, after the first thirty percent or so. It was just too much and on rare occasions when the opportunity was provided, I felt like the characters mostly started telling me retconned family histories. I think what I needed was something like what happened in chapter one – main characters having some kind of interaction which made me feel them, not sure how to explain it better.
Janine: It was a little too busy, I agree, and the downtime would have been more satisfying if the family histories had, as you say, felt more organic. But I think it must not have bothered me quite as much as it did you.
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Another contrivance was that Nevada and Rogan were missing from the stage as much as they were. Apparently they have other priorities than saving the lives of their family members. Seriously, I get that they can’t take over the book, but it would have been better to have them be on some kind of backpacking trip through a place where they couldn’t be reached, such as the Amazon. And yes, I think they could take baby Arthur along, it would be cool.
It was great to revisit some of the side characters. I particularly enjoyed Arabella, Leon, and Matilda (who I would love to see grow up to be a main character). I liked the resolution to Alessandro’s storyline with his family; I thought that was really well handled.
There is a hint into what may be in Arabella’s future (if the Ilona Andrews team ever write a book for her—the fast wrap-up of the Caesar conspiracy makes me fear that they may not :-() I really enjoyed that. Fingers crossed we’ll get her book(s).
Sirius: Agreed with everything you wrote in these three paragraphs. I could not believe that Connor and Nevada would stay away from the troubles her family is having, I just could not.
I love Matilda and would happily read her book. If Arabella has her book, I think she had at least two potential suitors hinted at.
Janine:
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Janine: Despite all my nitpicks, I enjoyed Ruby Fever a great deal and found it very romantic. There were a lot of fun scenes and storylines I can’t get into much because they constitute big spoilers—ones involving the Office of Records (I love the Keeper of Records and I have a theory about a cryptic conversation he has with another person), Catalina’s powers, and a young lady from another country.
Sirius:
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Janine: The Ilona Andrews authors are among those who are in competition only with themselves as far as I’m concerned. When they are at the top of their game, no one else in the Urban Fantasy genre beats them. So it may not be fair, but I compare them only to themselves. This book was not the top of their game but I think I liked it about as much as I did Sapphire Flames and Emerald Blaze. I gave those book a B/B+ and this one gets the same grade from me.
Sirius: There was plenty for me to like in this book, and I agree that these writers are in competition with themselves, but all those annoyances do add up, so I can only give it a B.
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PS re the previous hidden spoiler:
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So…iirc, her salary as a Warden pays more than the business. It wasn’t specified how much, but it was implied it was a lot.
I really liked this book. It was a fun read and I felt pulled along by the plot and story in a good way.
That said, I didn’t love-love Catalina’s trilogy like I did Nevada’s. For awhile I couldn’t quite put my finger on why I struggled with loving this trilogy, given how much I stan the Baylor family.
I think it is because in Nevada’s trilogy each book was a case-of-the-week that served as an entry point in learning about the characters and as each book the stakes grew with Nevada being thrust more and more into house politics and learning her magic, we were right there with her each step of the way learning with her. But the plots themselves were self contained and relatable (one was tracking down a fugitive, one was finding a murderer and one was finding a missing person) even as the idea of a conspiracy bubbled in the background.
With the Catalina books, imo, we jump to conspiracy right out the gate with a super charged villain. And so much that happens with the Baylors seem to happen off screen. It is almost as if it is an ‘oh by the way…this happened.’ E.g. Arabella basically becoming their CFO when she had trouble with what Catalina called ‘baby math’. Or Cornelius’ brother (whom I don’t think we ever met) and sister being tight enough with the Baylors to be invited to a major family function or as Cornelius tells it, they consider the Baylor’s family. I wish we had seen all this happening so I think that adds to a little of my … disconnect with this trilogy. I said in my review of the prior book, I feel like we are missing some connective tissue. I wish we had gotten more face time with them growing into their house (we did a little bit with the first Catalina book and her learning about how to manage their security) but I wanted more of those growing pains, I guess, I anted to see them evolve to what they became in this last book. Each book is still entertaining and fun to read, I just didn’t love-love these like I did with the earlier trilogy.
And Finally, Konstatin was such a BIG presence . He doesn’t feel like she should be the type of character you have just as a walk on in a final book. There is too much about him that took up space. He reminds me, crazy enough, of Hugh D’Ambray.
And yeah I feel like this book simultaneously closed the chapter on the Baylors in case there are no other books, but also left us with some set up in case we get an Arabella Trilogy.
Just a few observations…
1. The compound/resort asking price was $20 million.
2. This book is at least a year/18 months down the timeline from EMERALD BLAZE. Catalina brings in some serious scratch being the deputy warden. TheirPI business has also expanded and they can almost compete head-to-head with Montgomery Investigations. Also, Rogan’s financial/mortgage company that underwites all of his employees’ mortgages and loans has already okayed their loan, with 20% down.
3. As for Arabella and math/finances, she was originally used to collect on past due fees owed to the firm. I’m pretty sure Bern created billing and P/L programs. It’s a matter of filling in the blanks and filling out paperwork. I’m pretty sure I remember them hiring an accounting firm around the same time they hired Sabra as their attorney back in book 1 after the formation of their House.
3. Konstantin and the Russian Imperium is setting the stage for the next plot arc. Caeser and this batch of Osiris serum might be done, but there are more things afoot–or at least hinted at. Throwing in the twist of his brother tweaks interest.
4. As for furture plot arcs, as mentioned above, I want to know the meaning of the cryptic exchange btween the Keeper of Records and Linus when he and Catalina went there to discover Arkan’s Achilles Heel. Also, what secrets are Patricia (House Baylor head of security) and her wife keeping?
I’ve learned through the years with many, MANY rereads of the Gordons books that Ilona and Andrew never drop a line into a book that doesn’t have far-reaching impact. This is one reason I do a marathon reread of each series right before a new release drops–to refresh my memory and so I can go, “Oh, snap! I saw that one coming,” or “Dang, I missed that one completely! Yay!”
@Elise Logan: Thanks for reminding me, I forgot. Was it mentioned in this book or just in earlier ones?
@TinaNoir: Excellent point that there is less family focus in this trilogy than in the Nevada and Rogan books. I liked the first three better too, and I think that was a factor, but there was also the fact taht there was so much we didn’t know about the family yet, and that novelty factor makes a big difference.
My husband recently caught up on the Nevada books after already being familiar with the Catalina ones, and I told him he was missing out, because one of the things I loved in the early books is that we didn’t know what everyone’s powers were and there was also the question of whether Leon had powers at all. Of course I guessed his power would show up, but it was suspenseful to see what the situation would be and how he would react, as well as what that power was. Stuff like that isn’t something that could be easily injected into the later books in the series and even if it was, it wouldn’t be as meaningful, if anything it would be hokey, coming as it would after the Leon storyline.
But yes I agree re. connective tissue (and what a great metaphor). Some of the family members’ growth and just in general, their daily lives, was skipped over. I didn’t like the hasty resolution of Penelope’s love life when we saw almost nothing of Heart in this book.
I also think though that Nevada is just a more charismatic and dynamic character. The way she had to transform from someone who hides her power to someone who wields it with confidence and strength (sometimes even from the shadows, or in ways that are a little bit cruel), was really absorbing. And I think that the limited resources she and her family had made that all the more powerful.
Konstantin reminds me a little of Hugh as well.
@Silver James: Re points 1 and 2–well and good, but then authors should refresh our memory of stuff from earlier books. The last book came out two years ago. The authors have a lot of passionate fans who reread the books umpteen times, but not all of us do. In fact I would venture to guess that the majority of readers rarely reread books at all and that even the majority of Ilona Andrews’ readers have not reread these. They shouldn’t expect us to remember details like these.
Re # 3, you’re probably correct.
Sirius and I discussed #4 in the review in the last hidden spoiler before our grades, and I also just now added a postscript of stuff that is relevant to this question that came up in our emails today.
@TinaNoir: Thank you for the perfect description re: how I felt about Konstantin. “takes too much space’.
I haven’t read the book yet. Saving for vacation next month. But I follow the authors’ blog, and they admit they struggled with this one. This was the last book in their contract and they had a lot to wrap up. They got about half way through and it wasn’t working. So they went back and did a major rewrite.
IRT Arabella’s job as CFO and her lack of math skills. Math is only a small part of the job. Real life story — I always struggled with math and only took the core accounting classes as a business undergrad because they were required. This was back in the dark ages, when everything was done with adding machines and columnar pads. Then I had to do the bookkeeping as part of my job in a very small company. By then, we had Lotus 123 and accounting software, and it was a breeze. I have now been an accountant for over 30 years. I still struggle with higher math, but that’s what Excel is for.
@Sandra: Thanks for explaining re the math. I am looking forward to what they’ll write now that they aren’t under contract. I read the books in the Kinsmen series earlier this year for the first time and that was a lot of fun. The characters in Fated Blades were especially wonderful.
Have the authors indicated what they have in the works and whether Arabella’s story is on the table?
@Janine: IA did a Zoom meeting last week as part of their new book promo. The transcript and video are posted to their blog. Full of spoilers… They’re planning Arabella’s story, which will probably be self-pubbed, but have a couple of other commitments first. There’s a mystery project and hopefully, the second Hugh d’Aubry book.
If you like their Innkeeper books, the first one is now available as a webcomic on TAPAS,
@Sandra: I just read all the spoilers thank you :)
@Sandra: Thank you! I will have to watch that when I have a chance (I’d rather watch than read a transcript). I am actually not a fan of Innkeeper. I didn’t finish the first book. The hero was boring and annoying.