Ruby Fever

CAWPILE SCORE
C-7
A-8
W-8
P-8
I-9
L-8
E-10
TOTAL-8.29/10

A great book. Lots of interest here to delve into and lots to love. The magic deepening. The relationships, the reveals all of it culminates into what is another amazing book by Ilona Andrews.

Oh boy another great book. CAWPILECharactersI love that we are getting more depth to a lot of our side characters, because we know our main characters very well and while they need some work they are mostly done. Victoria and Linus have a great amount of change, because while they don't necessarily change or grow, we are given more insight into both of them that can rapidly change the way we view them. With Victoria wanting a family to love and wanting to be forgiven and Linus having a bit more of a dark past than we thought before. Their interactions and the way that Catalina can stay mad at them and still love them is truly a wonderful example of real life relationships. The Family dynamic is strong and it is one of the best points of this series. The characters truly feel like a family with all the things that come with it. Arguments, discussions, Love its all there and quite visible.Catalina and Alessandro. Their relationship doesn't really change in this book and that's ok, because they reached a pretty stable point last book, and it would feel weird to just remove that or give it unnecessary tension. But Catalina you should have finished the video much faster than you did. The Dynamic between Catalina and Alessandro about carrying each other burdens was so realistic and wholesome.Konstantin was an interesting character to add. His need to be the best and then his desire for Catalina. The way he acts and works while “helping” the Baylors.Arabella, Bern, Leon, Runa all participate and perform well their respective roles.AtmosphereThis story was very immersive. Lots of great descriptions without being overbearing or purple in any way. The energy in the story was dynamic in the best way. Where the tension had ample time to inflate and deflate according to what was needed. WritingIlona Andrews has a very accessible writing style, and they give enough info I could almost read this book as a standalone and be completely lost as to what is happening or why.PlotThe Plot was a good thread going through. One of the people Arkan sold the Osiris drug to tried to kill Linus Duncan to protect the secret causing Arkan to retaliate and involving the Russians. House Baylor must protect itself from Arkan. InvestmentI was especially intrigued to figure out how they were going to beat Arkan with his Active talent and then learning about his passive talent even more. I was glad to see that the story didn't devolve into a small love triangle even with the Russian Prince Konstantin making overtures that direction.LogicCatalina's magic works through love both the Green and the Black Wings. The Green to protect herself and the Black to Protect others. Love this knowledge. We learn a little about how Hephaestus mages work which was nice to see. The way that Nevada and Rogan were “blocked” from helping more in this book made sense and was realistic to this world. And they were still able to help so not a complete “write-out”The Osiris serum wakens latent talent, if you have the ability to survive. Mages could be the weakest of potential outcomes from serum.EnjoymentI really love love this book and its definitely going up there with my favorites by Ilona Andrews.MiscMihael is a Beast of Cologne as wellLinus was Caesar but was undercover the whole timeArthur being Hephaestus telekinetic. Building a Rubberband gun.Alessandro's mom escapingFranco Sagredo needed to die. The Keeper of Records and Michael are scary. What is it That Linus will allow for Arabella. Arabella and Mihael potential romance?? Xavier getting owned by Rogan and his own grinder.Starting the book out with an assassination attempt. Bold way to start.Cornelius stopping charging summoned Elephant immediatelyJust how much Victoria did for the FamilyAll the quips and sass. I love it every bit of itLeon's Gun Magic, bouncing bullets. Matilda the adult as a child.

I will be talking about it on Libromancy https://libromancy.podbean.com/ on 08/23/2022

I did not enjoy this one as much as the other books in the series but overall it was a really good ending to Catalina's and Alessandro's story.

3.5 rounded down.

With long-running series like this, you get a lot of info dumping about things that happened previously and it's particularly heavy at the start of this one.

There's plenty of new information here too. The plot was engaging, but it just felt a little rushed to me. I enjoyed reading it and I'll keep reading if they continue it. There are a lot of threads that haven't been tied up yet that I'm curious about.