Sapphire Flames – Ilona Andrews

It’s good, but it’s not magic. Well worth reading, but not fun the way “Burn for Me” was. I tend to take excellence for granted in an IA novel, so why does this fall a bit short?

• Refurbished protagonist. In the first trilogy, Nevada was an interesting protagonist and Catalina was a poorly-realized supporting character with a power you couldn’t do much with, story-wise. There’s a lot of hand-waving to make her more interesting, to make her power more nuanced, but she’s not as interesting.
• Unsubtle plot devices. Too much of the plot is driven by “character X does something stupid and people have to respond”.
• Poor calibration. Catalina’s fights are always close. Everyone she encounters is just dangerous enough and just powerful enough to make her inevitable victory suspenseful. Other combat in this book tends to be of the “good guys swat the bad guys” school. Including the penultimate battle, in which a large band of baddies is swatted.

Did the authors enjoy writing this book? The first trilogy - and “Burn for Me” in particular, felt to me as if the writers were having fun, and inviting readers to share it. I didn’t have that feeling here.