Review: Ruby Fever

Ruby Fever by Ilona Andrews
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I received this book for free in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review. 

He would never let us alone. 

Catalina, Alessandro, and the Baylor family have battled and defeated all the enemies that have come for them, but there has always been one still lurking in the shadows ready to attack, Arkan. Once a Russian Imperium agent, Arkan killed Alessandro's father and stole a sample of the forbidden Osiris serum. If you've read the previous two books, Sapphire Flames and Emerald Blaze, which I highly recommend you do as these three books make up the mini-series of Catalina and Alessandro in the overreaching Hidden Legacy series, Arkan has been a villain lingering in the shadows and testing the waters for when he should come for the Baylors and Alessandro. In Ruby Fever he makes his move while also disabling one of Catalina's best assets, Linus.

A trail of dark blood stretched from his nose, staining his lips and his shirt. His eyes were shut. He looked dead. 

In the previous book, I missed more of the Baylor family dynamics as some of the character relationships were pushed to the side in favor of battle scenes. I think this one got the balance more right, as we get action but heartfelt emotion with the danger and reveals. Catalina finds Linus catatonic in his home after he injected himself with styxine to protect his mind from a powerful mental mage, this corresponds with the murder of the Speaker of Texas State Assembly, our old friend Xavier (Diamond Fire) showing back for some revenge, and a Prince Konstantin Berezin, the Russian Emperor's nephew, swanning in claiming to help but also having his own agenda. Catalina has the who and why of Linus' attack fairly early, around 20%, but she doesn't have the how, which as the now acting Deputy Warden of Texas because of Linus' state, she needs in order to act. 

“Linus was betrayed,” Alessandro said. 

There were the usual many moving parts and battle scenes but the human connections I felt were missing some in the second got more life and I thought helped me stay emotionally connected to the story more. I still think Catalina and Alessandro's romance sits passenger seat to the driving action, fantasy, and suspense but we get more of Alessandro's background here, and another fiancée that his grandfather “sold” him to, and that helped flush out his character and make him feel more dimensional and layered, thus, more interesting. We also get the heavily hinted reveal of how much more of a part Linus plays in the Baylor sister's lives and Evil Grandmother Victoria gets a strong appearance, and dare I say, gets a somewhat, tiny, little redemption arc. 

I put my fingers into his and we slipped from the table into the night. 

The ending finally brings in Arkan, I wish we could have gotten more scenes of him because he felt too much of a distant character for how important of a big baddie he was supposed to be, and we get the usual ending Big Battle Scene. It takes all the Baylors and the assorted friends to try and win the day. It was good and delivered on some great magical fantasy scenes with Catalina and Alessandro using some newly discovered powers and infused just enough tense moments to make readers fear for some of their favorite characters. 

The epilogue gave us Arabella's voice and that seems like the clear path for where the overreaching Hidden Legacy series could go as Catalina and Alessandro have defeated their main enemies and are off for a deserved vacation. There's still a lot of characters and side plots to wonder about, Linus seems to have made a deal with someone, was it with Russian royalty or Record Keepers? Does the deal involve Arabella and Prince Konstantin, Prince Mihail, or mysteriously powerful record keeper Michael? The Hidden Legacy fantasy world is vast and ever growing with plot threads and I would love to see the last Baylor sister Arabella get her happily ever after, of course, after a battle or two.

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