Goldilox and the Three Weres: Review: Emerald Blaze by Ilona Andrews

Emerald Blaze
(Hidden Legacy #5)
Ilona Andrews
Release: August 25, 2020
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As Prime magic users, Catalina Baylor and her sisters have extraordinary powers—powers their ruthless grandmother would love to control. Catalina can earn her family some protection working as deputy to the Warden of Texas, overseeing breaches of magic law in the state, but that has risks as well. When House Baylor is under attack and monsters haunt her every step, Catalina is forced to rely on handsome, dangerous Alessandro Sagredo, the Prime who crushed her heart.

The nightmare that Alessandro has fought since childhood has come roaring back to life, but now Catalina is under threat. Not even his lifelong quest for revenge will stop him from keeping her safe, even if every battle could be his last. Because Catalina won't rest until she stops the use of the illicit, power-granting serum that's tearing their world apart.

Review:
Every time I pick up an Ilona Andrews book I know I'm in for a ride and that I'm more likely than not going to love it a lot. And holy cow! Emerald Blaze was one heck of a ride! It's been over a month since I finished the book and I'm still reeling from all the twists and reveals! And I'm having problems putting my thoughts about the book in a coherent fashion to write a review without it being me all-caps yelling GO BUY THIS BOOK NOW AND THANK ME LATER! It was just so good!

Okay. Let's try to get all my fangirling into a review that makes sense.

Y'all. I'm just going to come out and say it. I think I love Catalina more than Nevada. And not just by a little bit and that's saying something because I love Nevada a whole lot. They are two very different characters and that is even more emphasized in this book when more context of what happened when Catalina became the Head of the House. I like how Gretl put it in her review on the VBC blog; one of the big differences between the two sisters is that Nevada is always after immediate results while Catalina is in it for the long game. And holy crap! Is Catalina in for the long game! I was blindsided by so many reveals in this book that it's making me want to go back and reread the whole series over to see what I missed in the previous books. I love this series so much!

This book was full of the trademark action scenes and compelling mystery that comes with reading an Ilona Andrews book but it felt way more emotional to me. Our characters aren't the same as when we saw them last in Sapphire Flames. Both Alessandro and Catalina have grown leaps and bounds and have changed for the better I think. She's grown into her ice queen head of house badass persona and Alessandro has been seriously humbled and isn't the same cocky guy from the last book. I'm loving them being together more and more!

As I said, this book was an emotional one for me. I was close to tears in a few places and not just because I was laughing so much. Honestly, I felt wrung out from the whole roller coaster ride this book was when I finished it. There's just so much that was done so incredibly well in this book that I could extol how wonderful it was for hours. But one of the things I loved the most in this was how the big bad was approached! I would have never in a thousand years been able to see that coming and it worked so freaking well into the story.

I don't know what else to say except "Go read this series if you haven't yet!". It's full of magic, action, and mayhem all centered around my favorite, snarky fictional family ever. I can't wait to see what shenanigans that Catalina, Alessandro, and the Baylor Clan get into in the next book! I will be eagerly waiting for it over here in my little corner of the internet. You know what? I'm probably going to need to reread the whole series a few times before the next book releases to past the time and to prepare myself. I'm not ready for the end of Catalina's story quite yet.