r/IlonaAndrews

So, I notice how many of us have book hangovers with Maggie and are on our umpteenth reread. I'm trying to figure out why. What is it in this book that captures us so?

I feel the characters are compelling. The world building is complex. But there's more and I can't quite articulate it.

Care to discuss?

For context, I've been a card carrying horde member since the early days of KD. I preach House Andrews to anyone who gives me an opening. I've had the new book high every time, and I thought the Inheritance was them setting a new bar...

It's been months. TKWNKM consumed my media-life. The extended preview dropped, I read it at least 4 times. Maybe more.

Book released, I did as the horde does - immediately devoured. Then the audiobook. Then a slower re-read (or two).

I tried to fix the book hangover by hitting some of my other comfort reads & brain grabbers in other genres. Burned through the entire Edge series in a a week. Nope.

New Murderbot dropped, I adore Murderbot, it's my go to for when my daily corporate world sucks. I didn't do a series reread in advance*,* I just read the new one once and then back to TKWNKM.

Died over new snippets and fan theories. Found out about a read through podcast (thanks to this community), started to try and match their paced plan.

Now my wife has given in and been listening to it. So of course I have to match her, but her commute is twice as long... so I'm also jumping to reading specific chapters to refresh my memory. Then that turned into a full reread and relisten.

Its official, I have a problem and need an intervention.

I might be late posting this but I was watching Travis Willingham and Laura Bailey's Fireside Chat today and Laura Bailey and Dani Carr recommend IA and Dani specifically Maggie 1

Alpha of the Pack? I did not read her novel, so perhaps it's in there, but first we meet Dali, she is a vegetarian and blood makes her sick. Even as a tiger, she does not eat meat nor bite people. She's fairly lethal with her curses, but that's about it, it feels?

Like I know the shape shifters were especially rough with Kate because they didn't trust her as she's not one of them, but still, seeing all that she went through and had to handle, makes Dali not cut out for the job in my eyes.

Or was this a situation more akin to Jennifer's? When her partner has become an Alpha and she got the job because of that?

In the newsletter the other day it was mentioned they had received a copy of the reissued volume that collects the first 3 Innkeeper books together and will be doing a giveaway. (US only of course due to weight and postage costs)

I didn’t know this had had a physical form in the first place! I’m in the U.K. and bought it on Kindle. Has anyone seen any details of when this reissue might occur as I’d like to own a physical copy now?

I’m so sad that it’s over and I have to leave that world. I haven’t felt like that about a world in a long time. I actually feel similarly about the Innkeeper world and the Maggie world.

It was so good. I like the Nevada books but I LOVED the Catalina books and how they all tied together. I’m obsessed. I’m going back to listen to all the Hidden Legacy books.

And honestly, I kinda love that they are limited series. I know this might be controversial but I kinda ran out of steam with the Kate Daniel’s books I feel like it was seven or eight and I was like, ugh, just kill the big bad already!

There are definitely some series of books that wear out their welcome. Also I just want to say and I’m sure that it’s been said before, but the fact that Ilona Andrews has basically 5 unique worlds (although I know that there is crossover but you get what I’m saying), like come on. That is so creative and amazing. There are authors who can’t even build one world successfully.

This is just a silly fan post but thank you Ilona and Gordon. Thank you for creating these worlds that I want to escape to. In my mind. Unless all that medical magic/tech is really real and then I would love to actually fight and be cool in your worlds.

I’m a major Nevada/Rogan fan and the first trilogy of Hidden Legacy is one of my all times favorite. During my first read, I had a hard time getting invested in the second trilogy so I stopped after Saphire Flames, convincing myself that it’s probably due to my strong attachment towards the first characters. I dediced to give it some time.
Now I’m Re-reading the series and my question is > does the relationship between the main protagonists evolve into something less teenagey and more mature? For all those who adored the first FMC & MMC, were you able to get into the second trilogy? I don’t have Libby since I live in France so it will cost me 3 Audible credits to finish the story, I need to know if it’s worth the money.
Thank you 🙏🏼
PS: sorry for my English, it’s not my first (or second) language 😅

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**spoiler**!!!!!

Anyone realise how maggie was longingly looking at pretty hair pins at the dog market but didn't buy cz it didn't fit her budget, ramond probably noticed it and gave her probably the most valuable hairpin in the entire continent in the end of the book. It formally belonging to his mother was sweet enough but this little detail makes me just swoon!aaaaaaaaaaaah

Spoilers! Spoilers! Spoilers!
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Chapter 29 is my Roman Empire. I can’t stop thinking about it. I love the dynamic between these three so much.

There are a couple of things I’m confused by - probably because I’m overthinking it. I’m not super familiar with the genres involving noble families and alliances, which could be why I’m confused.

(I’m posing these questions as if Maggie has no agency which she obviously does. I’m trying to understand the situation from E’s perspective, and he is not considering Maggie’s agency here)

1. >!Why is E so against Sol’s solution to Maggie’s lack of identity documentation? Is it just macho territorial posturing, or is there something that being a Demarr or member of another family that gets in E’s way? Maggie says it would allow her to slip out of E’s grasp - is this social protocol thing? That E can control her more easily is she was a nobody, but if she is a member of a prominent family, he can’t?!<

2. >!When E says, “When it happens-and it will-remember you forced my hand.” he’s obviously talking about marriage - but then he says - “Thank you for removing the obstacles in my way”, What obstacles is he talking about here?!<

3. >!Sol says this would cause Sauven to ‘lose what’s left of his mind’ - why does that scare Sol so much? If Sol’s house was united with E’s through marriage, wouldn’t that protect him? Is there something else that Sol is scared of?!<

4. >!Is there more to Sol’s plan than just wanting to ‘buy’ Maggie’s loyalty? He organised it very VERY quickly, almost as if he knew he was running out of time to make his move. He must have known it would piss E off, and that’s a dangerous enemy to make. He seems to be more afraid of E having control of Maggie than he is of potentially having E turn against him. Why?!<

5. >!What was E’s plan? He mentions what Maggie needs papers very early on. As Maggie says, it’s easier for E if she comes willingly, and he doesn’t seem to be in a rush to whisk her off to Selva. Sol throws him enough that he has to correct course, which suggests he had a plan of sorts.!<

I did a reread of Kate’s series and noticed there where quite a few Maggie’s and even a Marigold around ☺️ anyone else noticed?

I got to thinking last night about the battle that I think is coming in the second book and the location and timeline.

In Chapter 24, the day after >!Reynald reveals himself to be Everard!< when Maggie is eating breakfast, she internally notes that "The Dukedom of Selva shared its eastern border with the Crimson Empire in the south and the Goryni Kingdom in the north. Goryni, a small nation, occupied a mountainous area and was renowned for its mineral wealth and unbeatable military. They imported a lot of their food. Its treacherous, rocky coastline made commercial fishing and trade difficult, and in a few months, an underwater earthquake would take out their largest functional harbor. When the Crimson Empire invaded Rellas, which would be bleeding from Hreban’s rampage, the Gorynians would be on the edge of starvation."

We know that the timeline is >! speeding up events due to Maggie's interference and am wondering if the Crimson Empire will speed up their invasion as well?!<.

In Chapter 16, Maggie details Solentine Dagarra's land: "This portion of the continent was split between Rellas in the West and the Crimson Empire in the East. The two countries shared a long border, interrupted by the Corios Sea. When they warred, their invasions happened either in the south, across a vast plain, or in the north, where three mountain ranges formed the Trihorn."

I wonder, with Maggie's knowledge of the future earthquake, try to lure the Crimson Empire from over the mountains and, if it can happen naturally or with some assistance, have an avalanche help take out a portion of the Crimson Empire?

Would an earthquake cause an avalanche?

I wanted to ask opinions for a FB post I was going to make in a book group that got rejected. This really handsome Italian fellow that I think looks just like Alessandro comes into my starbucks. I was going to post how cool it was to hear someone in person speaking Italian and goin ciao, he comes in and works on his computer, and I was told it was creepy, gross and fetish like? Is it really?

We know from a Book 2 snippet, Maggie will be in armor, on a horse, in a battle dodging giant boulders.
From the Tent Book 2 snippet, we know she is on campaign with the Duke and is talking to Wynand Bors, the Commander of the Conqueror Knights, and his wife.

Why?

She is basically a non combatant with knowledge that no one else has. We know that Knights spend five or six years as squires starting at age 12 or so and likely start riding and weapons training years before that.

It is pretty clear that she is engaged to the Duke at that point. Ramond vi Everard is smart enough to never tell her "Over my dead body", but there would have to be a very GOOD reason that he or her favorite cousin and the rest of the family would allow someone so untrained on a War campaign.

So why is she there and is even being taken serious by the Bors?

Besides being Undying and so far being able to speak and read any language...

She was able to free Lute from Silveren's Exultant Call, a rare and powerful Savaric hereditary magic with potent mind manipulation, unremembered stealth, and dangerous monster control.

Silveren even maneuvered Clover to the edge of the roof where if she was freed from his Call, she would likely fall to her death.

As someone at the very least able to break those around her free of powerful magic spells...

Well trained or not she would be a very powerful asset on the battlefield even if the only thing she could do is remove spell effects from those around her. It even has serious offensive potential. Image the impact she would have on the battlefield if she spell breaked the Crimson Empire's equivalent to the Bor's Rageglow. A whole unit of elite magical berserkers charging in to the thick suddenly with no rage, no magically sharp weapons, no berserker strength, and no near invulnerability.

I recently finished TKWNKM and for the life of me cannot remember when Cai was first introduced. So I was super surprised that they knew of his task and where roughly he would be.

Could someone please either tell me the chapter or quickly summarise how they came to know about Cai? I briefly went looking for it in the chapters after Maggie‘s encounter with the butcher, but couldn‘t find it.

Thanks so much!

I’m rereading (listening) again. Do we think Kaden would have grown up to be Riverfox? The description of his abilities are spot on, can pick any lock, a great thief, spent time at Derog’s.

In Magic Slays >!the Lighthouse Keepers, steal one magic eater, and construct an even larger one. In the investigation of the initial missing eater, Kate and Andrea are told that it's most certainly not man portable, although I don't think that any actual numbers are quoted. At the climactic ending, the Keepers set up the large device in the old control tower. And I think that we can be relatively confident that the staircase that Kate and friends fight their way up is the only access to the tower room where the device is set up. Now, maybe I'm visualizing the wrong increase in size that the bigger device required than was actually the case. But even that doesn't change how hard they had to work to MOVE that weight up a switched back staircase. I worked as a mover for 15 years, and in that time I was involved in many moves where the destination was the upper floor of a building with no elevator. Moving anything of size was no picnic. But when you combine size AND weight, the difficulty level rises rapidly. So, they're not humping it up bare handed, some sort of hand truck is involved. It gets complicated now. There's only enough room for two people to have their hands on the handles of the hand truck, they're basically facing backwards looking down the stairs, each grasping a handle, and the amount of pulling force they can contribute to moving the (heavy) device is minimal. Generally the uphill side on a stair move has a about a third of the weight, and the guys on the bottom are doing the heavy lifting of the other two thirds. Since the downhill side don't need handles, you have enough room to get three men there. Any more than that hampers the amount of power that can be applied. On the uphill side there may only be room for two guys on the handles, but you can tie ropes to the handles and add more bodies. Four is about right. And they can face upwards. The upward lifting force is raised. So, nine guys, with seven doing the majority of the work. But don't forget the switch backs. Everytime you get to a landing the four guys on top drop out through lack of room. The guys on the bottom start hating life. Making the turn isn't easy either. The hand truck needs tilted back and with the tilt, the load is a lot longer, the turn needs to start when the wheels are two steps down, awkward doesn't begin to describe it. In the meantime the actual bodies are getting TIRED. Easy, switch them out for fresh guys. Well, hopefully someone thought ahead and has half the available bodies upstairs, because NO ONE is able to get around the device.!< Okay, this whole thing isn't a rant, or me trying to say it couldn't be done, obviously they did, but the Keepers had to really WORK for the commanding position afforded by getting the height needed to increase the range. And they don't even have the comfort knowing that it was worth it. They lost after all. I kind of doubt that HA were really aware of the logistics of the process of getting that thing up there. Our fictional bad guys were hating life, and if they could, hating HA 😫😫😫!<