Burn For Me, Ilona Andrews

I was pretty in on this book -- I like the narrator, I like her family, I like that she's a private detective. I like the magic she can do, and I like the way magic works in this world.

The hero of this romance, though... Let me backpedal. Hero is a little bit of a stretch. He's charismatic and powerful, but I am never a fan of those romances where she's just a normal lady and he's the most powerful vampire in history/the most rich and powerful and commanding duke of all time/whatever. The way the trope usually plays out is that he's unconquerable and no one on this earth can stop him from doing what he wants -- until he meets the one lady in the world who isn't afraid of him, and who brings his humanity back. As a trope it's... eh. Not my thing.

And this hero isn't JUST the world's most powerful magic user, he also likes to use it to kill people. When given a choice, he specifically says yes, his favorite thing was when he got to use his powers in a war to destroy the other side. I didn't find that especially sexy.

Oh, and THEN he uses his magic to sexually harass, if not downright assault, the heroine.

I might have let all that go, because it's the first in an ongoing series (or will be) and I was definitely thinking, "Yes! I'll pick up the rest of these!" and then the ending happened. Mild spoilers:

She breaks up with him for a list of very logical reasons, like being a sociopath, and not respecting her boundaries, and murdering people. He's pretty grumpy because he expects her to fall in love with him. He storms off, and then her grandmother, who I loved until this scene, snarks, "I'll go buy the wedding dress."

Ma'am, your granddaughter just told you he makes her feel unsafe and violated. It's not the time for a cute quip about the wedding. I just. Ick. I don't like "everyone knows you're in love when you think he's an asshole" because I don't generally like books about assholes. But that weird tonal deafness in the last scene really made me wonder if I'd misjudged the whole rest of the book.

I'd read the rest of the series when it comes out, but only if someone gives grandma a talking-to.

Grade: C

#5 in 2016