Detectives with magical powers

Burn for Me

By Ilona Andrews

Avon. 400 pp. $5.99 paperback

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Reviewed by Lidija Dorjkhand

Burn for Me launches the new Hidden Legacy series by Ilona Andrews, the pen name of the wife-husband writing team of Ilona and Gordon Andrews.

In an alternate world, a serum has been developed that brings out magic talents. These talents are passed from parents to children. Some families developed these talents through carefully arranged marriages and eventually created powerful dynasties.

Nevada Baylor and her family run a detective agency in Houston. Nevada has a magic talent, though never really trained, for getting at the truth. She is coerced into a job by the corporation that owns the agency's mortgage - to find Adam Pierce, scion of a wealthy family. Pierce is a powerful pyrokinetic and a radical who has gone on a crime spree. She is tasked with bringing him back to his family unharmed.

Meanwhile, Connor Rogan is also looking for Pierce to save his cousin's son, one of Pierce's gang members. "Mad Rogan" is notorious for his incredible telekinetic power and his role in helping the Army during violent conflicts in South America while he was still in college.

Nevada's path crosses with Mad Rogan's during their search for Pierce. Rogan kidnaps her, trying to force her to tell him what she knows of Pierce. She resists his magic, but sparks fly between them. They soon join forces when Nevada's family is threatened by Pierce. The pair realize that they must find a way to stop him before he destroys Houston.

Nevada is a courageous, smart heroine, and she stands up to Rogan's arrogance and power with spunk and humor while trying not to be distracted by his turquoise eyes and hard body. Rogan is disarmed by her; she starts to thaw the ice that he has placed around his heart.

The exhilarating action and sizzling chemistry between Nevada and Rogan will have you avidly turning pages, only to keep you wanting more at the end when the setup for the next novel is revealed.