Reviewed by EBookObsessed on
Catalina was noted as a Prime when House Baylor underwent the trials to be declared a House and her designation was noted as a Siren. Simply, Catalina can draw anyone in under her spell. It is dangerous to her because those she draws in become obsessed with her to the point that they would tear her apart to have a piece of her. Catalina has spend the majority of her life trying to bury that part of her and keep it from leaking out. As a child, adults and children alike were obsessively drawn to her.
Sapphire Flames takes place three years after the trials which declared them, House Baylor. A lot has changed in three years, Nevada is no longer head of House Baylor (and that will be be explained in the story) and Catalina at 21 is now head of the House. Three years is also how long a new, emerging House is protected so they have time to built itself before other House can attack. This is especially noted when the insurance company cancels all their policies as their deadline comes closer. Everyone is waiting to see what comes next now that House Baylor is no longer under the protection of emerging Houses.
We saw a glimpse of grown-up Catalina in the novella Diamond Fire. Now in Sapphire Flames, after years of hiding away to protect herself, Catalina, with the guidance of Connor Rogan's mother, has learned how to control her Siren abilities. She has also learned what it means to be Head of a House.
Augustine Montgomery needs Catalina's help and then tries to coerce her into becoming a vassal House to House Montgomery. This is the same thing he tried with Nevada and failed, and now he is trying it with Catalina. She turns him down flat and she also finds out that he turned away Runa Etterson, the Prime Venenata who removed the poison from her sister's wedding cake. Runa's mother and sister have been killed, and no one believes it is an accident. It is House warfare and Montgomery won't help. Catalina considers Runa a friend and without her help, everyone at Nevada's wedding would have died so she offers the help of Baylor Investigations.
With their probation period over and God knows what about to descend on them, now isn't a good time for House Baylor to step in the middle of someone else's House War, but Catalina can't just walk away. What she didn't expect was that Alessandro Segredo would also be involved somehow.
Alessandro had been brought in for Catalina's trial because he is able to negate other magics. Alessandro was also rich, handsome and the subject of Catalina's teenage crush. Nothing makes sense in this case, so why not another mystery why the Alessandro turns out to be more of an assassin than playboy. We also learn that Alessandro's powers are way more than just negating the magic of others and this throws a crazy new element that we haven't seen before.
As Catalina and Alessandro dig deeper, they begin to unearth someone's very dirty little secret, one they are very willing to kill to keep in the dark.
I was spoiled as I was a late comer to the Hidden Legacy series and the entire trilogy was already released. This means I binged on the audiobook version for approximately 40 hours straight. Now I am left with just an introduction into Catalina's story arc and she has caught me in her siren song. I want more Catalina!!
Received an ARC from the publisher in exchange for an honest review.
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Reading updates
- Started reading
- 29 May, 2019: Finished reading
- 29 May, 2019: Reviewed