Ilona Andrews brings the Catalina Baylor trilogy to an epically wild closing with RUBY FEVER.  RUBY FEVER is book six in the urban fantasy Hidden Legacy series overall and the third book in a row to focus on the second magic-wielding sister in the Baylor family, Catalina.  The first three in the Hidden Legacy series focused on the eldest, Nevada Baylor.  Next up for continuing series will be the youngest sister, Arabella- yay!                                                         

This series is chock-a-block full of nonstop action and magic.  Battles upon battles are stacked and somehow, the stakes seem to get higher each time, even when it doesn’t seem possible that this is even metaphysically possible.  RUBY FEVER is a pretty quick read, and I felt like the pace of the action is frenetic, which I’m sure contributed to the feeling of the book being short because it’s still a good-sized 320 pages as compared to 392 pages for book five, EMERALD BLAZE.

When her older sister Nevada married another uber-powerful Prime, Catalina took over as the head of the Baylor House.  It’s been awesome to watch Catalina mature and really come into her powers.  Andrews writes absolutely kickass competent heroines, and I am here for it!!  Catalina had a girlhood crush on Alessandro Sagredo, an Italian count, and playboy.  It turns out that Alessandro is an excellent assassin and an even better fiancé, and I adore Catalina and Alessandro together.  He’s very dishy, but more importantly, he’s a good man with an enormous heart, and he chooses to use his magical powers ultimately for good (although there are often the fun grey areas where he operates, which tickle my fancy).

The whole Baylor family is a joy to immerse me in.  We don’t get as much of the rest of the Baylors in RUBY FEVER as we usually get to enjoy, but there’s still enough of these secondary characters, including the Baylors’ close friends and allies, to meet my needs.  Authors Ilona and Gordon Andrews do their usual fantastic job of world-building.  Andrews’ RUBY FEVER is endlessly entertaining and provides gripping action, keeping me gripping the edge of my metaphorical seat with every glorious page.