Amazon.com.au:Customer reviews: Fated Blades

Top positive review

Totally biased review because I enjoy their writing so much I devoured this in a state of ridiculous happiness!

Reviewed in Australia on 26 November 2021

I’m not even going to PRETEND to be unbiased here because I bloody love @ilona_andrews books and I absolutely devoured this next installment in the Kinsmen universe!

⚔️Synopsis (Goodreads):
An uneasy alliance between warring families gets heated in this otherworldly novella from bestselling author Ilona Andrews.

At first glance, the planet Rada seems like a lush paradise. But the ruling families, all boasting genetically enhanced abilities, are in constant competition for power—and none more so than the Adlers and the Baenas. For generations, the powerful families have pushed and pulled each other in a dance for dominance.

Until a catastrophic betrayal from within changes everything.

Now, deadly, disciplined, and solitary leaders Ramona Adler and Matias Baena must put aside their enmity and work together in secret to prevent sinister forces from exploiting universe-altering technology.
⚔️

Enemies to friends/lovers? Deadly and determined and not apologetic for it? Suave and old school honourable about things that are Just Not Done? Fancy tech and special abilities?

COME AT ME 😍😍😍

As with all the other books in this universe the relationships and interactions between the two MCs was mature, funny and the burn between the two was just *chef’s kiss* perfect. I loved their banter so much, especially when it’s them against enemies. It’s an indelible part of all of IA’s books and it’s brilliant.

One thing though: while it isn’t strictly necessary to read the first two books to understand this (and it’d still be enjoyable!) I highly recommend it so you fully understand what Kinsmen society and world is like.

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Kindle Customer

disappointing unfortunately

Reviewed in Australia on 23 November 2021

A big fan of the other works of this writing team, but this book just didn’t work for me sorry to say

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From Australia

print_and_bind

Totally biased review because I enjoy their writing so much I devoured this in a state of ridiculous happiness!

Reviewed in Australia on 26 November 2021

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loved ❤️

Reviewed in Australia on 26 November 2021

Verified Purchase

Fated Blades was a very satisfying read, especially for a novella - often with novellas, I find the storyline doesn’t quite give me enough, but that wasn’t the case at all with Ramona & Matias. Could I read more on this couple? - definitely, but I wasn’t left wanting at the end. Now I’m off to listen to the audio 🎧

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Ms Rachel Ratajczak

Andrews never disappoints

Reviewed in Australia on 26 December 2021

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Being a major fan of their other work, this novella lives up to the excitement, adventure and fantasy of their other novels.
Just wish they would turn it into a movie.

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Loved it

Reviewed in Australia on 2 January 2022

Delivers everything I expected from a Ilona Andrews Kinsmen novella - fast paced, vivid, creative; a fantastic merge of plot and character.

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From other countries

Sandra Vale

Another hit

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 23 November 2021

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I always read Ilona Andrews and this is another 'must read'. Got in on my KIndle this morning and devoured it! A standalone novella with plenty of action and a nice ending .You can predict the ending but it really doesn't matter. Buy it

lilypodtrout

LOVED this !!!!!!!

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 11 January 2022

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I love the Kinsman novellas and re read them all before starting this one just to save it that little bit longer. It was brilliant. I absolutely loved it !

Amazon Kunde

Highly recommend

Reviewed in Germany on 23 November 2021

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Ilona Andrews did it again. This novella is awesome. I started reading this morning and couldn't put it down until I read the last page. The story is fast paced with strong characters and great fighting scenes. I read a lot of urban fantasy and science fiction and in lots of books I just skip ahead the fights but in an Ilona Andrews book it is just not possible. I feel like the fighting is happening right around me. The end left me satisfied.

Julianne Dewar

Fun, fast paced novella

Reviewed in Canada on 24 November 2021

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Always entertained by everything Ilona Andrews puts out. Especially loved the ending!

Sufue

A welcome return to the Kinsmen series…

Reviewed in the United States on 23 November 2021

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Author duo Ilona Andrews have returned to their Kinsmen universe after a decade or so, and it’s a shame they stayed away so long. Fated Blades is a long novella - or is it a short book? You pick! But either way, it’s a fast-paced and fun tale for both IA fans and those new to IA’s books.

The premise of the Kinsmen series is simple. Borrowing loosely from the intro to one of the earlier books: humans needed to be “enhanced” to facilitate spreading across the galaxy - able to survive harsh conditions, or be fierce hunters or warriors, or make brilliant scientific advances. And some of these enhancements were biological, and could be passed down through the generations. Since, however, humans were still basically human, the folks who had these genetic advantages soon wanted to keep them to themselves, and thus the Kinsmen families were born.

Fated Blades features two such families, both with the ability to generate deadly swords or impenetrable shields from their bodies on a moment’s notice. The “secare” originally were soldiers created to fight in a vicious war, but have dispersed in the decades since. The Baenas and the Addlers settled on the same planet though, and in true Montague-Capulet fashion, they are sworn enemies. So when the wife of the head of one family and the husband of the other not only have an affair, but more importantly, steal precious business secrets, heads are going to roll. Quite literally.

As the leaders of their respective clans, Ramona Addler and Matias Baena have to clean up the mess, quickly and quietly, or their families will be destroyed. So they uneasily agree to pursue the culprits together. What follows is a classic space opera (even if not actually set in space), as they race across Rada and back, fighting battles, sharing a few moments of downtime, and learning more about each other as they go. And of course, as with all epic adventures, there’s a show-stopper of an ending – or actually two show-stoppers if you count the epilogue….

Some of Ilona Andrews’ longer books deal with serious themes from time to time, even if these are sort of hidden amongst the action. But their novellas mostly seem to be written for fun, and Fated Blades is one of the best. Long-time fans will treasure the occasional sneaky references to earlier Kinsmen stories: silver shark serpents, the Escana family, passion cones. But none of these are central to the story, and everyone will enjoy the wicked action, the slowly developing relationship between Mathias and Ramona, and finding out how things turn out in the end! (Finally, on a personal level, I also particularly enjoyed one of the minor characters, Haider Davenport, and hope someday maybe he and his husband get their own story, even if it’s just a short prequel or web-snippet.)

Also please note that I received an advance review copy from the authors, via their publishers, Montlake Romance, and from NetGalley, and my thanks go to all.

51 people found this helpful

monadh

Ilona Andrews do fight scenes better than love scenes

Reviewed in the United States on 23 November 2021

Verified Purchase

When I saw the announcement that Ilona Andrews had a book coming out in the Kinsmen Universe, I was rather surprised, as I hadn’t been aware that they were even planning an addition to this old series, much less that the publication date was imminent. I was assuming they were putting the finishing touches on Ruby Fever, the final instalment in Catalina and Alessandro’s story, or finally working on Hugh 2 or Aurelia/Julie 2, or even a new Innkeeper. But I really liked the original two novellas in the Kinsmen Universe, particularly Silent Blade, so of course I jumped on the opportunity to get my hands on Fated Blades.

I really liked it: it’s a quick, fast-paced and compelling read with lots of their trademark well-choreographed fight scenes that play like a movie in your mind (or at least in my mind). The story is difficult to summarize without giving away too much of the plot. It is set on the same world - Planet Rada - as the previous Kinsmen stories and even in the same province, Dahlia, as Silent Blade, but apart from that, there are no connections between the characters, except that they also belong to the class of humans that were at some point technologically enhanced with fighting capabilities, traits that were then subsequently inherited. Those that have those traits are called secare. Both of our protagonists were born with those traits and have honed their abilities since an early age. They belong to two families that have been locked in a kind of cold war because of an enmity, the origins of which have been all but lost in the past. So the members of the two families have avoided open conflict by steering clear of each other, though they share some business interests and naturally they also monitor each other. So when Ramona, the head of the Addler family walks into Matias Baena’s corporate offices unannounced, disrupting his minutely structured day, he is a touch taken aback, to say they least. But a theft affecting both their businesses forces them to work together. This in medias res beginning really set the tone for the rest of the book, which is very action-driven. I also like the rather unconventional fact that both main protagonists are married at the beginning of the book, but not to each other. Together with the resolution of the corporate theft and the recovery of the stolen data, the disentanglement of their personal lives is one of the main drivers of the story, as well as one of the main obstacles before they can be together. Because of course they fall in love, mostly by being impressed by each others fighting prowess and how well they “dance” together.

I love everything Ilona Andrews have ever written, some books more than others, and I understand that not every book can be even “better” than the previous one. But because of the consistently impressive quality of their stories, they have set a rather high bar for themselves and this story does not quite manage to deliver on all accounts. For one that might be due to the fact that this is a standalone novel, and a comparatively short one at that; so the story lacks some of the intricacies and depth that characterize their multi-part series and also secondary characters (with maybe one exception) seem less fleshed out and colorful than readers have become accustomed to.

Additionally, I got a bit riled up about the understanding of politics that seemed to underpin the story: not actively pursuing a career in politics does NOT mean you are not political: if you are the head of a large enterprise you can’t help put being political because you have a stake in things like trade agreements, labor policy, government contracts, etc., that all affect your business. And lobbying your government for or against a law that impacts what kind of research and development you can do, is highly political, in fact, it’s the essence of politics (as you might have guessed, I subscribe to Hanisch’s view (the personal is political) which postulates that our personal experiences are the result of/constrained by societal structures and the context we live in and not the limited view that sees politics as something that is divorced from ordinary people’s lives).

But still, a gripping, imaginative story with an original starting point and solid world building, so 4 1/2 stars.

25 people found this helpful

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