Blood Heir

Kate Daniels World, Book 1

By: Ilona Andrews

Narrated by: Suzanne Elise Freeman

Length: 11 hrs and 19 mins

Publisher's Summary

From award-winning author Ilona Andrews comes an all-new novel set in the New York Times number-one best-selling Kate Daniels' world, featuring Julie Lennart-Olsen, Kate and Curran's ward.

Atlanta was always a dangerous city. Now, as waves of magic and technology compete for supremacy, it’s a place caught in a slow apocalypse, where monsters spawn among the crumbling skyscrapers and supernatural factions struggle for power and survival.

Eight years ago, Julie Lennart left Atlanta to find out who she was. Now she’s back with a new face, a new magic, and a new name - Aurelia Ryder - drawn by the urgent need to protect the family she left behind. An ancient power is stalking her adopted mother, Kate Daniels, an enemy unlike any other, and a string of horrifying murders is its opening gambit.

If Aurelia’s true identity is discovered, those closest to her will die. So her plan is simple: Get in, solve the murders, prevent the prophecy from being fulfilled, and get out without being recognized. She expected danger, but she never anticipated that the only man she'd ever loved could threaten everything.

One small misstep could lead to disaster. But for Aurelia, facing disaster is easy. It’s relationships that are hard. 

©2021 Ilona Andrews (P)2021 Ilona Andrews, Inc.

Suzanne, please pronounce "Bouda" correctly!

I may be terribly biased because, for me, Renee Raudman is the best Ilona Andrews narrator EVER. I'm loving the story so far but the narrator doesn't change voices for different characters, and there are no southern accents for characters that HAVE southern accents. It is also very distracting when keywords are pronounced incorrectly - "Bouda" is pronounced "Booddah". It's killing me!

But LOVE the story, Ilona Andrews. Keep them coming!

Thanks for listening.
Lauren

Narrators should do homework on their jobs

If you're coming over into a series, I would think you would listen to previous works to get a feel for things. The thing that irked me the most are the name pronunciations especially Barabas and Mahon. Also the same characters from the last 10+ books have different accents. The guy in D'Ambry's book did it too. Is there not procedure in the world of audiobooks to take note of these thing? It really ruins the experience, especially for such a long series that's far from over.

The names are correct, stop complaining.

Okay, the book is fabulous, and I can't wait for the next installment. But that's not why I'm writing this review.

Ilona Andrews specifically said, in BOLD, in their blog, "The names are pronounced the way they are supposed to have been pronounced all along. If you are going to complain about the names, your comment will be removed."

So. Quit blaming the narrator for something she is doing correctly. Yes, of course, I loved Renee Raudman, and yes, it's jarring to hear a different narrator, but - TOO BAD. Move on. It's basically slander to accuse Suzanne Elise Freeman of doing something wrong, when the author says - explicitly - that she did it correctly.

Why did you pick this narrator?

This is an amazing story. A new way of seeing the Kate Daniels World. However, Suzanne Freeman is killing me. She has ok voices but she pronounces words wrong all the time. Some are specific names, which I can understand but still dislike other times it’s clear she is just unfamiliar with common words and trudges on. Maybe they rushed to get this out... but I’m super disappointed. This is one time I’d recommended getting the book in another format.

We Shall See

Although I enjoyed the overall story line, it didn't grab my attention or leave me waiting for the next book.

I know it may be needed with a new spin off, but I was a little bored at times with Aurelia/Julie providing the background narrative.

I was not impressed with the narrator. The male voices seemed to run together. I found it very annoying that the narrator didn't bother to pronounce the characters name as already established in the Kate Daniel's series. Was this laziness, or did the narrator think the fans wouldn't care or notice? I took me a bit to figure out that when she said "Man," she was referring to Mahon. The pronunciation of Barabas was very irritating.

Will I purchase a book two of this series, probably. I'm hoping/wanting to get hooked, as I did with Iron and Magic. Sigh...still waiting for book two in that spin off series.

Loved it!

I really enjoyed the story.

Some reviews had me wondering about the story, the narrator, and her pronunciation of certain names and words, but I found that both the story and the narrator were great. At least to me it was a very pleasant listen.

If you like the Kate Daniels world, I highly recommend this audiobook, and hope there are more to come in the near future.

Bring Renee Raudman Back

Spoilers - dont go past this - thank you


I never write a review, this is my exception. I love everything to do with Kate Daniels world - I listen to and read all the books more times than I can count. If we can't have Renee Raudman at least have the next read - listen to her works on this series so she can pronounce everything correctly

I found my self correcting the pronouncation of everthing but the easy words like Julie. Boo Dah?? instead of Bauda..really? Simon with some sort of wierd accent that was horrible.

Agree with previous reviewer, LOVE the story, but the listening was like nails on a chalk board.

Thank you for thi world!!

Love the book itself, not the narration.

I don't think the narrator had read any of the Kate Daniels books before. She could have rented the audiobooks from the library if she didn't want to buy them. Just so she could learn how to pronounce their names. I did the audiobook because I have been slammed and have not had time to read the book. There were few names Suzanne didn't butcher. The worst was when the passage about Mahon, I was like who is this Man guy. It took me a minute to realize she was talking about Mahon. It was hard to get into the book when she was talking about Barabas, the Boudas, Mahon. Oh and Saiman. She pronounced it Simon. It was very distracting. I listen to audiobooks a lot, especially at work. I get lost in them. It was hard to get lost in this audiobook. I look forward to reading the book when things calm down. I love Julie and I was so excited her story was being written.

Such a good story!

Ilona Andrews has done it yet again! She (along with her husband, Gordon) has written another fantastic book! A new spinoff series from Kate Daniels post-apocalyptic world, and one of the best books I've read this year! Blood Heir has a KickAss protagonist (Julie Olsen-Lennart)... a person you already think you know, traveling back into Atlanta, incognito as Aurelia Ryder!
Let's just say I loved the book, I love the characters (especially Derek! bless his shifter heart!), and last but not least, I love Aurelia Ryder; her magic and her team, Tulip (her mount), and Turgan (her golden eagle/her eyes in the sky). Which now that I'm thinking about it her team kinda sorta reminds me of The Beastmaster and his team by André Norton!
This book has a great balance between backstory and all the fantastic action that only Ilona and Gordon could write! Now I find myself impatiently waiting for more!
I just finished listening to this wonderful book narrated by Suzanne Elise Freeman and it was simply wonderfully done!

Where’s Renee?

The narrator for this book had a lovely voice but there was NO continuity in pronunciation in the previous series. Suzanne Elise Freeman pronounced Bouda, Barabas, Ghastek and so many others differently than Renee had for the ENTIRE Kate Daniels series and it was so jarring for us diehard audio readers. If she does another book, she needs to do her homework.

Like it

why isn't Rene narrating? Names and voices are totaly wrong.
The story is good.
I like the world of Kate Daniels.

100% Pure Magic

Another amazing story into the world of Kate Daniels.

Julie has always fascinated me and her relationship with Derek is one to savour. However, in this story, Julie and Derek are just getting to know each other all over again, much to my delight ❤️

I was so pleased to see one of my favourite characters brought back, you’ll know who when you read the book.

This was one of those very rare books that had me gasping at the word “epilogue”. I can never get enough of this world and it physically pains me when a story ends.

👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻 to the authors once again.

Great story. Odd naration

I loved the story, I was so happy to be back in this world and hear about old favourites but I ended up reading the book to finish as the narrator says a lot of the characters names completely differently to how we were taught them in the Kate series which was ruining the audio for me.

Really Julie!!

The introduction didn’t grab me like the rest of the series but it was a good read in most parts. Their is a lot of Kate in Julie which was welcomed with lots of secrets unfolding. The cliffhangers were disappointing towards the finale as Julie’s undying love from her teen years were left unresolved probably for another book but I wanted more for this young heroine.

Saddle up and enjoy the ride!!

Absolutely loved this book, great characters new and old. Aurelia is superb and Derek is the man!! looking forward to the next wonderful instalment of this new series......is that the sound of a keyboard in the distance.

3.5 stars

I love Ilona Andrews books, but this one felt a bit disjointed and could have done with being edited again.

Listening to the Kate Daniels series before this book is essential, and also Magic Stars which is part of the Grey Wolf series and slots into being book 8.5 of the Kate Daniels series. You’d feel completely lost otherwise. I still felt a bit lost but I think it’s because not all books are on Audible yet. I’ve read further into the Kate Daniel’s series on kindle, but even that knowledge wasn’t quite enough context for this book. I think there must be more series with other characters that I’ve not read yet. What I’m saying, is start at the beginning.

I’ll still get more books by this author as they have such rich world building and characters. I’ll get more in this series too. I’m looking forward to more!

Typical Ilona Andrews mastery

Loved it!
The husband and Wife writing couple known as Ilona Andres did it again.
You are some of my favourite writers.

this story again promises to be epic, fun, emotionally charged and sexy and has a great start with this first book.

Blood Heir

Loved this book 🥰 I can't wait for the next one!! The world building and descriptions of AI are awesome 👌