Sanctuary by Ilona Andrews
Series: Roman's Chronicles #1
Published by NYLA on 2024 July 30
Genres: Fantasy, Mythology
Pages: 119
Format: E-book
Source: Purchased
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It’s not easy serving the Chernobog, the God of Destruction, Darkness and Death…especially during the holidays; and especially when you’re out of eggnog and one of your pesky, freeloading mythic creatures has eaten your last cookie.
Roman would like nothing more than to be left alone, but when a wounded boy stumbles into his yard and begs for sanctuary, Roman takes him in. Now elite mercenaries are camped out on his property, combat mages are dousing the house with fire, and strange priests are unleashing arcane magic. They thought Roman was easy pickings, just a hermit in the woods, but they chose the wrong dark priest to annoy. For while Roman might be patient, he is the Black Volhv, filled with the love of his terrible god. For his adversaries, it's a fight to the death, but for him, it's just another day in the neighborhood.
Oh, Roman! Regardless of how sexy and gorgeous you are, I am cringing and laughing at you the whole time I was reading this book. How can you do that to the poor girl? And Ilona Andrews, how dare you write Roman’s Chronicles in novellas when you could have written his adventures in a full book?
If you don’t know yet, I have followed the writing of Sanctuary in Ilona Andrew’s blog. Every week, I’d set a reminder to tell me that oh, it’s that time of the day when I must visit their blog and read one chapter of Roman’s antics as the black Volhv. Yes, I made the sacrifices, showed my loyalty and perseverance about how I was so entertained by Roman that I just felt that it was so unfair for Ilona Andrews to make the novella so short. I am so thirsty for more Roman adventures not to mention that I am really shipping him with our feisty and grumpy Vasylisa.
I don’t know how Ilona Andrews does things but everything she writes is just gold like the Sanctuary. For those who have already read the Kate Daniels series, we are already so familiar with Roman that it can be presumed that reading another book about him can be somewhat tedious. But well, it’s really not because Sanctuary just enriched the whole world of Kate Daniels and made me more invested with the series’ characters. And hats off to the Andrews’ skills for knowing their Russian Mythology so well because I learned a lot from this book without drowning me with so many infodumps.
For a novella, Sanctuary delivered a lot of things that proved that Ilona Andrews is just a pro at creating stories that will make you constantly ache for the next installment. So hurry up with that 2nd chronicle, please!