Sapphire Flames – Ilona Andrews

I managed to start a series midway through, but it’s fortunately a good place to start in this case. Catalina has just become the head of her household of magic users (alternate present day real world with magic – this is set in Houston). A friend’s mother and sister are killed, and she vows to help, and suddenly finds herself in way over her head. And with the sudden arrival of her school day crush (a handsome Italian count, no less), things get really interesting.

There were lots of references to the prior stories in this series (which center around Catalina’s older sister Nevada and her husband), but nothing was too confusing by not having read them – this is a pretty standard detective story, with magic thrown in. Great candy reading. Naturally, the next book’s not out yet, though that does give me the opportunity to back track.

On a side note, does anyone remember when you did start series midway through because that might be the only book you could get your hands on for a while, so you just muddled through, and hope you eventually got to backtrack? Technology has just spoiled me!