Katharine Kerr – Water to Burn

The second book in the Nola O'Grady series, published August 2, 2011.
Genre: urban fantasy
Cover: nice and spooky, just like in the book.



Just when Nola O’Grady thinks she has it all…
Nola’s the new head of the San Francisco branch of the Agency, the psychic organization so secret that even the CIA doesn’t know it exists. What’s more, for some mysterious reason, Interpol has assigned her lover, Israeli secret agent Ari Nathan, to her new bureau as her permanent “bodyguard”. But everywhere she looks she sees a Chaos manifestation spying on her. Inexplicable “rogue waves” are sweeping innocents to a watery death before she can save them. She has two increasingly dangerous searches on hand, for Reb Ezekiel, the supposedly dead prophet from Ari’s past, and for the mysterious “Brother Belial”, head of the Chaos cult they had managed to take down.
To top it off, her brother Michael is dragging Nola and Ari into his attempt to rescue his girlfriend from a radioactive alternate dimension. How is Nola supposed to serve the forces of Harmony and maintain the balance between Chaos and Order when she can’t even keep her own family under control?


It took me two tries to get into this book. I started rereading it after I had read the first 100 pages or so a few weeks earlier, and could not understand a thing. But when I started again, it made more sense to me. Or as much sense as such a very strange story can make.
A San Francisco as we know it, a battle between Chaos and Order, where Balance is the most important thing. Order would mean stagnation of growth, of live. And Chaos would just mean more chaos. Alternate realities or dimensions, apparitions, divine interventions, and psychic powers, mix that up with secret government agencies, politics and murder, and you have it all. Just like Ari, Nola’s boyfriend and bodyguard, I have a hard time understanding and believing it all. Still, the story just comes together, and is filled with Nola’s quirky family.

I’ve come to like Nola for the straightforwarded but also very strange person she is. She does have an eating disorder, even though she doesn’t really believe it, she really needs to eat more. She is afraid of relationships, and how Ari has gotten to her in such a short time. She hates weapons, while Ari is a sharpshooter, and loves his guns. But then, she doesn’t need weapons to defend herself, she has a license to Ensorscell.
Nola’s brother Michael is growing up, and he wants his girlfriend to come to this world, I really liked how all the difficulties are portrayed realistically, as well as the results of her “job”. I am actually looking forward to reading the next book, but it won’t be soon. You need to be able to concentrate to be able to understand it all, or at least the biggest part of it.

If you like really different urban fantasy stories, with a strong romance thread, but with very little real smexy times, you will like this. I really cannot compare it to anything I have read before. I do recommend you read this in order, or you are totally irrevocably lost in the story.

I do apologize for this short review, but my head is not ready for more. Also, it is totally impossible to tell even a small part of all that is happening in this book.

8 stars

© 2012 Reviews by Aurian