Magic Strikes

By Ilona Andrews

Book Three in the Kate Daniels series.


You'd think by now Kate would have learned how to stay out of trouble. Keep to herself. Stay below the radar like she's supposed to. But no. Instead, she gets herself in Derek's and Jim's issues. Derek, being nineteen, has a girl-related issue. The issue being that the human girl in question is part of a fighting group at the Midnight Games, a preturnatural fighting tournament that the Pack is completely forbidden from entering. And the rest of her team is probably not human, were, or anything else that simple or easy to deal with. And then they attack Derek and pretty much shred him.
So, obviously it's Kate's problem too, and of course she can't tell Curran about this, because then he would have to kill Jim, and probably Derek (if the aformentioned attack made him go loup) and the rest of Jim's team. And he'd have to do this because it's his job and they couldn't just tell him about these issues and instead pretty much went AWOL. You can just tell that this will go brilliantly, can't you.
Ah, Kate. I do love her, but she has no sense of self-preservation. I swear she and Curran actually enjoy beating their heads together over issues that could be resolved easily if anyone could actually keep their head long enugh to try diplomacy or logic. I really love Ilona Andrews. Great plots, great characters, brilliantly sarcastic humor, and some really bloody violence. What more can you ask for? The next one in this series comes out soon and I am pretty much climbing the walls waiting for it. AS always, love the book, love the author, love the series. Read it.

Awesome Word (Or Phrase) of the Unspecified Random Time Period

Autocratic: Adjective: resembling or pertaining to an autocrat. also known as being high and mighty, tyrannical, despotic, and/or domineering. Very old or very powerful vampires tend to be very autocratic, for some reason. I think it's something about knowing you could have everyone in the room killed--or kill them yourself. I find their bewilderment when the hero or heroine of the piece shows up and doesn't do whatever they say ever so entertaining. Curran from Magic Bites is somewhat autocratic, I believe.

Magic Burns

By Ilona Andrews

The Kate Daniels Series, Book Two

Mercenary Kate Daniels has plenty of problems, but her latest one is a bit more complex than normal. Every seven years the magic waves hit a flare. This means that magic controls the world, and for Kate this means that the magical problems she deals with are that much worse. Gods, goddesses, and monsters run rampant. When Atlanta's shapeshifter Pack asks her to recover a set of stolen maps, and Kate agrees to help Julie, a young girl whose mother has dissapeared and who is being targeted by monsters, Kate's life becomes more dangerous and complex than ever. Soon she is embroiled in a fight between two gods battling to be reborn, and if she can't stop them both, she won't survive and the city will be destroyed. I loved this book. Dark, violent, complex, and funny, though the humor does tend towards the dark and bloody. Go Kate! Love the series, love the book, love the author.

Magic Bites

By Ilona Andrews

The Kate Daniels Series, Book 1

Mercenary Kate Daniels lives in a world where magic and technology battle for supremacy. When the magic is up, cars, guns, phones, all the elements of technology refuse to work, and rogue mages cast spells and summon dangerous creatures. Then the tech hits again and magic goes back into hiding. Kate makes her living off the magic and the creatures that come with it. When her guardian is murdered she volunteers to find his killer, but she soon finds out that this mystery is much more complex than it seems. Someone has killed seven of the Pack, and the shapeshifters believe that that someone is the People. The People are a group of necromancers who control vampires. They have had several of their vampires killed, and they believe that the Pack is responsible. Kate is trapped in the middle, because whoever-or whatever- killed her guardian probably killed the shapeshifters and vampires as well. Dark, violent, and powerful, Magic Bites is an urban fantasy that I absolutely loved. I think it is staged in the future, but I can't be sure. I love this series, this book, and, of course, I loved Kate.