Magic Slays

Plowed through these, my new favorites. Kate Daniels is my kind of gal. Fans of Jim Butcher and Patricia Briggs will adore these. ( )

Stayed up way too late just to finish this.
Will compile my thoughts more later. ( )

Fifth in a series of seven planned books Magic Slays is not a stand alone work. To fully understand what is going on you need to have read the four previous books. The two novellas included above are set in the same world but are not necessarily part of the main story arc. Because this is the fifth book the review may contain spoilers for previous books so please be warned.

While at its heart the Kate Daniels books are Urban Fantasy with a kick ass heroine they are also novels that focus on the growth and relationships of the characters. Throughout the series we've followed a trail of bread crumbs about Kate's origins, childhood and capabilities. Each successive book reveals a bit more and Magic Slays gives us the most complete picture yet. Who Kate is today is strongly tied to her past and who she is today strongly impacts her relationships with the people around her. She doesn't trust easily, has been taught to avoid becoming entangled with others and is by necessity in your face independent. And I love her. She is one of my favorite UF heroines. Deliciously flawed, amazingly passionate, and while both physically and emotionally strong she is also vulnerable.

Curran is...well, he's Curran. Alpha to the max times 100. Hot, strong, clever, possessive, passionate, and the leader of a volatile people. He and Kate are explosive together - two alpha personalities learning to live and work together.

While I loved the action and the conflict in this book (they all have awesome conflict and secondary characters) my favorite part was Kate's struggle over her relationship with Curran. His motivations, her motivations, and the way they have to learn to deal with each other. In the world they live in both of them put their lives at risk on a frequent basis. As all people in love do, they want each other to be safe and they find creative ways to compromise while not changing who they are at heart. Seeing Kate come to the realization that yes, Curran does love her, is touching. The lengths that both of them go to to protect the people they love show the core of strength and honor they possess.

All of the secondary characters are so well developed in this world that I wish there were novellas for each of them so we could focus on their stories as well. I don't know if there will be a storybook HEA for Curran and Kate but I trust the writing team of Ilona Andrews and wherever they are taking this. Through five books they have exceeded my expectations and blown away what I thought I wanted to see for these characters so yeah, wherever they go I'm okay with it.

When does book six come out?
( )

Love it, love it, love it! All I want to do after finishing this book is go back and start all over at the beginning. Kate and Andrea, in particular, have some fabulous page time in MAGIC SLAYS, and their witty banter really made the book for me. Andrews does a phenomenal job developing the tension of Kate's eventual conflict with her father without ever making me feel like she was artificially stretching out the series (the revelations of MAGIC SLAYS were both satisfying and realistic). This series is so well developed, I'm in no hurry to rush to the end. Then again, I also can't wait for their next book to come out.

7/11 Re-read: Love, love, love! The ending is a little abrupt, but that's probably because I never wanted it to end at all. ( )

This series is pure magic for a modern chick. These novels by the Gordon writing team have the humor and sexiness of a Stephanie Plum romp ([a:Janet Evanovich|2384|Janet Evanovich|http://photo.goodreads.com/authors/1308327981p2/2384.jpg]), the mystery and thrill of a Cotton Malone caper ([a:Steve Berry|3621|Steve Berry|http://photo.goodreads.com/authors/1327545846p2/3621.jpg]), and the philosophical questions of a sci-fi adventure (e.g. [a:Robert A. Heinlein|205|Robert A. Heinlein|http://photo.goodreads.com/authors/1192826560p2/205.jpg]).

I think these stories resonate so strongly with females due to the emphasis on character relationships. I particularly liked how the authors portrayed Kate's broad, accepting definition of 'family', which includes the Pack, an adopted daughter, etc. To provide a sharp contrast, the bad guys in this tale are an anti-magic/pro-technology group that intends to cleanse the world of tainted/unclean/cheater magic users to return the world to 'the good old days'.

Another thing that I love about Kate is that she is always developing as a person. (That was my big problem with the Stephanie Plumb novels: no matter what Steph experienced, she remained the same gal she was in high school.) Kate basically has to develop a workable 'marriage' with Curran, which is no easy feat, given their warrior personalities. There was also a particularly nice scene where Kate does a pretty good impression of Judge Judy.

I saw that book 6 in this series is expected to be released in Feb 2013. That might seem like a long wait to some folks, but I don't think so. These stories have threads of history/philosophy/mythology/etc woven into them...and that kind of workmanship takes time. ( )