Status
Call number
Series
Genres
Collection
Publication
Description
Fantasy. Fiction. HTML: Atlanta would be a nice place to live, if it weren't for the magic. When the magic is up, rogue mages cast their spells and monsters appear, while guns refuse to fire and cars fail to start. But then technology returns, and the magic recedes as unpredictably as it arose. Kate Daniels works for the Order of Knights of Merciful Aid, officially as a liaison with the mercenary guild. Unofficially, she cleans up the paranormal problems no one else wants to handle�especially if they involve Atlanta's shapeshifting community. When she's called in to investigate a fight at the Steel Horse, a bar on the border between the territories of the shapeshifters and the necromancers, Kate quickly discovers that there's a new player in town. One who's been around for thousands of years�and who rode to war at the side of Kate's father. This foe may be too much even for Kate and Curren, the Beast Lord, to handle. Because this time Kate will be taking on family..… (more)
User reviews
I'm still sort of reeling at the moment.
Magic Bleeds is an awesome addition to the Kate Daniels Series. I am sooo gonna have to read it again in the next few days. There is soooo much that happens!!!
Ilona and Gordon
I will write a more in depth review when the release date approaches. I don't want to risk ruining it for anyone. But for sure put this on your must read list for 2010!!!
Magic Bleeds starts with a prologue of the Naked Dinner that Kate owes Curran. It doesn't quite go as planned and it seems that Kate has been stood up. There she is in her kitchen, surrounded by cold food, in her underwear and makeup, no
Chapter 1 then picks up with Kate taking a call on a bar fight that ended with a patron pinned to a telephone pole and infected with a magically strengthened disease. Kate is on the Mary's (plague carrier) trail and beginning to discover that the shapeshifters are in trouble, she can't isolate herself, and she might be outgrowing her position at the Order.
The book was fast paced, full of action, witty dialogue, and peppered with laugh-out-loud bits - a typical Kate Daniels book. While Andrews stated on her blog that Kate "loses everything" in this book, I have to disagree. Yes, at one point Kate loses every material thing that connected her to her dead guardian and family. This is a huge emotional loss, but it forces her to make a choice: does she continue down her original path of loneliness and an early death or does she make a life and connections for herself? The world building, rules, different groups, etc. were all explained smoothly without being tedious. Instead of Kate coming off as the angry badass heroine, her anger, attitude, and actions are nicely explained by her friend Andrea. Andrea realizes that this is the first timeKate has had friends or fell in love. She didn't know how to handle the disappointment or broken heart. This made Kate a much more sympathetic character. Readers and other characters also get a chance to see sharp, smart tactician and fighter that she hides behind her me-kill-you-dead persona that she presents to the world.
Kate and Curran's relationship also takes a decisive step. I really liked that both characters didn't just storm around angrily (though they did do that) but they also *gasp* talked to each other about what happened. Honesty, articulation, smex, it was great!
As I said above, this is a very satisfying read. If I didn't know that Kate 5 was currently being written, I'd be worried that this was a series ending book. Things are kind of wrapped up neatly with a new life and future are ahead of Kate. I'll be interested to see how her character deals with new responsibilities, no longer being on her own, a relationship, shifter politics, happiness, and the need to attend formal events.
VERDICT
If you've been reading the previous Kate Daniels books, how could you not pick this up? While not probably not my favorite Kate book, I enjoyed it for what it gave me, especially the forward momentum... and Curran.
Kate
This book is perfect from its opening prologue in which we find Kate having a very personal crisis (yes Currans people can be butt-heads) to the very emotional yet supremely satisfying ending that can also be thought of as a personal crisis for both Kate and Curran. It is sort of unusual for Ms Andrews to open AND close her book with personal scenes like this.
Throughout the book we see that no matter what happens to her, Kate has not lost her dry and fatalistic sense of humor and Ms Andrews doesn't fail at making me laugh during the horror that is Kate's life.
A totally satisfying and sexy read.
Kate is tough as nails with a sarcastic streak, but
In this fourth book of the series, the secrets that Kate has been hiding about her heritage are revealed, and she is beseiged.
Kate is slow to trust people, but throughout the series she begins to form relationships with others, including the Beast Lord who is the leader of the Pack of shapeshifters. All characters are well written, unique and authentic, even small supporting characters.
This is one of my favorite all time series; well worth reading.
This book is well written and the action and character building are continuous. Read the first three in the series before you read this one. They are worth the effort. I recommend this book.
While each of the books in the Kate Daniels series seems to be better than the last book, I don't think that I would be able to pick a favorite out of them all. There's not many series that I can say I absolutely enjoyed every aspect of each book. There's always at least one book that I don't like as much as the others, but not so with this series.
OK. had to get that out of the way, as I couldn't see a way to review this book without spoiling the ending for some readers. I love, love Ilona Andrews (more
Kate gets a call for help from a bar. She arrives to find that there a shapeshifter dead and infected with a virulent disease. As she tries to track down the magic user spreading the disease she finds out that this is no ordinary bad person. Someone from Kate's family is in town and they want to bring down Kate and all of Atlanta with her. Kate's position in the Order becomes shaky as the lead Knight of the Order forces Kate to choose between saving lives and following protocol. Things are also especially tense between Kate and Curran; especially when Curran fails to show for a special dinner date.
This was an awesome book. The Andrews (husband and wife writing team) do an excellent job with characterization, action scenes, and plot. The writing is darkly humorous, sardonic, engaging, and just all out fun to read. There are some pretty steamy scenes in this book and the Andrews do an excellent job capturing characters' vulnerable sides as well as their kick-ass attitudes.
So what was the most awesome part of the story? Well basically all of it. We learn a ton about Kate's family and past. Kate's new enemy is unbelievably powerful and brings along four excellent sidekicks in a mission to destroy Kate. It was wonderful to learn more details about Kate's childhood and crazy past. We also learn a lot about Curran's past; where he came from and what made him who he is.
The action scenes are spectacular and creative. The undead mages that Kate fights, fight dirty and Kate uses a lot of creative techniques to deal with them. This book helped fill out the world as a whole and tied a lot of things together.
Of course I have to mention the relationship between Kate and Curran. There relationship...matures a lot in this story. They still drive each other nuts, but I was happy to see how realistically and practically they dealt with the problems their relationship (or lack of one at points) causes. It was so nice to have two great characters compromise in ways that leads to a solid, if troublesome, relationship.
At the end of the book the main storyline in nicely wrapped up. There is still the overlying story-arc of Roland and what he will do if/when he discovers Kate is alive. I have been very happy with how these novels are done. They are well done, well planned, and have excellent characters. I enjoy the humor, action, and engaging plot. If I have one small complaint it is that Kate can get a bit melodramatic at times and approaches fights with a kind of "OMG we are all going to die attitude." She does this quite often and, being how many fights she's survived, I wish she had a bit more confidence in herself :-)
Overall loved this book. It is perfect. Can these books keep getting better and better? Well I will have to wait for book 5 to find out and I am eagerly,desperately waiting for book 5. Meanwhile I will have to settle with reading the Edge book, Bayou Moon, which is out in September. Also check out Silent Blade if you haven't. It is more of a romance than the Kate Daniels series but still an awesome story.
I have to share my favorite quote from this book - it says so much about the kind of character Kate is. (It is at a point when the council is meeting to decide Kate's place - so to speak.
"Some of you know me. Some of you have seen me fight and some of you are my friends. Have your vote. But know this: if you come to remove me, come in force, because if you try to separate me from him, I will kill every single one of you. My hand won't shake. My aim won't falter. My face will be the last thing you'll see before you die."
As always I stayed up way too late and finished it way too quickly.
That's not to say that's a bad thing - most the books I frequently reread I count as fluffy: they have satisfying plots that suck you in and bounce
This book certainly achieved that and went on to transcend it - it became one of those unputdownable books that left me going without sleep to finish it.
There's good fight scenes, there's fun naked romping scenes that are probably too sexy for most people to want their kids to read but are hardly hard core erotica. There's a plot where the elements of the mystery are set up efficiently and knocked down neatly and in satisfying ways. All in all, an excellent example of its type and well worth the time to read.
This IMO is the best of the series. A lot of
Two more books for this series and I'm guessing it'll round up to the showdown of Kate's big enemy. Great series.
But of course no series like this could be as incredible if the characters themselves didn't have the same kind of depth and personality to carry off the intricate environment. Kate and Curran are the kind of heroes that readers long for - they are not perfect. They work hard, they try their best, but bad things happen to them and they do bad things to other people. These are not the squeeky clean herose of myth and legend; the world Kate and Curran inhabit has very few easy answers, saving one often comes at the risk of many, and if anything does look easy it probably means that it's hard as hell. Around them are a cast of supporting characters with their own problems and passions, and I think Ilona Andrews has done a wonderful job at balancing the quandry of having enough characters that the two heros are pushed but not writing in so many that the reader gets lost.
Overall Feeling - Thumbs up!! So freaking good I can't really contain myself. It's my favorite thing in the world to have a book I've been waiting so long for be this good, which I'm sure sounds like a cliche, but Magic Bleeds is THAT good!
Series - 1) Magic Bites 2) Magic Burns 3) Magic Strikes 4) Magic Bleeds
ReadingAmidsttheChaos (dot) blogspot (dot) com
Now that I've finished Magic Bleeds, I'm a pretty big fan. A lot of that is probably that the
As always there is plenty of action
Overall quite a good series that seems to get stronger and more fluid as it goes along.
Re read in March 2013. One of my all time favourite books.
***SPOILER***
[ Kate is finally honest with herself and with Curran. She discovers that she does have family besides her biological father - an Aunt! But, she's not exactly the great and wonderful aunt that we hope to meet. She's pure pathological, psychotic evil. Kate also finally gives in to her fears of creating connections with others and not only does she finally commit to Curran - she doesn't let go even when it seems the darkest. I did miss Julie a bit in this one and some of the other main characters - though a few of them made small appearances here and there. I didn't understand Andrea's behavior toward the Pack or Kate - but I wonder if it's an opening for the next book. It gives Kate a reason to go up against the Pack in support of Andrea even if she has been acting kind of awful. I can't wait to see how many bumps in the road Kate and Curran go through in the next book.
(hide spoiler)]
I would definitely recommend this book to others!
Awards
Original publication date
Local notes
DDC/MDS
Fic SF Andrews |