#39:Small Magics by Ilona Andrews. A series of short stories which retell scenes in other books from the series from the perspective of a different character. Surprised by how appealing this was. In the series books, the author never has the main character re-tell a story that occurred earlier in the book or the series; if Kate needs to fill in another character in on something we've already read, she handles it as, “I explained what happened” and then immediately moves on to new information. This book appears to be the only revisit of memorable scenes.
#40: Magic Burns by Ilona Andrews. Yeah, I know I said I wasn’t going to dive deeper into this one, but… I lied. Didn’t have anything else immediately and I’m glad, because the second one was better than the first, and the third really sucked me in. The narrator keeps surprising me with details about her background that make everything make more sense. The chain of events are, as with most series, just a vehicle for revealing character detail. In this one, Kate rescues and adopts a teenager who can’t recognize that her crush is an evil schmuck who’s using her, helps out the local shape-shifter pack and becomes more entangled with them and their leader, and reveals additional hints about just how potentially powerful she could be if she didn’t have a conscience or empathy.
#41: Magic Strikes by Ilona Andrews. In this one, Kate has to choose between being a good friend or a smart caretaker, and chooses being a friend. That leads to a friend getting permanently disfigured, having to fight monsters in a gladiatorial setting, and outing the identity she’s been successfully hiding through the first few books. Of course, the important thing is that during this series of events, she very nearly has sex with the leader of the shapeshifter pack. So many issues with this potential couple: she has an extraordinarily problematic quest that he knows nothing about (yet) and shouldn’t go anywhere near because of his commitment to ruling and caring for his pack. The adopted niece gets a small cameo in this one, and a crush on her aunt’s young disfigured friend. No doubt that will develop in upcoming books. So much entertaining angst, mixed with a lot of swordplay and monsters and magic.
#40: Magic Burns by Ilona Andrews. Yeah, I know I said I wasn’t going to dive deeper into this one, but… I lied. Didn’t have anything else immediately and I’m glad, because the second one was better than the first, and the third really sucked me in. The narrator keeps surprising me with details about her background that make everything make more sense. The chain of events are, as with most series, just a vehicle for revealing character detail. In this one, Kate rescues and adopts a teenager who can’t recognize that her crush is an evil schmuck who’s using her, helps out the local shape-shifter pack and becomes more entangled with them and their leader, and reveals additional hints about just how potentially powerful she could be if she didn’t have a conscience or empathy.
#41: Magic Strikes by Ilona Andrews. In this one, Kate has to choose between being a good friend or a smart caretaker, and chooses being a friend. That leads to a friend getting permanently disfigured, having to fight monsters in a gladiatorial setting, and outing the identity she’s been successfully hiding through the first few books. Of course, the important thing is that during this series of events, she very nearly has sex with the leader of the shapeshifter pack. So many issues with this potential couple: she has an extraordinarily problematic quest that he knows nothing about (yet) and shouldn’t go anywhere near because of his commitment to ruling and caring for his pack. The adopted niece gets a small cameo in this one, and a crush on her aunt’s young disfigured friend. No doubt that will develop in upcoming books. So much entertaining angst, mixed with a lot of swordplay and monsters and magic.
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