Magic Bites - Review

Title: Magic Bites
Author: Ilona Andrews
Series: Katie Daniels #1

Synopsis: “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, leaving all kinds of paranormal problems in its wake.
      “Kate Daniels is a down-on-her-luck mercenary who makes her living cleaning up these magical problems. But when Kate's guardian is murdered, her quest for justice draws her into a power struggle between two strong factions within Atlanta's magic circles.
      “The Masters of the Dead, necromancers who can control vampires, and the Pack, a paramilitary clan of shapechangers, blame each other for a series of bizarre killings—and the death of Kate's guardian may be part of the same mystery. Pressured by both sides to find the killer, Kate realizes she's way out of her league—but she wouldn't have it any other way…”

Review: After reading Magic Bites I had a few questions. The first is: why, oh why, haven’t I read this series sooner? The second is: why hasn’t anyone told me about this series? And the third question I had after finishing Magic Bites is: How soon can I get the next book in the series?
      Fans of urban fantasy will love Magic Bites. The world building that has gone into creating this novel is amazing. The magic “waves” that come and go and make technology unusable is an awesome and very different concept that I loved. Andrews does a remarkable job playing the cards close to her chest. She gives us only the information we need at exactly the time that we need it and keeps the rest to herself, leaving us wanting more when we finally reach the end of this wonderful introduction to a series.
      My only complaint is the character of Curran. He is obviously supposed to be Kate’s love interest, but I didn’t feel it. There’s no heat between the two other than hatred, they are constantly battling with each other and trying to kill/maim each other. That’s not love, or even lust, in my book. I understand that a Beast Lord needs to be very dominant and alpha, but he could be dominant/alpha and still caring. At the end of Magic Bites I’m just afraid that Kate is going to end up in a relationship with an abusive man/Beast Lord. I hope that this issue gets cleared up in the next installment.
      Overall though, I loved this novel and am looking forward to the rest of the series. Seriously, why hasn’t anyone told me to read this? I wasted so much time reading other books.

Publisher: Ace
If you like this book you may want to read: 

 Dead on the Delta by Stacey Jay (read BookGirlR’s review here)

 Midnight Riot by Ben Aaronovitch (read BookGirlR’s review here)