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Magic Rises
by
Ilona Andrews
It is part of the Kate Daniels #6 series and is a urban fantasy in a Kindle edition on July 30, 2013 and has 354 pages.
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Other books in this series include [books_series]
Other books by this author which I have reviewed include Must Love Hellhounds, Dark and Stormy Knights, Angels of Darkness, Hexed, Fate's Edge, Hex Appeal, An Apple for the Creature, "Magic Gifts", Gunmetal Magic, Innkeeper Chronicles, Steel's Edge, Magic Bites, Magic Burns, Magic Strikes, Magic Bleeds, Magic Slays, Magic Bleeds, Burn For Me, Night Shift, Magic Shifts, Magic Binds, White Hot, Wildfire, Iron and Magic, Magic Triumphs, "Gerard Demille and Helen Meet", "Diamond Fire", "Sweep with Me", Clean Sweep, Sweep in Peace, "A Mere Formality", Blood Heir, "The King of Fire", Sapphire Flames, "A Misunderstanding", Emerald Blaze, "The Cool Aunt", One Fell Sweep, Sweep of the Blade, "Silent Blade", Fated Blades, On the Edge, Bayou Moon, "George and Jack in School", Sweep of the Heart , Magic Tides, Small Magics, "The Wilson Building", "Conlan’s Birthday Text", "Dabwaha", "Don't Fight with Fate", “A Bit More of Roman”, “Getting Distracted”, "Sgt Munoz Had to Go", Ruby Fever, "Regina", Magic Tides, "The King of Fire", Magic Claims, "Sandra", "No Heroes", "Purpose", "A Mere Formality", "I Will Explain Everything", "Sanctuary", "Kind Regards"
Sixth in the Kate Daniels urban fantasy, alternate world series featuring a fearless Kate who’s terrified of crossing her father’s path.
“An Ill-Advised Rescue” is at the end of the story. I could swear this is an outtake from an earlier installment, but my notes are lousy. It’s Saiman’s kidnapping, the end of which results in that huge favor he owes Kate.
Visit KD Did It Takes on Books for a chronological listing of the books in the Kate Daniels.
My Take
Wow. I’m totally torn on this one. There were some amazing twists in this with that surprise ending. And don’t forget the new cast of troubles that Andrews has thrown in. It’ll be interesting to see where the authors go with this new ally(?).
On the other hand, there was a juvenile quality to this, especially with Lorelei, whom Desandra has diagnosed as a sociopath. And I think she’s right.
It is funny that a general rule is to keep tension up by preventing a love resolution. This is so not a problem with Kate and Curran! They’re tension together, and when the Pack and all their alphas are brought in, the tension simply increases exponentially. Then bring in their world and enemies…well…
And…shockingly, most of the Pack has accepted the oh-so-human Kate. It’s that particular state that will create problems with the European Packs, as they won’t take her or her relationship with Curran seriously. The insults are constant! And Aunt B isn’t helping when she raises Mahon’s enmity toward Kate.
Oh, oh. That panacea has got Kate thinking babies!
Go, Andrea!
“Aunt B looked at her. ‘You and I need to work on your air of mystery.’
Andrea shrugged. ‘She’s my best friend. I won’t lie to her.’
I raised my fist and she bumped it with hers.”
Hmm, Kate worries about her and Julie’s dreams intersecting sounds like foreshadowing for the next Kate Daniels installment.
In spite of all her issues and behavioral problems, Desandra turns out to be a lot more interesting — in a positive way — than I had expected.
I loved Curran’s snark at Jarek:
“I wish you’d scrape enough balls together to try. I’m already bored.”
Curran does tick me off, however. I don’t like this game he’s playing. And I don’t think the Andrewses did an adequate job of working this angle. It’s too surface. Too much tell. Andrews keeps telling us about Curran’s wrongful behavior, but they don’t show us anything. My whole attitude about it was oh, Kate, wait and see. Ya just know he’s got a plan because there’s no tension to this part of the drama. She knows what a schemer Curran is. Even the insults are too little girl. Kate doesn’t even really buy into what Hugh is saying. She knows he’s playing her. The authors don’t make this believable. I did like the explanatory scene. Still too surface-y, tell-y, but Curran’s reasoning was lovely. Hugh’s soliloquy on his and Kate’s training. Their need for the kill. Again. All surface. The Andrewses never dive down to any depth.
Gawd, Hugh is too creepy in this with total contempt for the shifters! And a very good actor…ick. We find out what he wants in a partne…and in a one-night stand.
Ah, jeez, that moment…that moment when Doolittle freaks about how Kate saved him. The pain it causes her. It made me want to cry. And the enlightenment Doolittle came across? That provoked the attack? Minor in its confused wording. Those blood samples, though. That would be reason enough to attack him.
Once we learn the truth about Christopher, I’m very surprised that Hugh let him go so easily.
Yeah, all in all, a confused tale with odd loose ends that I suspect the traumatic events were supposed to overshadow.
The Story
Two of the teens in the Keep go loup, and Curran can only get enough for one dose of panacea to help the girls. Then an offer for 10 drums of it come in. A deal with all sorts of traps built into it.
Three warring packs claim they want Curran to guard the girl because of his strength — and they don’t trust each other. Not with so much riding on whose child is born first. And the offer of panacea ensures that Curran can’t turn it down.
Not with all those hopeful mamas fearful for their children.
It doesn’t take long before the trap falls. Whether the Atlanta Pack can escape is the question.
The Characters
Kate Daniels, the Consort, is the daughter of a powerful godlike being, who will seek her death if he finds her, and a powerful witch who did love Kate. Her entire life has been spent preparing to battle her father, and she has found love where she least expected it. Slayer is the saber she carries. Julie is her foster daughter, rescued back in Magic Burns, 2. Due to events in Magic Slays, 5, Kate must train Julie and use great care.
Curran Lennart is a First, who leads the 1,500-strong Pack of Atlanta (500 of ’em live at the Keep), the Beast Lord. A shifter more powerful than your average run-of-the-mill shifters. We know he’s in love with Kate.
Maddie is a werebear and Julie’s best friend; Margo is Maddie’s twin sister. Meredith Cole is the girls’ distraught mother.
Doc Darrien Doolittle is the Pack medmage. Tony is one of his assistants. Jennifer Hinton is the alpha of Clan Wolf. Pregnant. Terrified of this reminder of what could happen to her unborn child. Aunt B is the alpha for Clan Bouda and a power to be reckoned with. Jezebel and Barabas, a weremongoose, are a couple of her misfits whom she’s assigned to help Kate. Ethan is Barabas’ significant other. Raphael is Aunt B’s son; he’s engaged to Andrea Nash, a former Knight of the Order. Jim Shrapshire is in charge of Pack security; Keira is his sister (whom we’ve not met before). Mahon Delany is the alpha for Clan Heavy and the Pack Executioner. George, short for Georgetta, is Mahon’s daughter as well as the Pack’s clerk of the court. Derek Gaunt is Curran’s aide and Kate’s friend. One about whom she worries. Eduardo Ortega is a werebuffalo and part of the team going to Europe.
Mike Wilson is alpha of Ice Fury, a strong pack in Alaska. His ex-wife, Genevieve de Vos, took their daughter, Lorelei, back home to Belgium with her.
Saiman is a frost giant and polymorph who owes Kate a huge favor. He buys and sells intelligence and desperately wants to get Kate into his bed simply because she’s refused him. After events in Magic Bleeds, 4, Saiman is terrified of Curran.
Astamur is a hunter who lives in the mountains. Gunda is his Caucasian shepherd [dog]. Atsany is the race to which the “hobbit” belongs; he won’t give up his name as it could give Kate or Astamur power over him. Suliko is a descendant of a long line of dancers, people who have danced for the kings of Georgia.
Jarek Kral is a nasty, crude alpha of the Obluda Pack — or, as Aunt B puts it, he’s a troglodyte — with an obsession about leaving a legacy. Kind of hard to do when you keep killing off your kids… Desandra is his only child, a daughter, and he uses her like a boomerang. Renok is one of his bodyguards.
After failing to “sell” her to Curran, he pushes her onto Radomil with the Volkodavi, then yanks her back to marry her off to Gerardo Lovari of the Belve Ravennati, from whom he yanks her back. What can I say? Boomerang. Gerardo and Ignazio are the sons of Isabella and Cosimo Lovari of the Belve Ravennati.
Hugh d’Ambray is Kate’s father’s warlord, and he’s already suspicious of who Kate is. Voron was Roland’s warlord and Hugh’s father figure before he was bedazzled by Kate’s mother and ran off with the pregnant Kalina. Roland is Kate’s father, the father of the People, a wizard-king, and has lived for thousands of years. Christopher is a slightly nutty human whom Hugh has caged. And Kate’s humanity is gonna pay off big time!
Lord Megobari is the human hosting Desandra’s stay along with the three European Packs. Hibla is his chief of security. Demet is a healer sent by Megobari.
Going loup is a one-way ride to a type of shifter insanity. Once a shapeshifter goes loup, he or she is put down. The People are a nasty version of vampires in this world.
Volodja is one of Hugh’s men, and he has information for Kate. The Iron Dogs are Roland’s elite unit.
Panacea is a rare drug that prevents shifters from going loup.
The Cover and Title
The cover finds Kate with a questioning look on her face and surrounded by fire with a snarling Curran in his lion form behind her left shoulder.
I suspect the title refers to Astamur and the atsany and the others whom Astamur says exist in the world, those who have reawakened from their long sleep, for Magic Rises.
