Romance: Persistence is Not a Virtue

There are many times in life where persistence and patience are rewarded. Times when we - and certainly the characters we read - should fight on no matter what, against all obstacles, in the teeth of the most vicious opposition. After all, a hero winning against all the odds is always good for an epic story. And it’s almost a trope now that if your hero gets into a fight this will start out badly for them, they’ll be beaten until they rally, the dramatic music plays and they give their enemies a good kicking. Everyone loves a scrappy underdog story and there’s nothing quite so underdog as rising from the ashes of defeat

Then we come to romance and… this trope continues. Not only continues but it has been thoroughly embedded in our society - faint heart never won fair lady, women play hard to get and, most toxically “no means yes”. We have entire genres of romance, rom-coms and more centred around the plucky male underdog, being rejected and refusing to take that no for an answer, persevering and then winning the reluctant woman’s stubborn heart. All “no” means is that you need to try harder, try again and again and again until you wear her down.

Or, to put it another way, men don’t take no for an answer and continue to stalk, harass and generally annoy a woman until she gives up. These stories don’t show love or romance and these men don’t approach their prospective love interests as people - but as prizes to win, obstacles to overcome to earn their eventual reward.

This can be very prevalent in long running Urban Fantasy series where a relationship is a slow burn rather than an insta love.

It takes Kate Daniels several books before her relationship with Curran became a thing. Oh he fixated on her quite early in the series but she wasn’t buying, despite being impressed by his physique. She resisted him, insulted him generally tried to make it clear that they were never going to be a thing. While he pursued her, pushed her, challenged her and even broke into her house (this seems to be a theme of these relationships - it’s not true love if the guy hasn’t broken into her house at some point).

I love Kate and Curran’s relationship. I love it, they’re awesome together - but they way they got there was a problem. Kate said no, Kate refused but Curran pushed and pushed and persisted and thought and… won.

We see this with the Otherworld series’ original partners - Elena and Clay. Their relationship starts in the rockiest possible way with Clay biting Elena and risking her life turning her into a relationship without her consent. After some rocky beginnings she runs - yes she has other issues as well prompting her to run, but after leaving the country she is very clear that she doesn’t want Clay in her life. Like a good Urban Fantasy protagonist, he takes this as a challenge, pushing back into her life, using circumstances to move into her home (and wedge between her and her actual fiance) and even getting handsy. Elena says no to Clay, Elena does not want him in her life - yet he persists. And he wins.

Magic Binds (Kate Daniels #9) by Ilona Andrews

It’s coming. Nimrod has been poking at Kate’s borders so many times and she cannot keep ignoring it. She cannot let this go. It is time for a war.

I love this series!

I love it love it love it love it. And this book excellently continues this whole awesome series. This was one of those books where I got it, retreated to my bedroom and snarled at anyone who dared to interrupt me

Friends, family, beloved husband – I love you all. I just love the book more. Come back in a couple of days when I’ve finished this and maybe I will notice humanity again. Maybe

This includes sleep. Sleep can take a back seat, I have this book. This is amazing. This is my life now. Bury me with this book

Kate faces some absolutely excellent conflict here – influenced by her magical claiming of the city of Atlanta. There’s an excellent magical explanation for this in the growing world building of this series (more of that later because it’s awesome) but it wasn’t so forced as to change Kate’s character. Even without the magic, I could see Kate moving down some of these pathways – ok not all of them (and the woo-woo driving her to dominate and control what I hers) – but her being generally hacked off by people challenging her, giving her shit and not coming close to respecting her for all the sacrifices she has made.

This is a long series and through that series we’ve had Kate save the city and the world quite regularly. We’ve also seen people fail her, a lot, over and over again. She has proven herself time and time again even as the people she have saved continue to fail her, not trust her and often not make her much of a priority for them. This is one of the reasons why Kate and Curran left the pack in a previous book. So, for me, seeing Kate push back and respond to, for example, Jim threatening her with

“If I ever turn into my father, you will kneel and pledge yourself to me, Jim.”

And I cheered. I did. Because this was past time doing this. It also made her power creep complicated. Because part of her was very justified in wanting to push back against the insults she takes for constantly saving people with her vast power and then having the people she just saved being terrified by that same power. But that’s the complexity – because she is powerful, never more so than in this book – she is terrifying in her power and even though she’s never given anyone reason to doubt her the mere fact she can destroy the entire city makes her a terrifying force. Especially with the woo-woo now being such a pressure on her she has some really excellent conflicts where she is aware she’s circling the abyss

Magic Stars (Kate Daniels #8.5 Grey Wolf #1) by Ilona Andrews

Derek has separated from the pack, the werewolf is one of those who have now joined with Kate and Curran and their independent organisation. An organisation – and business – that doesn’t tolerate the slaughter of families

Julie, Kate’s ward, is certainly not going to stay out of the action either – even as their investigation reveals horrors they never expected, backing down is never an option.

A spin off series in the Kate Daniels universe? Give give give give! *grabby hands*

It can be said I did not react to this news with particular grace and maturity.

In the past I’ve been wary of spin off series because they don’t always work – the main characters are such a major part of the world that without them it falls flat. This world has carried the different spin off stories so well because, even while Kate and Curran are the most amazing, epic characters imaginable, the other characters in the series are fleshed out enough, developed enough and interesting enough to easily carry their own stories

Still, I was surprised that this series follows Julie – Kate’s magic-sensitive ward/sort-of-foster-daughter – and Derrick, the werewolf who has entered Kate’s shadow for a long time now

Like most of the characters in the main series, they have been developed, they have had their own storylines, they have their own histories which are quite involved. But for so much of the books these two have been very much extensions of Kate and Curran. Which makes it interesting that these were the ones chosen to expansion – I feel almost like the author has decided that they need more attention to show that these characters are just as awesome as everyone else.

And this book does an excellent job of taking both characters and establishing them as individuals. We have Derek’s history, how his path has changed so much with him being involved with Kate (but also, just as important, with his life before Kate) and how his face being scarred changed his life again (we also have an excellent look at the ableism Derek faces – with a woman assuming he will be grateful and servile towards her because his scars mean he should consider himself “lucky” that she’s paying attention to him at all). Woven into the story is Derek’s history, nicely setting him up as his own character and co-protagonist in this series as well as being a lethal fighter who has been forged through terrible experience

Magic Shifts (Kate Daniels #8) by Ilona Andrews

Kate has now magically claimed the city of Atlanta – in direct opposition to her father, Nimrod, the Builder of Towers. She and Curran, the former Beast Lord of Atlanta, have also left the Pack and are trying to build a new life and home in the suburbs. It’s a lot of changes to get used to.

And they have no time to get used to it  - not with an ancient and powerful being awakening in the city, one that may be immune to Kate’s magic and whose power is growing after every terrifying event

And Curran has a project – the Mercenary’s Guild is falling apart and he is determined to get it back in shape. Whether they want it or not.

This is my happy book face.

It’s a combination of sheer glee that I got to read a book this awesome, utter depression that it is now over and an undercurrent of exhaustion because I was up all night and nothing short of heavy weapons would make me put this book down. That is my happy book face

I actually pick up a new Kate Daniels book with a little bit of trepidation because I expect this to be the one to disappoint me – my expectations for this series are so high that eventually I will slam into a huge wall of disappointment

I thought this book would be that wall, after all, so much changed in the last book: They’ve left the Pack, Kate has established herself much more as a power, everyone knows who she is and Roland – that big mysterious bad who has overshadowed the whole series, has become directly involved rather than some shadowy, potential evil. That’s a lot of changes.

Thankfully all of those changes worked so well and made me take back a lot of my misgivings. I was, originally, little irritated by Kate and Curran leaving the Pack; but here we see not just Kate leaving the Pack to protect them but Curran underlining that he also left the Pack because the Pack failed him. This is something that has developed over the series in a wonderfully subtle way – both Kate and Curran, while fighting for others and epicly sacrificing for others, have also established that it’s ok to make room for yourself, to demand your own happiness. Kate has grown to let people into her life, to love Curran and her friends, even though it puts them at risk from Roland and goes against everything her surrogate father taught her. And here we see Curran turn to the Pack - the Pack he has worked for, sacrificed for, battled for and risked everything for – and say “you failed me”. Curran has turned round and said that, yes, he deserves better than how the Pack treated him and Kate – and he walked away. No ridiculous over-the-top-martyrdom we see so often in the genre (though they do risk and sacrifice a lot), but firmly saying “no, there’s a limit. I did all this for you, I deserve better than this.” Curran and Kate’s walking away was not just about protecting the Pack but about asserting their own worth and value

Magic Breaks (Kate Daniels Series #8) by Ilona Andrews

Tensions between the Pack –and Kate –and Roland heat up. Hugh, Roland’s warlord, has come to Atlanta, taken over the People and is now using them to try and get to Kate. And if he has to go through the Pack to do it, or the Order of Merciful Aid, or anyone – he will do it.

As the threat of Roland gets ever closer to Atlanta, we get a sense of just how mighty this man is and how dangerous it is to oppose him – and Kate worries about leading the Pack, the people she cares about, in a war against such an overwhelming threat

She has some hard decisions to make and a whole new direction to take in facing off against her immensely powerful father

Epicness!

This book marks a major turning point in the story of Kate – or rather it brings a transition Kate has been kind of slouching towards in the last few books to a final and major point. Kate’s secret is out, Kate is known as the daughter of Roland, everyone knows it and knows it’s a very big deal

Ok, several people have known that Kate was Roland’s daughter for some time. But there’s a difference between “she’s the daughter of Roland the head of the People who re all necromancers” and Kate is the daughter of Roland, who was once Biblical Nimrod, a being of incredible, legendary, terrifying power and  quite capable of forming an immense empire, performing feats of magic that are not even imaginable by anyone else.  Yes, we’ve always had the immensity of Roland lurking in the background as an abstract force – but now it’s very much present and immediate – and epic.

I can’t really stress the epic enough here because it’s so well done in this book in so many places and in so many ways – and it’s also essential. The whole series changes from this book. Kate and Curran have had their relationship in focus, then the pack in focus and are now moving on to a whole different part of their stories; and part of what makes their choices in this book and especially the astonishing ending of this book work is the presentation of Roland as an epic threat

And not just Roland as an epic threat – but also establishing that Kate, as Roland’s daughter and an inheritor of a small percentage of his epicness, as the only viable counter to Roland’s dominance and, again, shifts the perception of the pack and Kate’s place in it. For a while there has been the underlying assumption that the Pack provides and army with which to oppose Roland – which is well and truly shattered in this book. A combination of the Pack’s continual lack of acceptance of Kate (as well as the pack’s own internal divisions and dysfunction), of Kate feeling so protective of the Pack that she is in some ways unable to act as a ruler since she simply cannot make the hard choices and, ultimately, because Roland is so powerful that the Pack would less opposing army and more briefly annoying speed bump.

Urban Fantasy: Good Girls, Bad Girls and Problems with Both

With the increasing popularity of urban fantasy, the genre has reached the point that there are now not only several recurring tropes but characters written to fit specific models which infer how the reader is to interpret them. Because this is a genre filled with largely female characters these defining characteristics come to take on specific meaning. These narrow understandings of gender tend to be restrictive even though they are cast as forward thinking and reinforce both a binary understanding of gender and upholding some time old stereotypes even as the archetype claims to be flaunting gender norms.

The idea of female purity or innocence as a desired trait in women is certainly not new. What I don’t understand is what it is doing in a genre where women are continually fighting, maiming and outright slaughtering all manner of supernatural creatures. There is also often a pairing of purity with outright ignorance of the world they inhabit and usually this ignorance stems from a desire to protect the female protagonist or act as outright abdication of responsibility on the part of her parents. In many ways it reminds of the excuses employed to deny education for women. If women are not expected to go out and kick  asses and take names, why would they need any real information on how the world really works?

In the Lila series by Sarah Alderson we get a young female protagonist who though young, is shielded from the reality of the world by her brother and the man she loves. Of course he pulls back from sex she initiates because, being older and wiser, he is more fit to decide when she can lose her virginity. It’s fine for her to be on the run for her life, but sex is most certainly  a no no, no matter that she has talents which make her extremely powerful. In Daniel l. Jensen’s Malediction series, Cécile is originally prized for her red hair and, of course, her virginity. She is yet another female character who ends up having to justify her decision to engage in sex. This is compounded by the fact that Cécile doesn’t defend her decision by saying that sex is what she desires because well, she wants some, but because she is now married to Tristan. Intercourse can now take place and not tarnish her sweet pureness because the marriage vows have been said; how pedestrian and reductive. Then we have the ever popular Bella from Twilight who must retain her virginity until marriage because according to her eternal love (yes I am rolling my eyes) this is the only way she can avoid burning in hell. 

It’s not just through sex (or lack thereof) that this sense of “purity” is reached for; many protagonists are outright reduced to children to achieve that naive innocence which seems to be the benchmark for female goodness. Of course, these same traits in a man would be markers of weakness or someone we’re supposed to regard as pathetic or incapable; it’s notable that the benchmark or epitome of female goodness are all markers of male weakness.

In Lindsey Progues After The Ending Series, all other women are sluts and bitches. Though Zoe and Dani are both 26 years old they read like 13 year old girls on a perpetual hormonal fit. It’s purposeful infantantisation which suggests that to be good, i.e. pure women cannot act like women but have to be children. They are separated from the other women simply because they have determined that they are the “good girls”.  Hereafter by Terri Bruce is yet another example of infantalisation being employed. In this case, you have Irene, who is cruel and uses the people around her. Irene even dies while drinking and driving but since she has the emotional maturity of a 12, year old, though she is 36, she cannot be all bad right?

Karen Marie Moning’s Mackayla Lane’s series gives us an absolutely vapid protagonist who I am surprised can walk and chew gum. Mackayla is so sweet and innocent she will not swear because that is just how a good lady behaves (as she lectures another character pointedly - never mind that they’re fighting for their lives against evil fae - that’s no excuse for cussing young lady!). She desperately wants to wear bright colours with pink being her most common choice.  All good girls,sweet girls, do after all love pink. Are your eyes rolling yet?  So remember ladies, swearing is bad okay? The infamous Sookie Stackhouse is another woman driven by purity and ridiculous gender roles. The world may be falling down around her and vampires fighting in the kitchen but being the perfect hostess she knows just what to serve in such an occasion.  Performing a gentile version of femininity and a feeling of superiority where any other woman is concerned makes Sookie the precious innocent we have all come to be annoyed by.

Magic Rises (Kate Daniels #6) by Ilona Andrews

Kate and Curran are faced with a tragedy that continually afflicts the pack – children going Loup. Shapeshifter children falling prey to the Lyc virus and becoming uncontrollable, mindless killing machines. There’s only one cure – Panacea, and only a few people in Europe know how to make it. They do not trade.

Faced with the inevitable death of 2 small children – and so many more in the future – Kate and Curran are presented with an offer they cannot refuse. Go to the Black Sea and help protect Desandra, a woman pregnant with twins; both of which have separate fathers. Whichever twin is born first will win their shapeshifter group a massive reward – but both fathers’ clans and Desandra’s father are all snarling at each other.

Kate and Curran are called in as neutral third parties – with only a few guards and both knowing that it must be a trap, they cannot refuse the chance to get their hands on Panacea for the pack. But the trap is far more devious and dangerous than they imagined – and far more than those three packs know.

I love this series. And with each passing book I just love it a little more. I really cannot adequately describe just how much I love it – not without descending into the worst kind of fanpoodleness. Alas, I simply cannot!

So fandpoodleness it is then!

I love the world. I love this completely unique world with its vast variety of creatures and beings and characters. I love the incredible research the authors must have engaged in to make it this rich and deep and varied. I love the vast amount of mythology that has packed the book from edge to edge which combines to make the world incredibly real even while its uniqueness makes it vastly different from both our world but also anything in the genre.

I love the writing that can convey all of this knowledge without being boring, can make fight scenes edge of your seat exciting and can convey truly deep and powerful emotion. I love that the sense of epic and the entire world in balance can saturate a scene without going over the top and making it drag. I love how even with an excellent story and all this epic around, there’s still room for some excellent humour. It’s amazing that you can be on the edge of your seat with tension and then laugh out loud – and both of them work.

I love Kate as a character. I love that she’s immensely powerful and skilled but manages to not be a super-perfect protagonist who is superior to everyone around her. I love that, even with all her power, a large part of why people around her respect her is because of her knowledge. I like that she is respected as a leader because she has earned it and proved herself time and again. I like that she genuinely cares without being a wreck, she is strong without being callous, she is intelligent without being all-knowing, she is loving without expecting a perfect relationship

Gunmetal Magic (Kate Daniels #5.5/Kate Daniels World 1) by Ilona Andrews

Andrea’s life recently went through an upheaval; kicked out of the Order of Merciful Aid for being a Bouda, a werehyena, she’s trying to get her life back on track working with Kate in their private detective business – cleaning up the magical messes for people who can’t afford to pay the rates the Mercenary Guild charges, nor wish the Order’s unsubtle approach.

But being known as a Bouda means she now has to find her own place within the werehyenas of the pack – being an outsider is not an option. But she has terrible memories of her childhood among another Bouda pack and feels little loyalty or connection to those who would be her people.

Then there’s Raphael. They broke up when she disappeared to try and hold her place in the Order. And he’s bitter and angry and getting revenge. And she’s bitter and angry and willing to dish back. And they’re both still madly in lust with each other – it’s ugly, very very ugly. Especially when the carpet is deployed. Normal people would avoid each other – but as part of her duty to the pack she has to solve a murder of several pack members working for… Raphael.

That murder leads onto a trail of something far worse – something that goes back to Ancient Egypt and could end up destroying the entire city

This is an odd book in that it runs parallel to Magic Gift. The events in both books pretty much happen side by side which is something I haven’t seen often before, especially since they cover pretty much separate events.

There are several things I love about this. Firstly, I love that it shows that the side characters do have a life of their own. Andrea, Dr. Doolittle, Ascanio et al are not just waiting in a plot box, twiddling their thumbs until Kate and Curran need them. They have their own lives, their own activities; things are happening that are important that do not centre around the protagonists. The protagonists are not the only actors in this world and not the people around which everything else simply must orbit.

Another element I loved was that the plot was epic. While Kate and Curran are off doing something relatively small (important certainly, but not world shattering), Andrea is facing off against forces that could devastate Atlanta and more. There’s no assumption that they must get Kate and Curran and when they do get involved it’s just one step along the line, Andrea remains the main actor; she’s still the protagonist. I like that someone else can save the day, the world, other than Kate Daniels, it allows Andrea et al to be truly full characters on par with Kate herself.

Besides the epic, it has the same style, the same perfectly balanced pacing, the same excellent level of description, musing and emotional growth, all with enough to give us full impact and experience without descending (at least not too often) into overdramatic monologues. The dialogue is real, the characters are real, the banter is amusing and it all just comes together extremely well.

This book also has some excellent recapping. Normally I hate recapping with the fiery passion of a thousand suns – it inevitably causes info dumps and the story to be derailed while the author tries to retell the story they’ve already told in a few paragraphs. It doesn’t work. In this it did, part of it is because the world here is so complex that a revisiting of it really worked well – even more so than in Magic Gift. It truly solidified what happened to the city and the world when the magic hit – and further expanded on that by touching on what happened way back in the veils of history before the technology hit – back when magic ruled and gods and monsters roamed the night. The explanation of deity advances the world extremely well in addition to providing plot hooks not just for Andrea’s story, but also information that gives some very juicy possibilities with Kate and Currans.

I just love this world – it’s innovative, original, full of everything you can imagine and far far more. And the author has clearly got a really solid grounding in world mythology and/or spends their lives chained to research books because there’s so much excellent information there. The work that has gone into this series is truly incredible and the realness and fullness of it really shows. Because it’s not just the big things that have been developed – every shapeshifter group has developed its own culture. We have things like the Library of Alexandria trying to replace the lost knowledge with the tech fading. Even side characters, like Roman the dark and evil magician priest who does as his told because his parents nag him (he can recite his mother’s story of the 40 hours she spent in labour with him). The full implications of this radically different world have been considered so it all works well together

Magic Gift (Kate Daniels #5.4) By Ilona Andrews

Curran and Kate just want to have a date – especially since Kate has just had a difficult day hunting slimy flying octopus things. A simple date at a simple restaurant

But in post-magic shift Atlanta, nothing is simple. First someone dies over dinner, then there’s rampaging vampires – then there’s a child with a deadly cursed artefact around his neck. And only a limited time to find a way to remove it before it kills him as well

Such knowledge isn’t easily found – and Curran and Kate embark on a rapid race involving dwarfs, Vikings and draugr to save the kid’s life.

When I got this book, I expected it to be a short story. And in some ways it was – except for the length

At which point you all roll your eyes and assume that Sparky has been drinking early today – but no, hear me out

To me, in a long series like this one, a short story is one that doesn’t advance the metaplot a great deal. It provides a more day-in-the-live look at the lives of the main characters. It expands the world a little, but more likely reinforces it and it provides a book that new comers to the series could technically pick up and enjoy.

By most of those accounts, this book fits. It focuses on Kate and Curran, but is less about various big epic battles they fight. You could probably skip this book and not miss anything of their story (though the side characters may become rather confusing).  This is showing Kate and Curran getting on with – well, I hesitate to say their daily lives because it’s probably a bit more adventurous than that – but then, with the chaotic world that Atlanta has become it might very well be! We get to see them working together, not focusing on their relationship or developing their relationship – but just living their relationship with each other. It shows what they have to deal with - the Pack, the Mercenaries Guild and we get a better sense of their place in the world as well, what they mean to the city and why they matter.

I think we’d had a sense of this, obviously, throughout the books – but the story is so complex and the world is so completely unique that this is an excellent book just to reinforce all the things you kind of knew or assumed or expected, without the grand epic mega story to focus on. It also gets to plant some interesting plot hooks for future books – like Kate taking an active role in the Mercenary guild while also showing off her expertise and why she is an asset beyond just her magic and her power. I think that is one of the things I love most about this book is that it emphasises her extensive knowledge, her investigative skills and her wide range of experience and good strong common sense to make her far more than just Kate with the shiny sword and really really shiny magic.

Though she knows several power words – including ones for kill and, as I recall, control – so why she continually uses “kneel” I don’t know.

So, in all we’re left with a story that is fun and exciting. There’s danger, but it’s not world shattering. There’s urgency because the life of a child hangs in the balance so there’s definite cost – but it’s a private, small tragedy. It will be tragic and sad if they fail, not “ALL OF ATLANTA WILL BE DESTROYED!!!” as is more common through the series. It made the book even more fun than the series is usually (and it’s always fun), but less epic. Exciting, but not world shattering. Which is great – and just what we needed to reinforce this world, remind us all about the magic and tech waves and really underline them all – without having the desperate rush to save everything from certain doom.

Magic Slays by Ilona Andrews, Book 5 of the Kate Daniels Series

Kate Daniels is back in action in post shift Atlanta. After killing her aunt in Magic Bleeds her secret is rapidly becoming unfrayed as more and more people notice her powerful magic and powerful blood – and more and more people know exactly who she is and who her father is.

Kate now runs her own agency, joined by Andrea whose attempts to make the Order accept her humanity failed in the face of their prejudice. And the Red Guard has come to her with a job – they were guarding a weapon. A weapon of incredible power. And it has gone missing, along with its inventor. Under the cloak of necessary secrecy and discretion, the Guard need Kate to find the weapon and the inventor, preferably before its power is unleashed

But as magic has eroded technology, so there are humans who long to return to technology – and who loathe magical people. The Order is not the only ones who refuse to accept the humanity of magical people. The Lighthouse Keepers are a deep cover terrorist organisation that have infiltrated many organisations in the hope of bringing them down. And with their hands on the weapon they will use it to kill as many magical people as possible, perhaps annihilating Atlanta in the process

As magic lasts longer and technology frays and collapses The threat they poses unites all the magical people of Atlanta – witches, druids, the people of the dead, the shapeshifters, vohls, shamans – all unite to take down a threat that risks them all in an epic confrontation.

Against this background, Kate must also face major personal crises. Julie, her ward stands on the edge of death unless Kate can find the magic to save her – and more of Kate's past comes to light, destroying many of the illusions she held about her parents, revealing a much uglier truth

Magic Bleeds by Ilona Andrews, Book 4 of the Kate Daniels Series

We have another new epic here. Oh yes we do. There's a new evil in town, a powerful ancient evil that spreads plague and destruction and death – that can make warriors run in terror, that can fight the greatest fighters in the city with ease and leaves a trail of magically sentient plague behind. Not even the best experts in the city knows who this threat is, not Saiman, not the People, not the Order – and it's already moved through several cities leaving a swath of destruction and death. And if that weren't enough – for Kate, this may be a family matter.

With a new epic bad guy in town Kate has to literally save Atlanta – and the pack. But she's also coming to more and more attention of the servants of Roland – the ancient and enormously powerful leader of the People of the Dead seeking to re-establish a new empire. He's looking for her and with every battle it becomes harder for her to hide.

And there's her rocky, tumultuous and explosive relationship with Curran – whether she wants to involve herself in the Pack, whether she can with her Order affiliation and, above all, whether she can deal with the demands Curran puts on her and whether he can tolerate her refusal to bend. And that's before you get to the inflexible and prejudiced Order that would deny humanity to the people she cares for the most

It's a lot to handle and, in many ways, an entirely new beginning for Kate. Epic battles, a new life and a whole lot of struggle.

Magic Strikes by Ilona Andrews, Book 3 of the Kate Daniels series

Derek the werewolf is in over his head, having annoyed Loki's grandson and seeking to free a woman from the grasp of inhuman arena fighters, Kate Daniels finds herself dragged in to help him, save him, avenge him – only to find how much larger things are.

Starting out to save Derek from his love life and aid Saiman with his business dealings, Kate finds herself trying to solve a murder, save her friends life and then having to keep it all from the Beast Lord, Curran himself. The plot only grows deeper and more dangerous as enters the world of shady, underground gladiatorial combat – to the death. She quickly falls from just investigating to having to participate – and win - as the only way to save her friends, the pack and possibly all of Atlanta

As if there weren't enough at stake, her past returns to haunt her as she is driven to reveal more of her abilities and the far reaching plots of Roland, the Master of the Undead, begin to stretch into her territory. She has to chose between revealing her secrets that may cost her her life – or watch her friends and loved ones fall.


I love this book and love this series :). The world is incredible, rich, diverse, strange and unique – and steps outside so many of the standard moulds we have come to expect from urban Fantasy. We saw a lot of non-western cultural traditions in this book, with both the arenas and the primary antagonists – which drew heavily from Indian and far eastern cultural mythology. Both were explained pretty well, with lectures that managed to avoid being boring info dumps but managed to convey background without it just being “ a new magical creature with a foreign sounding name.”

Magic Burns by Ilona Andrews, Book 2 of the Kate Daniels Series

Kate Daniels, Magical Mercenary and liaison for the Order is faced with a new, confusing challenge in the dystopian world of magic ravaged Atlanta. Old gods are being invoked by witches who seem incapable of understanding what they're calling and monstrous creatures from the depth of mythology are roaming free hunting – hunting a little girl who has lost the last shreds of her family and has been deeply betrayed.

Kate steps forward to protect the child, find her mother and find out exactly what these monsters are – monsters that can always find her and keep coming back. Only to find that the entire city of Atlanta stands at risk of destruction unless she stops it.

And there's a flare coming. Magic waves are coming more and more often – and more and more intensely, causing friends to become ever more unstable and everything more unpredictable. When magic flares, gods walk and no-one is safe.

Magic Bites by Ilona Andrews, Book 1 of the Kate Daniels Series

Kate Daniels is a mercenary. A sword for hire ready to kill, find or save whatever people pay her to in a world that has gone mad.

And it well and truly has. After centuries of technological domination, magic swept in on a wave of destruction. Technology failed, skyscrapers collapsed and now the world lies in flux between them – when magic fails the tech works and spells fade – then the magic rolls in spells surge – and technology ceases to work. In among that, lycanthropes, vampire-piloting necromancers and so much more vie for power in a world that is still finding its feet.

And in among all this, Kate's guardian, the closest thing she has to family left living, is brutally murdered. Having to step into the light, deal with people far further at the food chain than she ever wanted to work with all while trying to keep her family secret hidden, she has to find the killer – and avenger her loss.