Review: Magic Shifts by Ilona Andrews

Title: Magic Shifts
Author: Ilona Andrews
Series: Kate Daniels, Book 8
Genre: Urban Fantasy
Release Date: 4 August 2015

SPOILERS WARNING: If you haven't read this series (GO START NOW), do not start with this review. This is the 8th book in the series, and therefore there are MANY spoilers for major plotlines that are better experienced as the author wanted them. Seriously, even the blurb of this book spoils things learned in previous books. Start at the beginning. You may find the first book a little rough (it's a common complaint), though I loved it from the very first chapter, but I promise you: it becomes amazingly awesome. I very highly doubt that you'll regret starting on this journey.

Here's my review for book 1 in the series, Magic Bites.

For this review, head below the break.

After breaking from life with the Pack, mercenary Kate Daniels and her mate—former Beast Lord Curran Lennart—are adjusting to a very different pace. While they’re thrilled to escape all the infighting, Curran misses the constant challenges of leading the shapeshifters.

So when the Pack offers him its stake in the Mercenary Guild, Curran seizes the opportunity—too bad the Guild wants nothing to do with him and Kate. Luckily, as a veteran merc, Kate can take over any of the Guild’s unfinished jobs in order to bring in money and build their reputation. But what Kate and Curran don’t realize is that the odd jobs they’ve been working are all connected.

An ancient enemy has arisen, and Kate and Curran are the only ones who can stop it—before it takes their city apart piece by piece...

Ilona Andrews is my favorite author. Her books consistently blow me away. Every series, every story. Sitting here, having finished the latest Kate Daniels (by far, my favorite series, period), I wonder what I'm supposed to say. The husband-wife writing team have hit it out of the park. This book was amazing. The plot was exciting, the characters were the same that I've always loved (with the growth that's natural in all), the setting was beautifully haunting, and there were some awesome revelations that have made me even more anxious for the next books in this series.

When we last left Kate and Curran, Kate had claimed Atlanta, they'd separated with the Pack, and Kate's father was taking an active interest in his daughter's life. I was really anxious when I started this book to find out how life was going to change for my favorite Alpha duo, and it has definitely changed, but let's be honest, Kate and Curran were always going to be out there kicking ass and saving people.

I'm finding it pretty hard to know what to say without giving away too much of the book. The blurb is a bit misleading in some aspects, but does a fairly good job. When we start the book, Kate and Curran are unable to be in the Keep or to try and influence members of the Pack from leaving, so their interactions with other favorite characters was pretty non-existent...in the beginning. All that starts to change when George shows up stating that Eduardo (a were-bison) is missing, and his alpha - Mahon - won't do anything about it. Because of the loyalty both of them feel towards Eduardo and George, our favorite duo decide to take up the case. This leads in interesting (in the way of the saying 'may you live in interesting times') directions with a whole lot of odd occurrences happening.

What I will say is that the duo that is Ilona Andrews writes so vividly and with so much realism that they had me in tears for an entire chapter. I had to continuously put the book down, walk away, and re-compose myself throughout this chapter because it was so vivid, so heart-wrenching, and so real I could barely handle it. Though this section wrenched my heart out, stomped on it, and then tried to grind it into mush, I find myself so much more in love with their writing. It brought back to me a lot of scary, sad and painful moments from my own experiences, but I think that it also helped me. There's something so amazing when that happens for me.

If you wondered where things were going to go after that first inevitable meeting between Kate and her father, if you weren't sure about how much further the story could go... I'll be honest, I did. So, I hope I'm forgiven when I say that this book has opened up a bunch of fascinating possibilities that I can't wait to read more about! Ilona and Gordon introduce new angles and more information, with characters that are gaining nuance with every moment on-screen.

And, is it too much to ask for Hugh to show up again at some point?

For the next year, waiting for the new book, I guess I'll just be sitting in my corner, absorbed in re-reads.

Grade: A

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