Magic Mourns by Ilona Andrews

5 Stars as usual for Ilona Andrews

Magic Mourns is a novella featuring Kate Daniel’s best friend, Andrea.  It takes place between Magic Strikes (#3) and Magic Bleeds (#4).   This is the story of how Andrea and Raphael first get together.  When we start the story Andrea is still avoiding Raphael.  He has decided that he wants her and has called her work twice a day for months.  He has “courted” her in typical bouda fashion.  This varies slightly from the shapeshifter customs of courting which is basically breaking and entering and leaving evidenced of said B & E.  For bouda’s this aforementioned B & E also includes a practical joke of some sort.  I am not going to say what because part of the fun was reading what Raphael had been up to. 

At the beginning Andrea gets a call out to a situation with a dog the size of a house.  With Andrea’s luck this situation also includes the very bouda of her dreams she has been avoiding.  They have to work together to figure out what is going on. 

There is even a tiny excerpt at the end that includes some more information about Kate and Curran and a certain apple pie!  Awesome! 

Favorite quote:  (the “he” in this is Raphael)

He glanced into the side mirror and stared, slack-jawed.  His lips were solid black.  A thick black line of guy liner outlined his deep-set eyes and a little black tear dripped down his left cheekbone.  He touched his cheek, stretching the skin to better examine the tear, his face a flat mask, glanced at me, and exploded with laughter.