Magic Breaks by Ilona Andrews (Kate Daniels #7)

5 (plus 5 more) Stars

 

I love, love, love anything these two put out!  They are my number one favorite authors!  (I also love Patricia Briggs, Jeaniene Frost, Karen Marie Moning, Darynda Jones, but Ilona Andrews is the best!).  I seriously love anything and everything they do.  This is number 7 in the series and I think there are at least 3 more. 

So much happened in this book!  We pick up a couple months after the last book where Kate and Curran traveled to the Black Sea with the promise of Panacea.  What they really encounter is Hugh (Kate’s father’s warlord) who has set up a test/trap for Kate and the shifters.  He wants Kate.  He wants the shifters (and most specifically Curran) out of the way.  After that whole debacle, Kate and Curran are in an uneasy state of watchful waiting back in Atlanta.  They hope that Roland (Kate’s father) doesn’t know she is in Atlanta, but they don’t know anything for sure. 

Curran goes to North Carolina to meet with some shifters about something or other.  How convenient.  Kate is in charge and has a meeting with The People.  Do you think this goes smoothly?  No way Jose!  She has got big problems on her hands and Curran is MIA.  Kate is of course racing against time, fatigue, pain, and a multitude of terrible things.  Hugh makes another appearance.  He is very unlikeable but at the same time I think I secretly like him (not as much as Curran obviously).  It isn’t a villain-you-love-to-hate scenario.  I enjoy his involvement in the storyline and his interactions with Kate.  I love that although the shifters and The People crap on Kate he finds this offensive.  Don’t worry, I am still all for Curran. 

So much happens in this book.  It is like the whole series culminated to this moment.  But there are still 3 more books so we have 3 more wonderful moments in the climax of this storyline.  I think I might have to re-read all these books in preparation for the next release. 

Gunmetal Magic by Ilona Andrews

5 Stars (Can I give it 6 stars?  It’s my blog and I say yes! So….) 6 Stars

Why, oh why do I do this to myself?  I have had this book since very soon after it came out, but when I read about Andrea Nash through the Kate Daniels series, she never inspired me to want to read an entire book about her.  So I put it off and put it off and read some really good, some ok and some bad books in the meantime.  However, I should know better.  Who is my favorite author?  Yes, you remember correctly, it is Ilona Andrews.  I have read everything Ilona and Gordon Andrews have written and loved it all.  I read “Of Swine and Roses” and I am O-B-S-E-S-S-E-D with theirnew Innkeeper Chronicles, which is a free online serial publication. 

So to recap Andrea had been burned badly fighting Kate’s crazy Aunt Erra.  Then the Order of Merciful Aid came for her and they found out their top knight was a shapeshifter and they kicked her out of the order.  Raphael was her honey lumpkins, but after that debacle in which time Andrea pulled away from him for three weeks after a giant fight it seems this was over and done.  Andrea gets called into a shapeshifter murder scene by Jim (the pack’s head of security).  And where do you think this murder took place?  That is right, on one of Raphael’s worksites!  Ugh, that is the worst and there is nothing I love better than some good old fashioned heartache!  I loved it.  I felt Andrea’s anguish with seeing and speaking with Raphael again.  Raphael behaves like a big fat jerk and I just want to hold Andrea while she cries.  So Andrea focuses on work and tries to find justice for the families of those killed.  This was a character that I had no interest in previously, but I was won over.  Andrea is an awesome fighter (not as good as Kate I think) and a person I would want to know.    

This author always knows how to make a great plot.  You think you know where it is going, but it twists so many times before it is over.  It is always steeped in so much history, legend, myth, ancient culture and religion it is amazing to read! 

Favorite quote (there are so many, this is just one):

“You will not pass!” Roman thundered. 

Great.  Now he had decided he was Gandalf.