Review: Magic Shifts

MAGIC SHIFTS
Kate Daniels #8
Ilona Andrews
Urban Fantasy
342 pages
Ace
Available Now
Source: Finished copy from publisher for review

THE STORY (from Goodreads)
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…

MY THOUGHTS
The Kate Daniels series is one that manages to remain fresh and engaging despite rapidly approaching the double digits in number, teaching us new things about the endlessly imaginative world and its inhabitants with each installment. Magic Shifts is the latest outstanding addition to a phenomenal series, giving us a new and impressive villain to test Kate and Curran while at the same time deepening the relationship between the two of them as well as their relationships with those around them.

Kate is a woman who, without fail, brings a smile to our faces every time we pick up a book in this series, her quick wit and laid-back approach to creatures and situations that would have most people curled in the fetal position just a few of the things that make us want to reach out and hug her for being a more unconventional variety of badass. She has a healthy understanding of her own capabilities without constantly patting herself on the back, making her occasional boastful taunts to whomever she's facing down come across as genuine rather than self-congratulatory.

Her relationship with Curran is as much a highlight in this newest installment as it has been from the beginning, the two of them reaching a place where they have complete trust and faith in the other, and just when we begin to think an established romance might not hold our interest the way the building of it did in previous books, Ilona Andrews delivers the emotional equivalent of a smack upside the head for ever doubting them. The romantic punch to the gut is short-lived but no less poignant for its brevity, reminding us just how beautiful a couple Kate and Curran are and how much we want to see the two of them get to a place where their days are no longer full of life and death struggles.

Overall, Magic Shifts is as engaging and entertaining as we've come to expect from the writing team of Ilona Andrews, telling a complete story so that we're left utterly satisfied as we turn the last page while keeping the larger plot involving Roland alive and well so future installments have innumerable legs to stand on.

Rating: 4.5/5
 

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This book was  sent to me by the publisher free of charge for the purpose of a review. 

I received no other compensation and the above is my honest opinion.

Review: Night Shift

NIGHT SHIFT
Anthology
Nalini Singh, Illona Andrews, Lisa Shearin, Milla Vane
Paranormal Romance/Urban Fantasy
384 pages
Berkley
Available November 25th
Source: ARC from publisher for review

THE STORY (from Goodreads)
Four masters of urban fantasy and paranormal romance plunge readers into the dangerous, captivating world unearthed beyond the dark...

New York Times bestselling author Nalini Singh delivers a smoldering story with Secrets at Midnight , as the scent of Bastien Smith’s elusive lover ignites a possessiveness in him that’s as feral as it is ecstatic. And now that he’s found his mate, he’ll do anything to keep her.

In #1 New York Times bestselling author Ilona Andrews’ novella, Magic Steals , when people start going missing, shapeshifting tigress Dali Harimau and jaguar shifter Jim Shrapshire must uncover the truth about the mysterious creatures responsible.

From Milla Vane—a warrior princess must tame The Beast of Blackmoor to earn a place among her people. But she quickly discovers that the beast isn't a monster, but a barbarian warrior who intends to do some taming himself.

It’s seer Makenna Frazier's first day on the job at Supernatural Protection and Investigations, and her first assignment is more than she bargained for when bodyguard duty for a leprechaun prince’s bachelor party goes every which way but right in national bestselling author Lisa Shearin’s Lucky Charms.

MY THOUGHTS
Secrets at Midnight by Nalini Singh
Ms. Singh never disappoints with her paranormal romances, and whether we’re treated to a novella or a full length book, we turn the last page utterly satisfied yet already craving more. Secrets at Midnight takes us back to fiery redhead Mercy’s family, her brother Bastien finally catching his mate’s scent and setting out to woo and win her using all the weapons in his impressive arsenal. Things of course move quickly between them given the short page length, but their romance is a sweet and sexy reminder of why the Psy-Changeling series sits on a shelf of favorites.

Rating: 4/5

Magic Steals by Ilona Andrews
Like Ms. Singh, the writing team of Ilona Andrews has a gift for writing extraordinary secondary characters, and much to our delight and glee Magic Steals thrusts two such characters into the limelight. While this novella boasts a well-plotted mystery, the true highlights are of course Dali and Jim, Dali’s understandable insecurities (given she’s mostly blind with magic that’s hit-or-miss and he’s Alpha of Clan Cat) regarding how fit a romantic partner she is for Jim making us want to reach through the pages and hug her. In our short time with the two of them though, she and Jim work through their various relationship issues, all the while solving a tangled web of a case with their individual senses of humor present and accounted for.

Rating: 4.5/5

Lucky Charms by Lisa Shearin
Lucky Charms is a laugh-out-loud novella that walks us through protagonist Makenna Frazier’s first night at her new job. A new job that includes horny (and naked) leprechauns, strip clubs, and a partnership complicated by both physical attraction and the inadvertent inhalation of an inhibition-lowering drug. Pages fly by as clothes come off (including the clothes of those who make us grateful we can see only words on a page and not the events themselves), and we reach the end ever-so ready for a full novel with Makenna and her partner Ian leading the way.

Rating: 4/5

The Beast of Blackmoor by Milla Vane
The Beast of Blackmoor is a drastic and rather abrupt change in tone from the previous novella, humor and hijinks suddenly followed up by a grittiness that wipes the lingering smile from our faces. The abruptness is in no way the fault of Ms. Vane, but her world is inescapably off-putting to a higher degree than it might have been otherwise given the order of this anthology, the multiple rapes and violence such a departure from the other three that we can’t help but struggle to find purchase. The story itself has an intriguing Beauty and the Beast-type setup with a physically and emotionally strong heroine tasked with bringing a “beast” to heel, it just takes a while longer to really settle in and adjust to the darkness.

Rating: 3/5

Buy Night Shift:

  

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This book was sent to me by the author  free of charge for the purpose of a review. 

I received no other compensation and the above is my honest opinion.

Book Boyfriend: Curran

My Book Boyfriend is a weekly meme hosted by Missie at The Unread Reader, one that gives us the opportunity to introduce our latest literary crushes and match up their descriptions with a few pictures of a gentleman we think fits the bill. Curran (aka the Beast Lord of Atlanta) from Illona Andrews's Kate Daniels series is one of my all time favorite male characters – not only is he gorgeous, but he has a snarky streak a mile wide and his interactions with Kate are the highlights of every book for me. Hope you enjoy him!

A brief description of Curran when Kate first meets him:

A couple of inches taller than me, the Beast Lord gave an impression of coiled power. Easy, balanced stance. Blond hair, cut too short to grab. At first glance he looked to be in his early to mid-twenties, but his build betrayed him. His shoulders strained his T-shirt. His back was broad and corded with muscle, showing the power and strength a man developed in his early thirties. (pg 55 of Magic Bites)

I actually picked a character with blond hair this week! I almost always pick a character with dark hair and then make him blond in the pictures, but I think I found a good fit this this time without having to change anything. Daniel Goddard fits the image of Curran I have in my head pretty well. Curran's hair is often a bit longer in later books and that's the way I picture him - with a bit of a shaggy mane of hair since he's a lion shapeshifter and all – so I have pictures of Daniel with both long and short hair.



"His Majesty needs a can-I girl anyway. And I'm not it."

"A can-I girl?" Andrea frowned.

I leaned back. "'Can I fetch your food, Your Majesty? Can I tell you how strong and mighty you are, Your Majesty? Can I pick out your fleas, Your Majesty? Can I kiss your ass, Your majesty? Can I...?

It dawned on me that Raphael was sitting very still. Frozen, like a statue, his gaze fixed on the point above my head.

"He's standing behind me, isn't he?"

Andrea nodded slowly.

"Technically it should be 'may I,'" Curran said, his voice deeper than I remembered. "Since you're asking permission."

....

He put the chair next to me, back first, and saddled it like a horse, crossing his arms on the top of the back to show off carved biceps.

Why me? (pg 42 of Magic Strikes)



Curran smiled.

"What's so funny?"

"Your panties have a bow," he said.

...

"What's wrong with bows?"

"Nothing." He was grinning now. "I expected barbed wire. Or one of those steel chains."

Wiseass. "I'm secure enough in myself to wear panties with bows on them. Besides, they are comfy and soft."

"I bet." He almost purred.

...

I tried to get off the bed. Everything was under control until my weight actually hit my legs and then the room decided to crawl sideways. Curran caught me. His arm hugged my back, his touch sending an electric shiver along my skin. Oh no.

"Need some help, ass kicker?" (pg 92 of Magic Burns)



This wasn't happening.

"I worry about you." He dipped his head and looked into my eyes. "I worry something stupid will happen and I won't be there and you'll be gone. I worry we won't ever get a chance and it's driving me out of my skull."

No, no, no, no...

We stared at each other. The tiny space between us felt too hot. Muscles bulged on his naked frame. He looked feral.

Mad gold eyes stared into mine. "Do you miss me, Kate?"

I closed my eyes, trying to shut him out. I could lie and then we'd be back to square one. Nothing would be resolved. I'd still be alone, hating him and wanting him.

He grabbed my shoulders and shook me once. "Do you miss me?"

I took the plunge. "Yes." (pg 175 of Magic Bleeds)

And just because it's Curran, one more picture for good measure (just ignore the huge necklace):