Bambi Unbridled: Series Saturday Audiobook Review: Magic Bleeds by Ilona Andrews

Magic Bleeds
by Ilona Andrews
Series: Kate Daniels #4
Pub. Date: May 25, 2010
Publisher: Tantor Audio
Narrator: Renee Raudman
Length: 13 hrs 7 min
Format: Audiobook
Source: Hoopla / Library

My Rating:

Sultry Scale:

Atlanta would be a nice place to live, if it weren't for the magic. When the magic is up, rogue mages cast their spells and monsters appear, while guns refuse to fire and cars fail to start. But then technology returns, and the magic recedes as unpredictably as it arose.

Kate Daniels works for the Order of Knights of Merciful Aid, officially as a liaison with the mercenary guild. Unofficially, she cleans up the paranormal problems no one else wants to handle---especially if they involve Atlanta's shapeshifting community.

When she's called in to investigate a fight at the Steel Horse, a bar on the border between the territories of the shapeshifters and the necromancers, Kate quickly discovers that there's a new player in town. One who's been around for thousands of years---and who rode to war at the side of Kate's father.

This foe may be too much even for Kate and Curran, the Beast Lord, to handle. Because this time Kate will be taking on family.

So I was able to listen to this book today when I had to drive to Birmingham for work, and man did it make the time go by fast! I think that the villain of this book is probably one of the most interesting in the series. The authors did a great job creating an engaging back story, and I liked that it was worked into religious events that people are familiar with. I know some people don't like when religious aspects are worked into a story... but thats not me. I think its fascinating and creative to work the bible into paranormal stories with explanations or to provide a back story for extremely old characters. We learn a lot more about Kate's father, Roland, in this installment as well. So you really realize just how long he has been around and how incredibly powerful he has to be.

In my last review, I said how much the previous installment caused me to like Saiman's character... but in Magic Bleeds, he really loses much of the ground he gained by using Kate and taunting Curran. Of course Saiman's rash behavior finally pushes Kate and Curran over the edge... and I imagine ever reader screamed out FINALLY~ then proceeded to re-read that scene several times (just to make sure you didn't miss anything). While the explosion and release of all that tension was fabulous, it also made me a bit sad because I really enjoyed all the tension, teasing, sarcasm and playfulness that lead up to the start of this relationship. I mean the best line of the series still has to be "Here kitty kitty kitty..."

We do get to see a softer side of Kate at the end of this book, which helped develop a stronger emotional connection with her character. To avoid spoilers, I won't say in what context that came about... but I was a watering pot while driving down the interstate. All those truckers probably thought I was a bit loony.

So happy I decided to re-read this series.

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