Magic Shifts
Kate Daniels, Book # 8
By Ilona Andrews
ISBN: 978-0425270677
Author’s Website: http://www.ilona-andrews.com/
Brought to you by OBS reviewer Omar
Spoilers!
Summary
In the latest Kate Daniels novel from #1 New York Times bestselling author Ilona Andrews, magic is coming and going in waves in post-Shift Atlanta—and each crest leaves danger in its wake…
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, Kate and Curran know that separating from the Pack completely is a process that will take time.
But when they learn that their friend Eduardo has gone missing, Kate and Curran shift their focus to investigate his disappearance. Eduardo was a fellow member of the Mercenary Guild, so Kate knows the best place to start looking is his most recent jobs. As Kate and Curran dig further into the merc’s business, they discover that the Guild has gone to hell and that Eduardo’s assignments are connected in the most sinister way…
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.
Review
Kate and her gang are back.
Magic Shifts takes place almost three months after the events of Magic Breaks. Now that Curran and Kate are no longer the Beast Lord and Consort of the pack, they are adjusting to a family-home routine with their ward (daughter) Julie. Things are going okay for them; Curran has started to work with Kate in Cutting Edge, he might intimidate the clients, but he’s learning, and they can both go home at the end of the day and have a family dinner. The Master of the Dead of Atlanta knows that she is the Sharrim and might bow, every time they see her, but at least her father hasn’t interfered in her life, yet.
After Kate claims the land as hers, some people who have a little more of magic than others have noticed the difference and are starting to get curious. This gets worse when Eduardo, the Were-buffalo, friend of Kate and Curran goes missing and his secret girlfriend George, Curran’s sister, asks them to find him. Everything starts to escalate when ghouls, a winged-wolf, a giant tick, and giants start to appear on the last place where Eduardo was seen, Mercenary Guild.
Now, Kate and Curran, with the help of their friends, are in their quest to find Eduardo, the stalker that has been following him, and deal with Roland who is building a tower not so far away from Atlanta.
What can I say, the book was great, to the point I had a hard time putting it down just to go run some errands. Like the other books in the series, the problem at the beginning leads our heroes to a much greater problem than what they expected; in this case a missing person turns into a race to stop an old power from resurging into the world, *Spoiler* a djinn.
“I can make you whole,” I whispered. “But there is a price.”
“I’ll pay it.”
“Stop,” Nick said. “She’ll promise you the world and then she will make you her slave. She can’t help it. It’s in her blood.”
“Wait, what is this talk of whole-making?” Luther waved his arms. “What’s going on?”
Mitchell’s gaze never wavered. “I would rather be a slave than be this.”
I have always liked the magic that couple-author Ilona Andrews uses in their books, and in Magic Shifts I wasn’t let down. The couple always finds ways to combine different creatures or myths to create a new story or tale regarding the past before technology. For fans of the series, you can expect to see a ritual similar to the one done to Julie, but different and based in alchemy. Also, the magic words are not working this time.
Since we last saw Roland in the previous book, I have come to like how he addresses Kate, he always calls her “Blossom” or his “dangerous one”. In this book, we get to see a little more of Roland and hear how he met Kate’s mother, Kalina. The worst part is that we learn what his plans are for Kate and Curran, and Kate is not happy.
We cannot forget the funny scenes the book has. There were a lot of funny scenes well placed throughout the book, some better than others, and some people were funny with knowing they were getting in trouble. Kate’s sarcasm was not missed and sometimes her inner thoughts are the best.
Rowena saw me and out an extra effort into her speed-walking.
“You don’t belong here,” the journeyman continued. “We don’t tolerate panhandlers.”
“You’re in so much trouble,” Julie told him.
Rowena caught up with us. True to form, she was smiling, but her eyes were terrible. The journeyman saw her. “Master, I can handle –“
She hit him on the back of the head. He flinched.
“Bow,” she squeezed through the smile.
“What?”
“Bow, you idiot.”
For fans like me, who like Ilona Andrews and/or the Kate Daniels series, I recommend you Magic Shifts. If you are new to the series, it’s recommended that you read the previous books, but if not, just go along with the story and you won’t regret it. In Magic Shifts, we see a couple that has come so far, and now is trying to keep their friend, and family safe from ancient powers out of their control.
