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Sunday 30 March 2014

Kate Daniels Series #4: Magic Bleeds by Ilona Andrews

Published: May 25th 2010 by Ace
Goodreads Summary: 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.

-MY THOUGHTS-

I remember saying that Magic Strikes was the best book in the Kate Daniels series. Unfortunately for it, the wife and husband duo Ilona Andrews wrote Magic Bleeds. The fourth book of the series is just A-M-A-Z-I-N-G. 

Funnily enough, at first I wasn’t really wowed by this book. I found the start kind of slow. But as I turned the pages, tension build up like a balloon that is being blown up with air to the point of explosion. After each page I turned, a question kept nagging at me. What is going to happen next?

By now, everybody knows that Atlanta is a city filled with magical trouble. This time the trouble is a mysterious hooded man or woman (nobody’s quite sure) who wreak havoc anywhere he goes. Shapeshifter gets scared without any reason when he/ she is around and he/she can bring devastating sickness. Does it sound interesting to you?

In Magic Bleed, even more than before, the shadow of Roland, Kate god-like father looms over Atlanta in a way I hadn't at all expected. I think that every book offer a glimpse of him and his brilliance. And in a way I feel that readers get at the same time a preview of the type of power Kate could acquire.

Besides this mysterious killer, Kate must deal with her tumultuous love life and her nasty boss. Both are extremely difficult to manage. Since she was little, Kate was taught that she mustn't trust, love and care for anyone. Happiness was not an option for her, she was there for one and only reason, kill Roland, her father. 

Kate lived and breathed this philosophy until she met Curran and all her other shapeshifters friends. But I’ll argue that Curran is truly the starting point of her metamorphosis. Before him, she always thought that there would never be anyone to welcome her home after a fight. 

However, all her dreams of a different life are destroyed because of a misunderstanding between her would be lover and her. Because of that, we see a sighlty different Kate during the first part of the book. Kate's stans do not need to worry though, their girl is still as tough as a nail and as fierce as a tiger. But she’s definitely heartbroken.

Since Kate and Curran relation is being taken to a new level, how it would affect their responsability is also explored. Curran is the Beast Lord, he has a thousands of Shapeshifters under his control. Curran's throne is held only by the strenght of his paws and not because he's loved by his fellow. 

At the first sign of weakness, the Alphas of the other clan will try to snatch his rulership faway rom him. Therefore, he truly needs someone who will support him at 100%. As for Kate, anyone who gets close to her is in danger of death because of her lineage.

As always in the Kate Daniels series, the secondary characters were great and very relatable.

By the way, there’s a little hint that something might happen between Jim and Dali.

So far, I had never particularly disliked Ted Monohyan, Kate authoritative boss. Sure, I got that he was a racist that hated anything not human. But his level of nastiness increase greatly in Magic Bleeds. Thanks to him, we get a picture of what the Order of Merciful Aid is truly like. And well, it isn’t very pretty.

In any case, if anyone hasn’t yet read Magic Bleeds, I advise you to do so, because it’s an amazing book. Definitely among the best in the Urban fantasy genre.



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