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The December books for the Kate Daniels readalong starts with Magic Rises. It's book 6 in the series by Ilona Andrews. However, there is the short story An Ill-Advised Rescue that counts as 5.8. It is included in the back of Magic Rises, so I'll be combining the reviews! I am reading these as part of a readalong hosted by Stef, Heather and Megan. I was also able to use Magic Rises for the prompt buddy read for the first board of Winter's Kiss.
I'll start with An Ill-Advised Rescue. We see Kate get an emergency call from the Guild that Saiman's been kidnapped. In the last full length novel, Magic Slays, we saw Kate help Rene from the Red Guard with a case and she ends up getting a promotion. When she does, she pretty much cleans house and several former guards ended up petitioning the guild to join. One of them has decided instead to kidnap Saiman for $1 million. Kate gets the call after having his name flagged in the system and grabs Derek. Instead of paying the ransom, they rescue him. I really enjoyed the short story and rated it 4-stars. It was mostly a battle scene, but I loved getting to see just Kate and Derek team up again. Derek's one of my favorite characters so it's always fun to see him go wolf. I'm intrigued on how this will fit into Magic Rises and the plot overall. We see Saiman stuck in his ice giant form and I'm wondering if that paired with The Retribution Clause will factor in.
Okay, mini-review is over. Time for Magic Rises!
Kate and Curran are dealing with another young shifter fighting loupism, this time twins and one of Julie's best friends. When Curran receives an offer to mediate a situation in Europe and the payment is panacea, they agree despite it feeling like a trap. Panacea will help cure and stop loupism and is something that American shifter packs have been clamoring for. When they arrive, it turns out the lord of manor is none other than Hugh D'Ambray. When lamassu's start attacking and Kate and Curran get pulled into political relations between three packs, things start to turn. Top if all off with a young wolf shifter going after Curran to steal him from Kate and it's a perfect situation to start a war.
This book was good, but I would have to say one of my least favorite so far. I wanted more growth from Kate's powers, especially since she's been a little stagnant lately. I also didn't like that Curran kept Kate in the dark again and lied to her. I also wasn't into the pack politics, especially with them being packs that we don't really care about. While there were a lot of fun and interesting moments, I also was not prepared for the battle at the end. I was saddened by one particular death and not happy. I get it's the precursor to war and there'll be casualties, but I didn't like how it went down at all.
I also really got angry with Curran and really felt for Kate. Even though they knew they were entering a trap and hostile territory, I was still excited to see Kate and Curran practically trapped together for a full length novel. After reading Magic Gifts and seeing that small scale, I really wanted more. Also, we do see An Ill-Advised Rescue come into play, but not The Retribution Clause. I'm still wondering how exactly they will relate the rest of the series.
I am still enjoying my time and feel like things are really starting to ramp up and we still have 4 full length books left. I'm intrigued to see how this will all play out and outside of Kate at least confronting Roland, who knows what will happen? I'm trying not to speculate too much so I end up being disappointed with what actually happens compared to what my brain imagines should happen.
Have you read An Ill-Advised Rescue or Magic Rises?
Bookishly Yours,
Stasi🍎
STATISTICS: An Ill-Advised Rescue, Ilona Andrews, 4-stars, 0 days, eBook, 30 pages, published in 2013
STATISTICS: Magic Rises, Ilona Andrews, 4-stars, 2 days, eBook, 257 pages, published in 2013
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