Curran POV Collection by Gordon Andrews - Part 2

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The final bit of reading for the Kate Daniels readalong for October is the associated Curran POVs. There are ten total and the first nine are available in a collection that's free on their website. The POVs are written by Gordon Andrews, one-half of the husband and wife writing duo Ilona Andrews. I previously read the first three, but the six remaining in this collection all correspond to this month's reads. The readalong is hosted by the lovely Stef, Heather and Megan. I was able to apply this collection to the prompt cover without people for Fall In Love. This also covered the howlin' for you, #squadgoals, black cover and CSI: crime scene investigation prompts for Bang in the Night Bingo. This also covered the prompts part of a series, fated mates, novella, indie published, shifters and black cover for the Paranormal Romance Readathon.

Once again, we are going to do quickfire reviews for the different shorts. This is going to be part two of the POV collection. Now we are going to go over the ones that fit in with Magic Strikes and Magic Bleeds. Let's get to it!

The fourth story in the collection is Midnight Games. This is a little bit of a mash up of scenes from Curran's POV throughout the Midnight Games portion of Magic Strikes. We start with him trapped in the loup cage and when he forces his way into the team that's going to fight. This was super cute to see, especially with his interactions with Julie.

The fifth part is Hot Tub. This POV, oh boy was it good. This is one of my favorites and we get to see Curran's thoughts and reactions to Kate when they are in the hot tub at the Midnight Games. They do end up kissing and seeing Curran really fight against pushing Kate for more and to open up was such a great perspective.

The sixth part is called Kate's Origin. This is set between Magic Strikes and Magic Bleeds I don't really know how to feel about this. We see a meeting with Jim and Curran. He's compiled a file on Kate and we see them both discuss Kate and her parentage and how she was raised. It was fun seeing parts that Kate hasn't talked about before too much, like the gladiator fights throughout South America. I did wish that this happened after Kate and Curran opened up to each other. It also made me a little frustrated with Curran and Jim and how they treated her later.

The seventh story, Naked Dinner, also takes place between Magic Strikes and Magic Bleeds. In Magic Strikes Kate's big mouth gets away from her and she challenges Curran. If he finds her within three days, she owes him a naked dinner. This is the longest of the stories in this collection. We see Curran dealing with the murder of a shifter and dealing with the Pack. He ends up getting injured and misses the dinner. I can't remember 100%, but we either see Kate's POV here or in the epilogue of Magic Strikes. I mentioned this in my review of Magic Bleeds, but this is one short story that I think should be read before. Timeline wise it's set before, but I feel like knowing this story helped me not get as angry with Curran during that book.

The eighth story was Conclave. This takes place during Magic Bleeds when Saiman and Kate go on the agreed "date." This is a super quick and short story that shows his thoughts when he gets to the restaurant for the meeting with the People. I do wish it was a little bit longer so we could see parts of the meeting with the People and his thoughts before he chases Kate and Saiman.

The last story in this collection is Awake. This takes place at the end of Magic Bleeds when Curran wakes up from his coma. We get to see him reprimand the alpha shifters for constantly challenging Kate. This was a sweet story and good way to wrap up the collection.

The Curran POV "series" has one more story, but that is the Prequel to Magic Shifts, the 8th book in the Kate Daniels series. I really enjoyed reading these stories and getting more insight to both Curran and Pack. I'm really excited to see more of our shifter characters. This was such a great option to do for a bind-up of the stories they've released on their website. I love little additional things like this that authors do, especially when it's a fantasy or there's a lot of world building.

Have you read the Curran POV Collection?

Bookishly Yours,

Stasi🍎

STATISTICS: Curran POV Collection, Gordon Andrews, 4-stars, 0 days, eBook, 157 pages, published in 2013

Curran POV by Gordon Andrews - Part 1

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I am participating in the Kate Daniels readalong hosted by Heather, Stef and Megan. Kate Daniels is a series written by husband and wife duo Ilona Andrews. For some of their books they've posted short stories and other POVs on their website. Curran, a main character from Kate Daniels, has several POVs that are written by Gordon. The first 9 were bound together in a collection and is free on their website! I'm goin to leave the rating open for now until I get through all of the scenes. Since the books for this month are only the first two and the prequel novella, I'm only reading the first three for now. Also, I'll be applying this to the Fall in Love reading challenge, but wait until I've read all shorts in the bind up before allocating it to a prompt. I'll also wait until then to do my statistics, but I'll add my reading time to it (a whole 20 minutes). Update: I've read the rest of the collection and have given the bind up 4-stars.

The first short is titled Unicorn Lane and corresponds to book 1, Magic Bites. This scene is when Curran and Kate first meet at the dilapidated building on Unicorn Lane. It's a neutral area and also a criminal cesspool. It was really fun getting to see his initial thoughts and impression on Kate. Even more so knowing how much he learns about her later. I also loved how he played with her and we got to see it wasn't quite as sinister as Kate thought it was.

The second short is Fernando's and also goes with Magic Bites. This is when they bump into each other at the restaurant Fernando's on separate dates. It was even more fun to see how he kept watching her and felt that her date wasn't worth being with her. Knowing that they become a couple in the future it was really nice seeing Curran's pov before the romance really kicks in. It helped show how much care and interest he had in her from the start. Also, I loved how he mentioned stealing her away from the fancy restaurant and going for burgers. The romance reader in me wanted an alternate universe where that happens. I'm sure there are books out there where it happens for real. I also liked seeing a bit more of Myong and what her relationship with Curran was really like.

The third short is Soup. It's the final short for this review and corresponds with book 2, Magic Burns. Oh this scene. It was so swoony and touching and yet funny. I loved seeing Curran's prep before he brings her chicken soup after getting rescued once again. Later in Magic Burns it's alluded that it meant more than Kate realizes. Having read a lot of shifter books I got the hints of what was happening, but it was nice to get that confirmation from Curran himself.

I really enjoyed chatting with everyone last night and can't wait to get to the next couple books! I really enjoyed reading Curran's shorts and it did more for the books than I expected. It was such a nice touch. Next month the plan is to read books 3, 3.5, 4 and 4.5. The Curran POVs that correspond are 4-9, which is the remaining of this bind up. If you are interested in joining the readalong, I highly encourage you to do so! I'm really enjoying the series so far and am happy to finally have the excuse to read it!

Have you read any of Curran's POVs?

Bookishly Yours,

Stasi🍎