Warning: This book includes mature content such as: sexual content, and/or drug and/or alcohol use, and/or violence.
Magic Bites by Ilona Andrews Series: Kate Daniels #1
Published by Ace on 1 April 2007
Genres: Adult, Paranormal, Urban Fantasy
Pages: 260
Format: eBook
Source: Kindle Purchase
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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, leaving all kinds of paranormal problems in its wake.
Kate Daniels is a down-on-her-luck mercenary who makes her living cleaning up these magical problems. But when Kate's guardian is murdered, her quest for justice draws her into a power struggle between two strong factions within Atlanta's magic circles.
The Masters of the Dead, necromancers who can control vampires, and the Pack, a paramilitary clan of shapechangers, blame each other for a series of bizarre killings—and the death of Kate's guardian may be part of the same mystery. Pressured by both sides to find the killer, Kate realizes she's way out of her league—but she wouldn't have it any other way…
Magic Bites is an excellent introduction to the Kate Daniels series. With a kick-ass, no-prisoners attitude, Kate is the kind of heroine I love reading about!
My Magic Bites review:
Many of my blogger-friends have been raving about this series for quite a while, and when I noticed that the first six books were only $0.99 for kindle, I splurged and got them all! So far, I’m very happy with that choice! Magic Bites is well-written, has a rich cast of characters, and both mythology, magic and amazing fights to boot! Thrown into a world unknown to me didn’t make me feel unsettled at all, I devoured the story and felt like I discovered a lot of things both thanks to Kate and her discoveries, and because Curran shared some interesting tid-bits of himself when he thought I wasn’t looking.
There is different mythologies present in Magic Bites, and I have a feeling there will be much more to come. The world itself is quite bleak, but Kate is the kind of heroine who just doesn’t give up. She will fight the good fight, try to keep her important secrets, and not think of anything but the ultimate goal of her investigation.
Written like an old-fashioned romance, with a heroine on a quest, monsters, more than one crisis and lots of fights, Magic Bites is a well-crafted urban fantasy that includes all of the things I love in a good story. Between the shapeshifters and the vampires, the magic, the mythology and the fleshed out characters, I felt as if I was on an exciting adventure alongside Kate. I can’t wait to read more in this series, especially because some of my other favorite series came to an end this year. I want to know more about Curran, he intrigued me! And I want to find out what Samain is. I also have a small inkling as to what is up with Kate, but only time and more stories will tell.
If you enjoy well-crafter urban fantasy / paranormal stories, with some attraction and snarky humor, this is definitely a series you should read. Thank you to Carmel and Jessica, they have been the two bloggers who really opened my eyes to Kate Daniels.
Some of my favorite Magic Bites quotes:
Who were they kidding? No police force could hope to squash every summoning. It took a qualified wizard to detect a summoning in progress. It required only a half-literate idiot with a twitch of power and a dim idea of how to use it to attempt one.
Something large crawled along the hallway ceiling into the kitchen. I pretended not to see it. It stopped to the left of me and slightly behind, so I didn’t have to pretend very hard.
When in doubt and in need of information, find a snitch and squeeze him. That was one of the very few investigative techniques I was aware of. As a matter of fact, that and the “annoy principals involved until the guilty party decides to kill you” pretty much summed it up for me. Move over, Sherlock.
Diplomacy was never my strong suit and my patience ahd run dry. I crouched and called out, “Here, kitty, kitty, kitty.”
About Linda @ (un)Conventional Bookworms
Linda is an English as foreign language teacher and has a Master's degree in English Language and Literature. She's an avid reader, blogger, compulsive one-clicker and a genre omnivore. Ever since she learnt how to read she has been seen with a book or two in her hands everywhere she goes.
Twitter: Mlsimmons
This series will just keep getting better and better as you go further into the series. You won’t regret your purchase, I can promise you.
I’ve actually binge-read the first six books already, Melanie, and I agree, they do get better and better!
Thanks for stopping by.
I’ve been wanting to read this series since FOREVER, but still have to buy it. It has been highly recommended to me, so I know I should give it a go and the sooner the better…At least, that is the message I got from your review! 😉
You should check out if it’s still at $0.99 per book for the first six books, Silvia. That’s how I got my hands on this series, and I read all those books in a week 😀
The world-building AND the characters are amazing, I’m pretty sure you’ll enjoy Curran and Kate!
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I read this book a while back and I can’t remember much about it. I don’t think I really liked it, but I don’t remember why anymore. I never picked up the rest of the series, although I heard the series get’s better and better.
It happens sometimes, Lola. Sometimes, with PNR series, I enjoy them more when I have several books to read in one go, that way, I stay immersed in this new universe and the characters for longer at a time.
Thanks for stopping by.
I certainly love some snarky humor, but haven’t branched into adult uf yet
There are so many amazing adult UF stories out there, Brandi, but I totally understand why you haven’t branched out. There are just so many great books out there, and it’s difficult to make a choice.
Thanks for stopping by.
Yay! I’m so glad you enjoyed your introduction to this series, Lexxie. I started reading it when there was only Magic Bites available. And I loved the world building and the snarky banter between Kate & Curran. And it just kept getting better and better. I’m thrilled you’re falling in love with them as well.
**BIG, BIG HUGS**
Snarky banter for the win, right, Brandee? Kate is the kind of strong female character I just love, and Curran *sighs* he’s pretty awesome, too 🙂
Thanks for stopping by, my dear. *BIG HUGS*
*happy dance* I’m THRILLED that you finally gave Kate & Curran a chance, and even more so that my recommendation didn’t steer you wrong. Originally, the first installment was my least fav on account of the heavy world-building, however I’m sure that if I were to re-read it today I’d feel completely different. Keep at it because this series gets SO MUCH BETTER! The audiobooks are great too FYI. 🙂
I enjoyed the world building and all, but you’re right that it got better and better with each book 🙂
Heh… you mean I should stalk audible a little bit?
Thanks for stopping by, Carmel.
I will echo everyone that says this series gets better and better. Such a great series and one that I cannot get enough of. I am glad to hear that you are enjoying it as well!
I agree, too, Samantha. This series has been able to fill a void in my UF reading list 🙂
Thanks for stopping by.
Twitter: kimbacaffeinate
I am told the series just keeps getting better, and I loved Kate. So glad you enjoyed it!