Magic Bites: A Kate Daniels Novel: 1

As a new author and new subject matter this was an intriguing start. I did found some of the language and explanations a bit much at first. So much info to take in and the background knowledge was a bit daunting too. Overall tho I enjoyed this book. Narration was good tho

My biggest complaint about this book is that I really wanted it to be twice as long as it was. Ilona Andrews packs a hell of a lot into the 258 pages she's got and she's come up with an intriguing concept of a future world where magic and technology exist side-by-side, colouring it with many ideas that I've never seen before (particularly vampires being little more than undead puppets). Told in a tight first person voice, Kate Daniels is a pretty believable character, who leads you through what's happening to and around her. Whilst I think that some of the story is too exposition heavy, I think that's more to do with the limited length available to Andrews and I certainly didn't feel that any of it was needless.I have reservations - the hints at Kate having some potential uber-power could rapidly disintegrate into some ripe Mary-Suism, although I must stress that in this book Andrews never crosses the line. I also wasn't a big fan of Curran the Beast Lord, mainly because arrogant men have never been my thang. I'd have liked to be shown some of Kate's relationship with her guardian, Greg, rather than be told about him (although again - I suspect this is more to do with page constraint) and I'm not sure that the relationship between Crest and Kate is really allowed to develop enough to give an impact to what happens between them. I also think that the pacing gets too full on in the final quarter, when Andrews resorts to dropping in key information suddenly to move onto the next thing and some events happen off page that I'd have liked to have seen and I think that the villain suffers as a result, dropping any Machiavellian qualities that they had.However I think that for all this, Andrews's skill as a writer to watch shines through - I particularly liked Saiman, whose quest to come up with the ultimate in attractive men was amusing and who sells his encyclopaedic knowledge as a service to anyone willing to pay and there's enough wit in the text to make you care about what happens to Kate. It's also refreshing to see a fantasy writer who has clearly thought through the world they've created (although I had a tiny, tiny nitpick with the Crusader in the final act who tries to use conventional weapons when 'tech' isn't dominant) and who is trying to weave together pre-existing fantasy tropes with elements that are (to me at least) wholly original. I'm keen to see whether and how Andrews develops her heroine, given the set-up that the reader is left with at the end of the book and I think this has the makings of a solid urban fantasy series for readers who like tough female characters.

I absolutely loved this book. It's so good to find a new 5 star series. I already am planning to recommend it to anyone and everyone.It is an Urban Fantasy, so for anyone who needs a romance storyline all wrapped up neatly within the first book, you might not enjoy it for that reason alone. But I, for one, am quite happy to have a slow burning love story, cast over several books. It's all in the anticipation people! And there is a clearly a potential love interest here. Just as soon as they both get over themselves, and stop annoying the hell out of each other. Love it! I think it's great when they start off hating each other, it makes it all the sweeter when they finally concede defeat. In this case. I'm not sure who will break first. There was a kiss, but that was only really done for distraction, to stop the other person from thinking about how scared they were.There are oodles of weird creatures in this book. It makes a refreshing change to have some new ideas in this area. There were Shapechangers, Necromancers and various other magic users. There were hints left here and there that Kate herself has some big secret concerning her genealogy. Although we know she has magic right from the offset, she, for some reason has to be really careful about her blood. Always making sure that if she bleeds anywhere, she cleans it up or burns it. Like as if someone were to smell or sample her blood, they would find out what bloodline she came from, and I'm guessing this would be bad. As I said, there were only clues to this so far, no actual answers, so I have no idea what the big deal is, but I am very intrigued at this point.Another interesting twist was that, although this series features vampires, they are not the sexy, sparkly, gorgeous-looking creatures that many authors portray these days, but rather disturbing, insect-like creatures that scuttle about on the ceiling. They are also mindless, and have to be controlled, or "navigated" by a necromancer or necro-navigator. They were completely gross.I like the whole idea of the world being post magical Apocalypse, with crumbling buildings and other leftovers from the tech age, before magic took over. It was also something new that I haven't read before. And for me to find something new with the amount of books in this genre that I read, is always a bonus.I really liked Kate. It's so nice to find a protagonist who you just love. That's not to say she's not flawed, because let's face it, who would want to read about someone that wasn't in some way. Her smart-ass retorts are just hilarious but she doesn't quite know when to switch it off, which is so going to get her in trouble one of these days, I'm sure.I cannot wait for the next one but at the same time I almost want to put of reading them because I don't want to run out of them...

Well I thought I’d written a review but alas no..If you haven’t read this series before, why?!? It’s literally the best:well written, characters are amazing, never gets monotonous.It’s Kate Daniels story but we meet so many varied and interesting people along the way and most stay throughout the whole series.I’ve just re read the whole series again and I’m not lying when I say it must be around the 20th time or more, over the years I’ve re read it every 3 months or so.Please give it a try, it won’t disappoint you.If you happen to read this Ilona Davies? Can we have: maybe Roland’s story? Maybe after the ending of book 10 Magic Triumphs, also Conlan as an adult? There are so many book series you can make out of the characters.Reading Julie’s atm and looking forward to book 2