Review: Magic Slays by Ilona Andrews

Plagued by a war between magic and technology, Atlanta has never been so deadly. Good thing Kate Daniels is on the job.

Kate Daniels may have quit the Order of Merciful Aid, but she’s still knee-deep in paranormal problems. Or she would be if she could get someone to hire her. Starting her own business has been more challenging than she thought it would be—now that the Order is disparaging her good name, and many potential clients are afraid of getting on the bad side of the Beast Lord, who just happens to be Kate’s mate.

So when Atlanta’s premier Master of the Dead calls to ask for help with a vampire on the loose, Kate leaps at the chance of some paying work. Turns out this is not an isolated incident, and Kate needs to get to the bottom of it—fast, or the city and everyone dear to her might pay the ultimate price . . .

Note: I received a copy from the publisher for review.

Genre: Urban Fantasy
Publisher: Penguin Group
Pub Date: May 31, 2011
#5 in the Kate Daniels series

Buy links:
Amazon: Magic Slays (Kate Daniels, Book 5)
Book Depository: Magic Slays
Author's Website

Magic Slays is the fifth book in the Kate Daniels series and it is nothing short of another strong and solid addition.

There is action, drama, humor, romance and gut wrenching emotion galore. Basically, it's crack. So much happens in this book and in a rather short amount of time. We see Kate struggling to get her business going, getting thrown into the midst of a supernatural battle and all the politics that involves, not to mention struggling to find comfortable footing with her mate, Curran (that could be a whole book on its own) and dealing with personal hits that just keep on coming. Every time you think she should just roll over and play dead, but we know our Kate and we know that aint gonna happen. She may be dazed and down, but she's never out and she's never more dangerous than when she's up against it and everything she holds dear is on the line.

We learn so much more about Kate and her background, heritage and powers in this one...things even she didn't know. We meet new and fascinating characters and see more of the supernatural community of Atlanta as well as it's political undercurrents. What I loved with the passion of a thousand suns was seeing Kate having to embrace who and what she is. If she's going to survive and save those she loves, she has to stop running, stop fighting and be who she was born to be. The scenes at the end where *major spoilerage* happens were (excuse my fangirl gushing here) OMG EPIC! I think I may have squealed and then gushed to hubby for like an hour with non stop chatter about the all around Epic awesomeness that was this book and this scene and what does he say? "Thanks for spoiling it for me."
God, he's such a downer. Anyway.... all I can say is READ IT. There's so much good stuff here and it has my poor fried brain in hyper drive thinking of all the ways the rest of the series could play out. My mind, it's boggled.

Oh, and of course, all of this gushing is without even mentioning the relationship between Kate and Curran. Their love is not a smooth one, but it is a passionate, pure, all consuming one that will utterly decimate anything that tries to stand in its way. Yeah, that's hot.

Final grade: A.

Smexy Books review A