Magic Bites by Ilona Andrews Narrator: Renee Raudman
Series: Kate Daniels #1
Published by Penguin on December 31st 2012
Genres: Fantasy, Fantasy & Magic, Private Investigators, Women Sleuths
Pages: 384
Format: Audiobook
Goodreads
Atlanta would be a nice place to live, if it weren’t for magic…
One moment magic dominates, and cars stall and guns fail. The next, technology takes over and the defensive spells no longer protect your house from monsters. Here skyscrapers topple under onslaught of magic; werebears and werehyenas prowl through the ruined streets; and the Masters of the Dead, necromancers driven by their thirst of knowledge and wealth, pilot blood-crazed vampires with their minds.
In this world lives Kate Daniels. Kate likes her sword a little too much and has a hard time controlling her mouth. The magic in her blood makes her a target, and she spent most of her life hiding in plain sight.
But when Kate’s guardian is murdered, she must choose to do nothing and remain safe or to pursue his preternatural killer. Hiding is easy, but the right choice is rarely easy…
Julie’s Review:
I’ve been hearing amazing things about the Kate Daniels series, and at one point I bought up a bunch of the books when they were Kindle Daily Deals. So I finally decided to stream the audio so I get a chance to read it and see what all the fuss is about.
Kate is pretty kick-ass, I’ll give everyone that. She loves her sword, Slayer, and has some magical blood that is quite powerful. She also runs her mouth too much and gets herself into trouble, and refuses to accept help from anyone. So she’s isn’t easy to like, but she grows on you.
Here is an example of Kate and her mouth:
” Diplomacy was never my strong suit and my patience had run dry. I crouched and called out, “Here, kitty, kitty, kitty.”
“Kitty, kitty?” asked a level male voice. “What kind of woman greets the Beast Lord with ‘here, kitty, kitty’?” he asked.
“One of a kind”. I murmured the obvious reply. “
The supporting characters are quite awesome as well. The Beast Lord is my personal favorite, as he is very loyal and respectable for a beastie. I kind of liked how all the beasties were “The Pack” and all the vamps were “The People”, and everyone had their own titles and, as usual, the different lines are at the brink of warring each other.
But the overall story? It was just a good Urban Fantasy plot. A good plot, no complaints, but it didn’t blow me away either. It was just right for the genre, but I was expecting more from a series everyone is in love with. I’m curious about the magic versus tech issues, but that was kind of secondary to Kate trying to find the killer of her guardian. That plot included a lot of dead ends and conflicting clues, later to more murders and a unique creature. But it still didn’t blow me away. Since this is only the first in a series it probably gets a lot better. I’ve learned not to let the first in a series sway me from reading the rest if the first was good but not great.
[…] (Magic Bites by: Ilona Andrews) […]
Slayer is such a great name for a sword haha And I love when the supporting characters are just as entertaining as the MC!
Hopefully if you decide to continue the series the plot picks up enough to wow you!
I also want to read her, just because – like you – I heard nothing but praise. Not sure when I’ll find the time, but it’s on my list 🙂 Fantastic review.
Ramona recently posted…2015 Bookish Review: The Wow, The Meh, The Ugh
I haven’t heard of this book before. The plot sounds promising but honestly the cover puts me off. I’d need raving reviews to pick it up. ☺
I am so impressed that you persevere with a series if you don’t like the first book. Wish I had patience to do that!
Sue @ Crushingcinders recently posted…Why I Hate the Sneak Peek
I liked I just didn’t love it, you know? But first in a series can be misleading and sometimes a series can get really awesome. I’m also going by popular love for this series by like everyone else heh.
I find these books great for light fun reading, you know? And they do make me laugh!
Nikki recently posted…Review – A Wizard of Earthsea
Ilona Andrews is one of my favourite authors! I’m glad you enjoyed Magic Bites and Kate 🙂 I think the authors do a great job of developing the plot of the whole series in the next couple of books, as well as having a plot line for the individual books. I hope you enjoy the rest of the books if you give them a go!
Zareena @ The Slanted Bookshelf
Zareena @ The Slanted Bookshelf recently posted…DNF Review: A Thousand Nights // not bad just the wrong time
I keep forgetting it is a couple of writers under that pen name. That’s kind of a fascinating actually. I do hope to get more into the story in future books 🙂
I did the exact same thing – bought several of these when they were a Kindle deal, and I’ve just started listening to them on audio. I thought the same thing about this one. I enjoyed it, but there wasn’t really anything new or innovative. I’m glad to see Melanie say it keeps getting better. As soon as I finish my annual re-listen of The Dresden Files, I’m planning to move on to the second one.
Heather B recently posted…Review – A Wrong Bed Christmas
That’s interesting because I’m also currently listening to the Dresden Files. My first time though. Since you do an annual re-listen, I take it the stories are really amazing? The first was fun (I just reviewed it a couple weeks ago) but the second isn’t wowing me yet.
I feel like the Dresden stories really take off with the third book. That’s when the whole overarching storyline really kicks in and it’s less of a case-by-case series and more of a connected story. I also really like having James Marsters in my ears. 🙂
I’m enjoying having James Marsters as my companion on my drive to work 🙂
I was new to UF when I read Magic Bites, Julie. So I didn’t have much to compare it to. I think what won me over most was Kate’s kickass-ness and the humor like in the quote you used in your post. That’s one of my all-time favorite interactions! I hope you’ll find that with each installment, things get tighter and better in plot. This really is a favorite series of mine. 😀
Bookworm Brandee recently posted…2015 Bookish Resolutions Challenge Update ~ November
Well I did buy the whole series at one point (first 5 books I think) when they were on sale. So I’ll be continuing 🙂
I’m always excited to see people start this series. It is one of my favorites. The stories just continue to get better and better. I love the narration too. Renee is also one of my favorite narrators.
Melanie Simmons @mlsimmons recently posted…Nice Dragons Finish Last Audiobook by Rachel Aaron (REVIEW)
Hmm this is my first time hearing her and her voice was kind of weird to me at first, but then it grew on me. Looking forward to continuing since this is so popular 🙂