Magic Rises by Ilona Andrews

Absolutely FANTASTIC.

That’s all. Now you can go read it for yourselves.

What? You need more?

Okay fine.

It’s round six of Kate and Curran in all their shapeshifting, sarcastic, kick-ass glory!

Too often, when a series reaches this number of installments, things get old, convoluted, and drawn-out. Not so with the husband-and-wife writing team of Ilona Andrews. The dynamics between former Guild mercenary Kate Daniels and her Alpha shapeshifter mate, Curran Lennart, are as lively and laugh-out-loud funny as ever. Together, they run the Atlanta shapeshifter Pack while trying to work out the bumps in their new relationship.

In this book, the focus is on the Pack’s children. Many don’t make it to adulthood when they fail to control their beast side. “Going loup” is heartbreakingly painful, as the children go insane. The extremely hard-to-acquire medicine that increases the chances for survival has just been offered to Curran and Kate as payment for bodyguard service. As the neutral party, Curran and Kate are to protect and do whatever is “in the best interest” of Desandra, a woman who is eight months pregnant with twins from two different fathers. Yes, you read that right. Apparently, it is actually a real phenomenon (I *had* to look this up) called heteropaternal superfecundation, and of course, it is that much more prevalent with shapeshifters. (Feel free to Google the actual mechanics of how that can come about with humans.) To do this, they must travel to Colchis in the nation of Georgia. This was the supposed destination of Jason and the Argonauts where they searched for the Golden Fleece.

I love how different aspects of Greek and Middle Eastern mythology are woven into the plot here. There are even beasts referenced by Biblical apocalyptic visions. One of the many aspects I appreciate about this series is the variety of creatures that get introduced just when you thought things couldn’t get any weirder. The detailed descriptions of the monstrosity of some of these creatures is horrifying and at the same time, fascinating (at least to the visualizing learner type, fantasy addict like me).

The Atlanta Pack itself is not your typical pack consisting of only one type of shapeshifter. Curran is the Beast Lord overseeing the alphas of all the different shapeshifters in the area. With that, come the often hilarious personality conflicts between different clan members. Watching Curran and Kate resolve issues in the Pack with ingenuity and very difficult diplomatic restraint on their part, makes me love these characters even more as the complexity grows and the relationship matures.

With their crew of ten Pack members, Kate and Curran must deflect the assassination attempts on the life of their charge whose unborn child stands to inherit a very profitable piece of land. The three separate parties with a stake in the outcome are all suspect: Desandra’s father, her first husband and his family, and her second husband and his family. Husband one and two are the fathers of her unborn twins. Whichever twin is born first inherits the land from Desandra’s father, who initially made it a part of Desandra’s dowry before he had fallouts with both sets of in-laws. Now, he would rather see his daughter and his grandchildren dead before he gives up that land.

The numerous fight scenes are simply awesome. The weaponry used is a mixture of ancient and what I assume is cutting edge technology. Of course, with intricate weapons come interesting ways to kill someone, which are all described in crisp detail. Normally, I am turned off by a lot of blood and gore, but Ilona Andrews does it in a way that is succinct and precise. Everything is over in the blink of an eye when the enemy is dead or lies dying.

The dialogue through all of this is always entertaining in the typical Andrews signature style:

“On behalf of Gagra, I’m here to extend the hospitality of my beautiful city to you,” Hibla said, “Gagra welcomes you with all of its warmth, its lakes and waterfalls, its beaches and orchards. But be forewarned, if you come here with violent intentions, we will leave your corpses for the crows. We have no problem murdering every single one of you.

“Awesome speech,” Keira told her. Jim’s sister was smiling, and it didn’t look friendly.

“Thank you. I worked hard on it. Please, follow me.”

With relationship turmoil that at one point had me almost freaking out over its possible demise and the ever increasing spotlight on Kate’s presence bringing her one step closer to a life-or-death confrontation with her father, it all adds up to become another great addition to the Kate Daniels series. A year is too long to wait for the next installment, but like all the rest, it will be worth it.

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