Gunmetal Magic by Ilona Andrews
My Rating: 3-1/2 Stars of 5
Fans of the Kate Daniels Magic series will enjoy this tale centering on Kate’s best friend, Andrea Nash. Andrea is a feisty, independent young woman with a secret she’s been hiding for years…she’s beastkin. I will let you find out for yourselves exactly what that entails, but if you’ve been reading the Kate Daniels books, you’ll already have a pretty good idea. In the Magic books, Andrea is a secondary figure, and a pretty good one, at that. The problem with secondary figures is, they don’t always hold the same fascination as the main characters in a series do. For me, this was one of those cases.
Don’t get me wrong. The book was well-written, as always. I don’t think Ilona Andrews can write any other kind of book. And I did enjoy the story, which of course, involves saving the world from bad guys, yet again. Egyptian snake gods and Anubis himself, this time. It’s just that I really missed the presence of Kate and her Beast Lord, Curran, or as Kate calls him, “Furface.” Without those two, the book didn’t have quite as much punch, nor as much humor. I also felt the angry relationship problems between Andrea and her Mate, the very handsome bouda Raphael, felt a bit forced at times. But regardless of those shortcomings, I still devoured every bit of this story with relish, and it made me very antsy for the next installment in the main series. You just can’t go wrong with the writing team of Ilona and Gordon Andrews. It’s always merely a question of just how good it will be, and that’s a pretty subjective call.
As a bonus, there is a Kate Daniels novella, Magic Gifts included at the end of Gunmetal Magic, so I can get my Kate & Curran fix to tide me over awhile longer.
If you love this world, you’ll enjoy this book, even if it leaves you longing for more of Furface and his Consort.
Gunmetal Magic (Kate Daniels World)
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Hi Marcia.
It’s so true. Team Andrews doesn’t know how to write a bad book. When it comes to secondary characters stories, i have to admit that so far, my favorite was “magic gifts” which features Dali and Jim.
I liked this one. Beacuse i really like Andrea as a character, but i don’t know…there was something that just didn’t clicked…maybe it was what you said: that the problems betwen Andrea and Raphael felt a little forced….but even so, i liked them as a couple, and i had a really good time reading their banter. 🙂 I think i would have liked reading some chapters from Raphael pov. I think “that” would have helped seeing him as a stronger character.
And then there was the “snake” problem…lol, too much snakes in this story for my tastes!
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Hi, Susana! I suspected we would feel similarly about this one. I like Andrea, too, but for me, she’s not quite strong enough to center a whole book, I guess. More like a short story, maybe. And I agree with you that she and Raphael are a great couple. It was the bits where they WEREN’T being a couple that bothered me. I felt like their disagreement could (and should) have been settled much more quickly. And the purple carpet prank seemed a bit over the top, even by the Were Standard of Insane Practical Jokes. So, it was a mixed bag for me. The parts that I liked, I liked a lot. Other parts were just okay.
Oh, and for me, there can almost NEVER be too many snakes in a story. Unless they are the two-legged kind, of course. *grin*
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