Favorite Lines: “The upside of having a magic sword was that its secretions liquefied the undead flesh. On the downside, the blade had to be fed at least once a month, or it would become too brittle and break.” (43-4)

I’ve never read a book by Ilona Andrews. After reading Magic Bites I can’t wait to read more. The book features a smart mouth heroine searching for her guardian’s killer. She has some secrets in her lineage that aren’t cleared up by the end of the book. While exploring Ms. Andrews site I found a link to an excerpt from book two.

Magic Bites follows Kate Daniels through Atlanta. Atlanta suffers from bouts of magic. One moment technology works, the next magic is in control and telephones, cars, and lights stop working. The world is full of vampires, shapeshifters, and magic wielders. Kate is searching for the killer of her guardian, Greg. She’s a mercenary who temporarily begins to work for the Order (a group dedicated to the protection of humans).

She finds out that Greg’s murder is the result of the cases he was working on for the Order; he was searching for four missing women and looking into the murder of seven shapeshifters and eight vampires. Kate is hunting for the killer and doesn’t realize that she is being hunted by the killer. The smart ass mercenary must learn to make friends if she is to have any hope of surviving the adventure to come.

I’m enamored with the idea of Atlanta being a new place. The history of ‘new Atlanta’ is explained and made believable. Everything is explained, not in a long drawn out fashion, but appropriately placed within a great story. I enjoyed the layers of the story and as a romance fanatic reading a fantasy, kept finding possible beaus for the heroine. The men of Atlanta were interesting and I’m looking forward to reading more about them.

Why should you read this book? Well, it’s 260 pages of great urban fantasy. The heroine is a strong woman who isn’t afraid to admit to being scared, yet still manages to hold her own. The men are strong and much more than they appear be. It’s very action oriented. If you are searching for hot sex, you won’t find it here. The book has no sex scenes and works quite well. I’ll be reading book two in the Kate Daniels series.