(Although it’s also completely possible that I missed a lot of the obvious due to being sick when reading this.)Įven though it does have some of the usual urban fantasy creatures, they are a bit different from the norm. While I definitely prefer being shown what is happening like this to long infodumps, there are times I would have liked a little more detail and a better idea of what was going on. Since it just happened without explanation, though, it wasn’t until later that I got an idea of what that really meant. Right in the first paragraph, one of these changes occurs – Kate’s magical defenses go down and her TV immediately starts up. There are fluctuations in which magic works and technology no longer works and vice versa. Magic Bites throws you right into the story and world, and it can be a bit confusing at first since it is not an urban fantasy setting with paranormal creatures in a modern world that otherwise closely mirrors our own. Even though she normally avoids the Order, Kate goes there and obtains permission to investigate what happened to Greg personally – landing her right in the middle of a conflict between the People, who control the vampires, and the Pack, the shapechangers. Since there are not many creatures powerful enough to kill the knight-diviner, Kate is quite shocked by this. Kate immediately calls the Order of the Knights of Merciful Aid and asks for Greg, only to discover he was recently killed on the job. Then the vampire rather abruptly leaves, as Kate wonders why they were watching her for long enough to get in as soon as her wards were no longer functioning. The vampire is controlled by Ghastek, who has a brief conversation with Kate in which he asks her if she has seen her guardian lately. When a magic fluctuation hits and her careful warding spells are down, she finds a vampire in her house. Kate Daniels is a sword-and-magic wielding mercenary living near Atlanta, Georgia. Magic Bleeds, the next novel, will be released on May 25 of this year. The second and third books in this urban fantasy series are Magic Burns and Magic Strikes. Magic Bites is the first book in the Kate Daniels series by husband and wife writing team Ilona Andrews.

Magic bites book 2