Review: Magic Binds

Magic Binds by Ilona Andrews
Series: Kate Daniels #9
Rating: ★★★★★

Mercenary Kate Daniels knows all too well that magic in post-Shift Atlanta is a dangerous business. But nothing she’s faced could have prepared her for this…

 

Kate and the former Beast Lord Curran Lennart are finally making their relationship official. But there are some steep obstacles standing in the way of their walk to the altar…

 

Kate’s father, Roland, has kidnapped the demigod Saiman and is slowly bleeding him dry in his never-ending bid for power. A Witch Oracle has predicted that if Kate marries the man she loves, Atlanta will burn and she will lose him forever. And the only person Kate can ask for help is long dead.

 

The odds are impossible. The future is grim. But Kate Daniels has never been one to play by the rules…

I’m a huge Ilona Andrews fan. There’s nothing I’ve read of theirs that I don’t like, and most of it I absolutely love and adore. But the Kate Daniels series  holds a special place for me. It’s my favorite Urban Fantasy series, ever. EVER. It would take something massive and amazing for anything to supplant it.

This makes it so hard to review. It’s hard to say anything other than ‘I LOVE IT’ – and I did. I loved nearly every moment of it. This is the moment just before the end (with only ten books planned in this series) and everything is ramping up. The tension is crazy-insane, the emotions are running high, and the stakes are out of this world. And if you thought it was already difficult enough for Kate, it gets worse.

As always, there’s the humor the suffuses the entire book. Little moments and comments that ease the tension, sometimes even when the tension and feels are so intense I don’t think anything can make me laugh. I did more than once here. And appreciated it like nothing else.

This book wasn’t quite as emotionally draining for me as the last one – Magic Shifts had an event in it that hit incredibly close to home for me and nearly broke me for a good third of the book – but it was still very emotional and charged.

I love that the “bad-guys” in this series aren’t simply bad. They’re complex, just like the “good-guys.” Nothing is black and white, and choices are made every single minute that affect who you are and who you’re going to be. I love that we get to explore that with Kate, and with others.

Look, this far in the series, I’m afraid of spoiling anything almost like I’m afraid of the plague. A bullet list – expect no details:

1. Kate and her forays to the Dark Side
2. Roland
3. Julie
4. Roman
5. A Certain Character I Never Expected to See Again (ACCINEtSA)
6. Kate
7. Curran
8. Roland
9. ACCINEtSA
10. ACCINEtSA
11. ACCINEtSA
12. Edvokia
13. Kate
14. Kate
15. Kate

I just realized that most of the stuff I’d put in this list are spoilers in and of themselves, even just the word. So, it’s a really truncated list for you. Also, I’m so done with one character in particular. They can go to hell for all I care. In fact, I wish they would.

The ending of the epilogue – I knew it had to be coming. Ever since….a couple of books ago, or at least the last book, but I’m really conflicted and interested to see where this goes. Ilona Andrews never fails to shock the hell out of me, and surprise me, making me love things that I never expected or realized, so I won’t lose faith now.

We’re almost done. Just one more book. I may cry. A lot. And I’ll be taking the day off of work to experience it slowly, with joy and sorrow and all the other emotions that I know Ilona Andrews will make me experience.

And then I’ll cry because it’s over. But at least I’ll have these amazing stories to continue to re-read.