Between The Lines

                                Magic Bites (Kate Daniels)

Author: Ilona Andrews

Performed by Renée Raudman

Released: January 2009 byTantor Audio

Category: Urban Fantasy

Kate Daniels is a mercenary, a ‘sword for hire’ who makes her living cleaning up magical problems in an alternate world. Between them magic and technology create immense problems, one works the other dies. The world is full of all kinds of monsters which Kate has to deal with.

Her parents have died and the only family she has left is Greg, her guardian, and when he is killed she agrees to work with the Order and becomes totally involved in solving his murder.

Greg was a key player in The Order of the Knights of Merciful Aid, a magical organisation which, as the name suggests tries to keep peace and order between the Pack, who are shapeshifters and the People, necromancers who control the Vampires.

Kate is summoned to the Beast Lord of the shapeshifters, the were- lion known as Curran, and has to juggle the Pack, the People and the Order to find out the truth.

Thoughts

Kate is a strong (on the outside but a little insecure all the same) and independent heroine with a distinct voice, full on magical abilities and a sword called Slayer which has to be fed at least  once a month.  I love her snarky humour, who would greet the Beast Lord in lion form with ‘here kitty, kitty’ but Kate.

The vampires in this story are like none I’ve ever read about before, they are grotesque, disgusting creatures under the control of the People.  Quite a dark tale and very gory in parts, which I thought was a little over the top.  It took a little while to get into the story because I felt kind of launched into a post apocalyptic world of sorts without any kind of explanation or clue about well…anything. It took some time to orientate myself.

There’s a lot left unsaid about Kate and the world in which she lives so I will probably move on to book two and see what questions are answered.

Performance

Renée Raudman’s performance is praiseworthy, she takes on Kate Daniels’ personality from the start and each character has a distinct voice. Her narration really stands out and her voice is appealing.