#magic tides

[bangbangwhoa]

books I’ve read in 2023 📖 no. 050

Magic Tides by Ilona Andrews

“She will find the hornet’s nest and set it on fire. When the angry hornets fly out, she’ll poke them with her sword.”

[books-in-a-storm]

Magic Tides & Aipom

[sephie-books]

Magic Tides (Kate Daniels series) by Ilona Andrews

First off, head's up - this is a novella so it's only 163 pages. However, it's so jam packed with excellent writing and tightly written story, that you really don't care and it really doesn't feel like some short ass book.

This picks up a few years later as Kate, Curran, and their son Conlan have moved away from Atlanta and the Pack, to Wilmington, NC, trying to start a new life, away from being Kate, the Daughter of Nimrod, and Beast Lord, First of All Shapeshifters.

It didn't last long lol

Conlan is now 9, who is soon to start school, however his new friend's brother is kidnapped and Kate can't have kids being kidnapped in her new homeland.

This is an introductory novella to their new life and new adventures away from Atlanta, and it's so so good. I loved every moment of it. You get hints of the other series threads that the authors are working on with Hugh's story and Julie's story (tiny tiny hints) but it makes me hopeful for when those stories are eventually published.

Really really good, I highly recommend this for fans of the series. Some good fucking food. Even if it's only an appetizer.

And if you haven't read the Kate Daniels series yet, I HIGHLY recommend you read that series asap. :)

[books-in-a-storm]

Book Haul

Magic Tides & Iron And Magic

[geraniums-red]

Ilona Andrews - Magic Tides

Kate Daniels, Wilmington Years book 1

This one counts as forgettable comfort-reading. Technically it's the start of a new series, but only because Kate and Curran have finished saving the world and moved house in order to lose their celebrity status and let their son (Conlan) have a normal-ish childhood. Normal for a were-lion with pretty hefty magic powers, that is.

There's a gang engaging in a bit of child abduction and slavery. Kate goes off to rescue one particular kid, and Curran and Conlan quite literally hold the fort, as they wipe out the rest of the gang who show up to take revenge. There's not really a sense of danger in any of the fights, because both Kate and Curran have spent an entire series getting up to power, and these are quite low-level adversaries. Still, it's nice to read about competent people being competent (give or take blowing their cover pretty badly), and this is book gives you that.

The one place where the book annoyed me is where a scene I had read as Conlan asking for help indirectly was brought up as an example of him being manipulative. It felt clunky and like the kid was being treated unfairly.

Apart from that, it was pretty enjoyable. It's the start of a new series, so you could start here, but there are better Ilona Andrews books out there, so maybe read one of those instead?

[wearethekat]

January Book Reviews: Magic Tides by Ilona Andrews

Surprise novella from the Andrews, which hoopla acquired very uncharacteristically shortly after publication. This is the start of (presumably) a new Kate Daniels, moving to a new location and dialing down the stakes from the world-shattering scale of the end of the last series. Kate, Curran, and their kid are trying very hard to stay quiet and incognito in their new town of Wilmington, SC. Unfortunately, this is very difficult when you have a serious case of main character syndrome and live in a post-magic-apocalypse USA. When a family comes to Kate for help to rescue their child from an underwater cult, can Kate manage while remaining low-profile?

I think it was an excellent decision to move the location for the new series-- it allows the authors a clean slate to add new characters while moving more towards an episodic format where every adventure doesn't have to be the end of the world. I'm absolutely fascinated to see where some of the interactions with the locals are going to go-- just in this short novella, Kate's interactions with The Guy Who's Terrible At Werewolfing was absolutely hilarious, and I'm fascinated to see how Kate is going to handle the local branch of the People. The one issue is that I don't see how the authors can plausibly maintain tension without bringing in the Big Stakes again, as it seems slightly unfair to pit metaphorically level 20 Kate against these random townsfolk.

Very interested to see where they're going with this. If you are, however, looking to get into the series, this is probably a bad place to start.

[slowlysointernet]

Magic Tides spoilers:

I didn't like what Ilona Andrews did with Jim. I feel like they are making him so incompetent and stupid to highlight how wonderful and charismatic Curran is instead.

Why just not let Jim be a different kind of Beast Lord? Why ruin his character just so that Curran can remain the most Alpha of Alphas? 

They did it with the 'other women'' too. Making Lorelei so weak and stupid to elevate and highlight how wonderful, smart and strong Kate is. They did it in the Hidden Legacy series with Rynda as the weak and stupid ex to highlight and elevate Nevada. And now Jim is not really allowed to be a successful Beast Lord because Curran is the hero. I hate it when they do that. Andi Jim's not really even my favorite character, but my goodness, the authors seem to have some agenda against him.

The whole thing is so contrived.

[sandythereadingcafe]

REVIEW

MAGIC TIDES (Kate Daniels: Wilmington Years) by Ilona Andrews at The Reading Cafe:

‘a fantastic, exciting, intense story, with lots of action and magic‘

https://www.thereadingcafe.com/magic-tides-by-ilona-andrews-a-review/