Magic Strikes is book three in the Kate Daniels urban fantasy series. And in this book, everything finally is coming together. Kate is more than just a hilarious attitude case with a killer sword, and the were-folks around her grew some back story. And, admittely, it is likely a combination of my mood and the experience that Ilona Andrews now has with her characters that made this book so damn funny. Atlanta itself is gaining some depth, as well as color. I'm glad that Julie made a return appearance, as did Andrea and Rafael. The characters are starting to come together as people, not as call-ins. I enjoyed the action, the banter, and even the oh-shit-here-it-comes moments because everything worked together.

The relationship issues (and wow! are there issues), the hangups, the emotional baggage, and the antipathies are all working together in Magic Strikes to make Kate's team's entrance into the Gladatorial Games against a bunch of god-born egotistical mono-forms actually seem reasonable. No, really. I was laughing and nodding at the weirdest moments. Of course Kate is going to threaten bodily harm to the head of the shapeshifters of Atlanta if he kisses her again. Of course the head of the shapeshifter security is willing to break every Pack law in the books to avenge an attack on the only survivor of a long-ago-and-far-away loup attack. Of course the way courting were-jackals impress each other is to break into each others houses and stage practical jokes. It all makes sense!


-- New-to-me books read in 2011 (as opposed to re-reads) --

January
Little Dee vol 2
Little Dee vol 3
Unusual Suspects
Harvest Moon
The Black Stallion (yes, I know, I should have read it with Black Beauty)
Ravens in the Library: Magic in the Bard's Name, with a pre-finished commentary here
The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms
Fang Bangers: An Erotic Anthology of Fangs, Claws, Sex and Love
Must Love Hellhounds
Truthseeker

February
Dark and Stormy Knights
Tortall and Other Lands
River Marked (2/28 - it arrived a day early)

March
Questionable Content, vol 1
How to Flirt with a Naked Werewolf
Lifeblood
Magic Bites
Skinwalker, A Jane Yellowrock Novel
Running with the Pack
Magic Burns
Blood Cross

April
"Skyblaze" Adventures in the Liaden Universe #17
Kings of the North
Goblin Tales
Do Not Sniff the Bees, Two Lumps book 6
Magic Strikes
Magic Bleeds
... Battlestations
... Wise Man's Fear

-- Books abandoned rather than completed in 2011 --

February
Sing the Four Quarters, by Tanya Huff

-- Books Still in Progress --
These are books that I haven't totally given up on, I've just... put them aside... for now. And gee, look at how many of them are non-fiction!
The Brand Within
Gamestorming
If You Don't Have Big Breasts, Put Ribbons on Your Pigtails
Swords and Dark Magic
Battlestations
Wise Man's Fear