Mercenary Kate Daniels and her mate, Curran, the Beast Lord, are struggling to solve a heartbreaking crisis. Unable to control their beasts, many of the Pack’s shapeshifting children fail to survive to adulthood. While there is a medicine that can help, the secret to its making is closely guarded by the European packs, and there’s little available in Atlanta.
Kate can’t bear to watch innocents suffer, but the solution she and Curran have found threatens to be even more painful. The European shapeshifters who once outmaneuvered the Beast Lord have asked him to arbitrate a dispute—and they’ll pay him in medicine. With the young people’s survival and the Pack’s future at stake, Kate and Curran know they must accept the offer—but they have little doubt that they’re heading straight into a trap…
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Ilona Andrews writes a mean urban fantasy story. Six books in and even though Kate and Curran have mostly found their happily ever after, nothing has gotten stale. Their romance is imperfectly perfect, mostly because both of them are more than a little crazy and as such they can push each other's buttons pretty easily. In Magic Rises the external stressors on them become increasingly aggressive as they voluntarily place themselves in dangerous, violent situations on behalf of the most vulnerable in their pack, the young. You wouldn't think that two people choosing to put themselves into what they can already predict will be a trap to be so shocking and compelling, but Andrews knows how to pace the story and the overall arc of the series so well that almost nothing seems extraneous or misplaced.
Magic Rises is an incredible installment in one of the very best series out there, Urban Fantasy or not. Even supporting characters shine in their work and readers come to care about their futures just as much as Kate and Curran's. Highly recommended (though please start from the beginning - it's worth it).
Overall Feeling - A+
Series - ... 4) Magic Bleeds 5) Magic Slays 6) Magic Rises
