The strength of Kate is what dragged me through this book, because otherwise it was a stock standard urban fantasy with a steep learning curve for the first few pages, but relatively predictable for the rest. Kate Daniels is someone I want to get to know. Andrews seems to eschew the stereotypes here in favour of someone who dominates the room with her presence, shoots first, asks questions later, then poorly deals with the fallout. When you read an urban fantasy with a female lead, there seems to be an expectation that romance will take centre stage, but in Magic Bites, the magic and action remain the showpiece. Kate Daniels is the hero of this story, and she is a badass mercenary who won’t take crap off of nobody. Her investigations lead her all over the city, to many supernatural beings, and if she's lucky, she might just be able to piss them all off in one fell swoop.

When her guardian and mentor are found dead, Kate demands that she be put on the case, though it’s probably a bad idea given how emotional she is, and how poorly the magical community reacts to mercenaries in general. The story follows Kate Daniels, a magical mercenary who makes a living in Atlanta doing the crap jobs that nobody else wants to do. The werewolves in this book might brood, but the vampires don't sparkle, and everything bites. Ilona Andrews is the pen name of a husband and wife writing team, and together I think they have produced a solid first entry for what might become an exceptional series. Magic Bites by Ilona Andrews is an urban fantasy novel, the first book in the Kate Daniel series.

Magic bites series order