Review: Magic Breaks

Magic Breaks by Ilona Andrews
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I don’t even know where to begin here. Since there was a huge disclaimer at the start of this book, warning me about it reading like the last of series (but wasn’t) I spent most of my reading time expecting the worst. Don’t get me wrong, people die, things get wrapped up, it does read like the last book in a series (complete with epilogue) but I almost wish the disclaimer hadn’t been there. I’ll comment on the ending when I get there, too, because… I’m pretty conflicted.

OK, so we all knew this was coming – the big showdown! As the fake last book in the series, this was obviously where we would see Kate’s life mission (sort of) come to its ultimate end. I pretty much expected everyone to die. Every time there was a nice lull in the action and happy moments cropped up, I waited for something horrible and traumatizing to happen. Overall, though… it didn’t. I mean, sure, there are some dead bodies left in the wake of the happenings of this book, but not nearly the amount I expected (and there was a big one that never got into that dead body pile, unfortunately).

Without spoilers, in general, the story revolves around Kate coming to terms with her lineage and fighting to get to the big bad. I say get to because the book spent a really long time taking Kate to Roland. There are meetings, more meetings, planning, castles, cells, more castles, more cells, some camping, lots of vampires, and then Roland. Roland was… unexpected. Not that he showed up – that’s a given, but where we end up with him is surprising and maybe not in a good way? Is it bad that I’m somewhat unhappy with a HEA? Maybe Kate just felt like she needed a tougher path? That doesn’t sound right, because she (once again) sustained Dresden-level-hurt throughout the book.

I guess I’m happy that my favorites made it out alive and I still get more books in this universe? I’m conflicted. Also, there were some notably absent characters for a fake final book: Saimon, Grendel, and Julie. I’m obviously going to see where the rest of the books go, but I’m left a little unsettled by how happily everything ended (especially with some big bads still lurking).


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