booksthatburn's Reviews (1.46k)

Kate and Curran have left the Pack, but their move has complications and a friend has gone missing.

Kate is trying to track down Eduardo while she and Curran settle into their new home outside the Keep. What seems like a series of very strange occurrences related to Eduardo's disappearance turn out to have an interesting and extremely dangerous cause in common. Curran has to financially disentangle from the Pack in a manner that doesn't leave them wrecked, and he ends up taking on fixing up the Mercenary Guild as a very necessary project. The worldbuilding is intertwined with the plot, since the main new things requiring explanation are all connected in some way. Partway through, Kate is grievously injured in a way that perhaps not even Doolittle can fix. Even if he can, it may be at the cost of parts of her that she won't even realize are gone until it's too late.

MAGIC SHIFTS follows up on several things left hanging from the previous book. Roland is lurking around, attempting to be a father figure for Kate. There's also more of a spotlight on George and Eduardo, whose first major roles were in MAGIC RISES. There's a new storyline involving the two of them, which is introduced and mostly resolved by the end of the book. As always, some things are left for later, they're a mix of relationship changes and what I'm pretty sure is Kate setting up a resource for the future. Kate is still the narrator and her voice is consistent with the previous book. As I noted for that one, she has continuity with her immediately previous self, but she has changed enormously from the beginning of the series. Due to an injury partway through, there's also a difference between her narration at the beginning and end of the book, and there may be more effects in the books to come.

Someone who tried to start with this book and hadn't read the previous ones could probably make sense of it and have a good time. This is about things changing as a result of the previous book, and that one would be a much better jumping-on point since it has a series recap at the start. However, if someone did start with MAGIC SHIFTS then they would be reading a procedural-adjacent mystery which is much closer in tone to the first books in the series than to MAGIC BREAKS. It acts as a kind of style reset under the new status quo, with Kate doggedly pursuing a case and trying to get the various agencies to cooperate (except this time she has Curran with her).

This is my favorite book in the series so far, partly but not completely because it deals with TBI in a way that resonates with me personally. Kate is placed in a position where she doesn't know what she doesn't know, and might not even realize that anything is wrong. It's a deeply scary situation, and it's a kind of danger she and Curran haven't dealt with before. 

I enjoyed this on its own and as a climactic entry in a long-running series. It marks the first appearance of Roland, at long last, and I'm excited to see how the rest of the series plays out. Kate has changed enormously since the beginning of the series, so much so that she feels like a different narrator from the early books. She's redirected her feelings towards caring for and about the people she loves, rather than being consumed by the need to hide from her father long enough to get strong and kill him.

Kate stops being able to keep a lot of things secret, losing a lot of the reasons which were encouraging her silence. Kate and Curran are a much more unified front in this book, it feels like the conversations they had in MAGIC RISES were very good for them as a couple. A little of that is made easier by Curran being in another location for most of the book, but it was a bittersweet absence. Robert and Thomas, the Rat alphas, get more of a spotlight than they've had all series. This includes a discussion of how they keep being out of the loop which is so meta that it feels like it's doing double duty as an explanation to the readers as well as the alphas. 

The worldbuilding includes more specific information about Roland, including a truly terrifying prison which he had constructed a while ago. Ghastek gets a bit of spotlight when he and Kate are forced to spend time together, he's an interesting character and I enjoyed finding out some of his backstory. 

MAGIC BREAKS wraps up a few major things that were left hanging, such as whether Roland's Warlord survived their last fight. Most of the big changes have been telegraphed for a while, but are finally coming to a head. The biggest thing it addresses which I didn't expect to get resolved is the status of Ted, the extremely bigoted head of the local Order chapter (and Kate's former sort-of boss). The scenes around that are some of the tensest and most climactic in the whole book, coming midway through and setting a high bar for the second half to meet. It meets and exceeds it, though the ending is more driven by power displays than sheer gore. There is technically a new storyline because Kate is made to solve a murder that was orchestrated specifically to place her and the Pack in a situation with no escape. This isn't the last book in the series, even though it feels very climactic. It changes the status quo in some very profound ways, uprooting things that have been settled since the first book. It could make sense to start here because there is a very thorough synopsis of the series so far as a kind of prologue told by one of the secondary characters. This changes enough things that if someone wanted to read that synopsis and take the current relationships as given, the book could make sense and be very enjoyable. 

This main action launches when a meeting between the Pack and the People is interrupted by an accusation that a shapeshifter murdered a Master of the Dead. As the accusation is backed up by a dead body, Kate and a small team try and scope out the crime scene, knowing it's definitely a trap. By the end, things cannot stay as they were, and both Kate and Curran have to make some difficult decisions.

MAGIC RISES plunges Kate and Curran into a multi-pack conflict in Europe, in a castle playing bodyguard to a pregnant shifter whose father has staked territory on her offspring's identities. When the identity of the castle's lord is revealed, things get even more complicated.

This has some wonderful worldbuilding by way of a trip to a castle on the shore of the Black Sea, on the border between Russia and Georgia, providing an opportunity to see the current state of Eastern Europe post-Shift. The plot is pretty straightforward, but the setup to get there is very convoluted. It conveyed the feel that the group from the Pack had walked into someone else's soap opera, complete with a pregnancy involving twins from two different fathers. There are mysterious attackers as well, shifters with a beast form which is something out of a legend. Except, they can't figure out which legend and that makes it a bit harder to figure out where they came from and how to stop them.

This kind of wraps up some things left hanging, by way of making irrevocable status changes in some people (it would be a spoiler to say more). This series tends to be very character-focused in terms of series arcs and plot-focused for individual books, so each story changes certain bits of the status quo in ways that push Kate, Curran, and any other plot-important characters into new roles, competencies, and possibly even permanent injuries. The constraint of a limited group size for the gathering keeps the recurring cast small, while also introducing some characters who I hope can be around more in later books (turns out Jim has a sister, and Mahon's daughter gets a real role rather than a brief mention).

MAGIC RISES specifically leaves some things for later. They're almost all related to foreshadowing future conflicts and changes in the status quo which were caused by events towards the end of their stay. Kate is still the narrator, I'd be surprised if anyone else narrates in this whole series. Her voice is consistent with the previous book, but she's much more thoughtful and less likely to act on her (still very present) impulses as she was early on in the series. By traveling to a completely new location, this book is almost a bottle episode. However, the presence of a particular character is meaningful because of things established back to the start of the series, and specifically called up in Magic Strikes and Magic Bleeds. It might make sense if someone started here and didn't read the rest of the series, since it's demonstrating for the first time some things Kate has only talked about up until now.

I enjoyed this as an individual book and for how it advances a bunch of series arcs all at once. The main storyline in MAGIC RISES is that The Pack have been offered an enourmous amount of a life-changing substance that can help keep their kids from going loup (a death sentence), but they have to travel through the Black Sea and successfully play bodyguard in a very tense situation. Once they arrive, they figure out the shape of the trap they're in but it's too late to get out. The bulk of the story revolves around Kate trying to guard a pregnant woman and find out the identity of their mysterious attackers. Barnabas played a bit more of a role than usual, Derek was present but not nearly as vocal, while Raphael and Andrea were a steadying, competent pair in some truly strange circumstances. Kate and Curran had a conflict which is a kind that really stresses me out, but the reasons they couldn't clear it up earlier are entirely in keeping with both the story and their personalities. 

A MARVELLOUS LIGHT is about Edwin and Robin, initially in each other’s company through a bureaucratic mistake. Robin had been cursed when he was unable to provide unknown assailants with information his (missing) predecessor had also denied them. Edwin was supposed to be liaising with whomever held that office, and instead proceeded to try and remove the curse. The actual plot is pretty straightforward, with only a few more twists after that. The action is solid (especially the bit in the maze) and I like several of the secondary characters, but the heart of this is absolutely Edwin and Robin’s relationship as they’re continually in each other’s company.

The rapport between Edwin and Robin slowly builds, lagging behind the intensity of each man’s buried attraction to the other. Robin adjusts pretty quickly to the existence of magic (a situation made much harder to ignore by the harsh nature of his introduction). Edwin’s focus is on trying to remove Robin’s curse, initially thinking of their acquaintance as very temporary and somewhat reversible. Much of the book is spent on Edwin’s family’s estate, with his siblings whose pranks range from frustrating to cruel. 

The worldbuilding is pretty subtle about placing the era, the setting is one where magic exists within the otherwise real history of the British Isles. Since I wasn't trying very hard to place it I was content to know it's a while ago, but after the invention of cars. I'm sure there are clues to place it more precisely if I looked hard, but the story wasn't trying to trouble me with those. It did more with the ways that magic could be secret, and the key seems to be that (in England, specifically), it's tied up in old money and old families since magic is passed through bloodlines. 

I enjoyed this immensely and will definitely read the rest of the series. The ending sets up a clear idea for the arc of the series, and I'll happily read more in this setting even if Edwin and Robin don't stay as the protagonists.

It has a peppy, hyper self-aware style that I don’t like. 

STEEL'S EDGE is the conclusion of The Edge series, wrapping up the fates of heroes and villains alike. It answers things like what happened to Spider? will Élénore stay in the Edge? It also answers what happened to some minor characters from ON THE EDGE who either appeared briefly or were discussed but never seen. Technically most of what it resolves was introduced in earlier books, as it finally deals with the slavers who have been referenced throughout, specifically but not only as they relate to what happened to Lark/Sophie. The point-of-view characters are different yet again, this time George gets to narrate a little (last book was Jack's turn), and the main couple are new as narrators. Richard Mar has been around since BAYOU MOON, but Charlotte de Ney makes her debut here. It's nice to see Richard as more than just the repeatedly-referenced, serious older brother to Kaldar and cousin to Cerise. Charlotte is a good fit for him, and their relationship is one between two people who were both previously married and betrayed in some way by those spouses, figuring out if they want a relationship at all. 

The main plot is the clearest and most understandable in the whole series (even ON THE EDGE had some weirdness I only understood after several re-reads). Richard and Charlotte meet and have separate reasons to want the slavers dead, then they work on doing that for the whole book in a manner than involves subterfuge, infiltration, a massive attack on a fortress, and then one very high-stakes con to top it all off. This could mean someone would be able to start with this one and understand what's going on, except that part of the reason it can be so clear is because it's working with a fully established world left for it by the first three books. It can be more linear because it doesn't have to stop and explain nearly as many things, and what it does explain fully (e.g. slaver network, Blueblood society, Charlotte's healing/harming magic and backstory) is actually building on already established bits of worldbuilding (e.g. backstory involving slavers, individual Bluebloods, the basic ways magic works). If someone tried to start here, the resolutions Jack and George get would be much less meaningful, Rose and Declan would feel like an afterthought (they already had their story), and the helpful background presence of the Mirror, Kalar, and the rest of the Mars would feel entirely too convenient. When instead viewed in the context of the whole series, they are deeply meaningful moments and chances to see beloved characters and interesting organizations again, having already learned a lot about them. This is where Sophie gets a chance to shine, and her storyline is a mix of backstory that's never shown and events which were pivotal to BAYOU MOON. That combination means that her presence feels complete even if someone hadn't read the other books. 

Kaldar leaves with Gaston on a job for the Mirror, but things get complicated when Jack and George stow away on the wyvern. They track down Audrey, a thief who's trying to leave her conning family behind and go legit, but got tangled up in one last job that ended up involving the Hand.

Jack is in the rotation of point-of-view characters this time, and it's nice to see him a littler older and trying to figuring out being a teenage changeling. Kaldar is a rogue, and the way he and Audrey play off of each other during the job is just wonderful. This builds off of the world in the first two books, but mostly takes place on the west coast in an entirely separate zone of the Edge. 

By following Kaldar and having Jack, George, and Gaston as central characters, this continues some character development which was left open at the end of the previous books. It also addresses the Hand's next steps after the conflict in BAYOU MOON. The main storyline is entirely new, bringing in the Hounds and various other entities who didn't appear in earlier books. Kaldar and Audrey's relationship is introduced and resolved, as is the particular mission that Kaldar was sent on. As with the previous books, this doesn't specifically leave anything hanging except for the possibility that these characters will have other missions later if there are more books. George in particular might be involved more in the future. The returning characters, like Kaldar, are consistent with their previous appearances (though Jack and George have definitely grown up). It might make sense to start here since what matters is explained enough to be understandable (and the plot is way more straightforward than BAYOU MOON's complicated tangle of a story). Anyone who skips the first two books would enter FATE'S EDGE more in Audrey's position (and hopefully would pick up on what the Edge is quickly enough to not be lost).

The plot revolves around gathering information and then retrieving a stolen object, with a detour to con a prosperity preacher in the middle. I love the focus on heists, cons, and grifting which make this a slightly less bloody story than BAYOU MOON. The dynamic between Kaldar and Audrey steals the show, but Jack does get a chance to develop more on-page now that he's also a main character. He and George do a great job with the con, and Gaston is a steady presence who mostly supports Kaldar's plans since he's there to learn.

ONLY A MONSTER engages with difference, family, belonging, and monstrosity as Joan, a half-human, half-monster girl witness the massacre of her family by a hero.

The narration focuses on Joan's reactions to various events, often returning to pieces of already-known information as her feelings change in light of new circumstances. It has the cumulative effect that very few things actually happen during the story, and long stretches of time are about processing those events and deciding how to proceed. Aaron's initial disdain transforming into patient support is one of my favorite parts of the book (and is why the ending particularly devastates me). I also like how Tom is a more complicated character than he first appears to be.

This dwells in long stretches of worldbuilding, specifically on snapshots of monster society within human society. Joan marvels at their various waystations, safe places they control for long stretches of time and can get food or supplies for the time where they've arrived. I enjoyed the descriptions as they didn't get bogged down in picky details, but included Joan's thoughts about what she was witnessing. The way the monster powers work is pretty cool, and I enjoyed the various facets of that world. One of my favorite simple details is that they call themselves monsters and that's the end of it. There's no complicated other label for themselves, as they're unashamed of how they live their lives. It's a detail that makes them truly feel like a group whose lives don't revolve around what humans think of them (since humans are little more than fuel to monsters).

I have very mixed feelings about the ending. It uses a trope I've loved at the conclusion of long series, but it leaves me unsure of the direction for the next book. It generates a feeling of immense work that's extremely important but completely invisible to everyone around Joan by the end. The most important thing at the end of the book is how the experience changed Joan, and the specific goal she was able to achieve. The relationships that are built up the most (between Joan and her fellow monsters) are not the ones with the weight of destiny behind them, and I'm nervous for what a sequel could bring. 

William is a changeling, raised to be a killing machine by a kingdom that sees him as  a subhuman tool. The Mirror sends him as a spy to retrieve some information from the Mire, and to kill Spider, an agent of the Hand who has a personal mission to kill all changelings. On the way h meets Cerise, a member of the Mar family whose dormant feud with the Sherile family has been restarted with some help from the Hand. 

I like Cerise and William as the main narrators. Their attraction is present early, but it takes most of the book before they're able to hit the right combination of decisive and vulnerable to do something more long-term about it.

As a sequel, BAYOU MOON follows William, a secondary character from ON THE EDGE. Other than answering very briefly how Rose and Declan are doing, it doesn't try to wrap up anything from the first book. It's an entirely new storyline, with the entire plot as a pile of major things that are introduced and resolved. It gives the characters a new status by the end, one which doesn't require major updates unless they have another adventure in the series. It's not trying to leave things for later (other than that the character may appear in future books), and ON THE EDGE didn't leave much for BAYOU MOON to wrap up. It seems to tease the possibility of future updates on the kids (Jack and George from the first book, plus Lark and Gaston from this one), but wouldn't require them.

This time the main narrators are William (a secondary character from ON THE EDGE) and Cerise. William’s narration is consistent with how he was as a mostly non-POV character in the first book. It could mostly make sense to start here. Extremely basic worldbuilding details are shown rather than explained as much as in the first book, but they also aren't as big of a deal this time around since most of the plot stays in the Mire (a region of the Edge). 

Changelings have difficulty understanding social situations, don't understand lying, and have a whole bunch of other mismatches with the rest of society that add up to make them feel like an allistic portrayal of autistic people (albeit ones who can turn into animals). I don't think this is necessarily on purpose, but choosing the term "changeling" makes the parallels harder to dismiss. Whether or not this parallel is on purpose, I appreciate that William is one of the main point-of-view characters, as it means his differences in processing are shown as a coherent whole that (combined with his specialized military experience) is a different way of thinking about things rather than just being viewed from the outside as him having trouble understanding things. There's a great balance between where he excels and where other people have trouble seeing his perspective.

The plot feels even more convoluted than ON THE EDGE. In BAYOU MOON, Cerise and the Mars have a specific goal (kick the Sheriles out of her grandparents house), Spider and the Hand have a reason for their operation (trying to get access to something one of the Mars developed), and the Sheriles are trying to restart the feud (by taking a house). William is sent into this by the Mirror (an organization who wants him to retrieve whatever the Hand is trying to get, but do it first), and along the way he and Cerise start falling for each other. Cerise has so many relatives, many of which are named and distinctly characterized, and Spider's group is full of modified operatives whose mutations are described at length (even if only at the moment of death). Each of the goals I've already mentioned have either a lot of steps to get there (like torture for information) or gain extra steps after the first goal is met and they have to keep dealing with another group that's in play. It took several re-reads before I felt like I have a handle on all the moving pieces (ON THE EDGE had this tendency a little, but in BAYOU MOON it starts to be a problem for people like me who are bad at remembering character names).

I like most of the characters (I need more Kalder in my life), but the plot is very convoluted and feels off-putting even though I've read it before. I recommend it as part of The Edge series, for a wonderful amount of William and the introduction of Cerise, but it's not my favorite in the series.