REVIEW: Magic Stars by Ilona Andrews
B Reviews / B+ Reviews / Recommended ReadsKate Daniels world / novella / Urban-Fantasy26 Comments
Dear Ilona Andrews,
Fans of your Kate Daniels series are rejoicing at the glad tidings that unto us a new novella is born, just in time for Christmas. Even better, it features just about everyone’s favourite secondary characters, Derek and Julie.
At around 60 pages it is a short novella and it doesn’t waste time setting up any world building; for that reason, this is not an entry point to the series. It also fits squarely at 8.5 in the timeline, so anyone who wants to skip to this novella early be aware that there will be spoilers for previous books.
Also there are series spoilers in this review so be ye warned.
A few months before the events of Magic Stars, Kate and Curran left the Pack and took with them (they volunteered) various other (now-former) Pack members, Derek included. Derek belongs to Curran and where Curran goes, Derek goes. Kate is now the Guardian of Atlanta and has an interest in keeping the city safe. Curran shares that interest but is particularly concerned about people who have a connection to the Pack – such as the Ives family who makes excellent knives.
When the entire Ives family is brutally murdered, Curran sends Derek to:
Find the people responsible and make sure they never do it again.
Which he does, with ruthless and brutal efficiency.
Shortly after, Julie, Kate’s adopted daughter, who now refers to herself as Kate’s “Herald” (“the city has a Guardian, and I’m her Herald.”) finds Derek outside the Ives house. A call came in from Luther, the mage working for Biohazard. He was assaulted and a magic rock of some sort has been stolen from him. Kate is out with Curran, so Julie is on the case. She has tracked the magic rock to the Ives house.
Julie arrives during Derek’s confrontation with some young shapeshifters at the house of the murdered family, and he does not like the way one of them leers at 16 year old Julie.
“Shut up. If I decide to ask for your opinion, I’ll say, ‘Hey dickhead,’ so you don’t get confused.”
After teaching the wayward shifters a lesson (that’s a euphemism), Derek and Julie team up to find the magic rock and figure out what it is about it that is worth killing for.
Apart from just spending time with Derek and Julie, there are some very interesting things revealed in Magic Stars. (I won’t tell what they are but let me say to readers: if you read the series, you’re going to want to read this novella. Let me also say that while this isn’t a romance, there is romantic tension in the story and I have expectations.)
As much as I enjoyed the story, it is probably those interesting things which make it a must-read and will, no doubt, be the subject of endless speculation in the Kate Daniels fandom.
Derek has changed a lot since he had molten silver poured on his face; reading from his POV was enlightening but the biggest treat was to see Julie kick ass and take names. Her magical talent is growing and I’m sure she will continue to surprise readers.
I’m not good with ambiguity; there were some subtle clues in this story which I didn’t quite get. I’m looking forward to discussing the novella with friends who can explain to me the things I missed.
I enjoyed the dark humour – something both Derek and Julie share (I think they learned it from Kate and Curran) and the tight storytelling and I can hardly wait until the next full length novel in the series to see what happens next.
Even more exciting, in the Amazon listing, it says “Grey Wolf Book 1” That means there will be more, right? Right? Please make it be so.
Grade: B/B+
Regards,
Kaetrin
AmazonBNKoboAREBook DepositoryGoogle
Read (inhaled) it. Loved it.
I particularly enjoyed the hints of how Derek sees Julie. In the series he has seemed to view her as a little girl/pesky little sister, but I liked the hints that he is fighting a different view and fighting feeling something more…
I also liked, but found ominous, the mentions of Roland and how he is meddling.
For a novella I certainly thought it packed a punch, and was worth every penny.
Me too me too, what you said :). Really liked it.
The AuthorLords are saying “maybe” to a Grey Wolf #2.
But I hope they get around to it.
I hope they do some things in that world without Kate/Curran as the main focus. I know I’m swimming against the tide, but I pretty much feel like they’ve gone as far as they can go in the series without busting them up. I’m not interested in baby sequels etc. So I would be interested in seeing some of the supporting cast get starring roles.
@Emma:
Won’t lie the HINT that Derek already has his feelings engaged had me leaping for joy. I kinda wish that long ago comment that Julie would get her own series had come true if only bc she is SO COOL.
Grandpa Roland sure is a sweetie huh?
@Allison: Me too! I sure do not want the main series go beyond book ten (just expressing how I feel as a reader!) as much as I love them, I want the books to go out in a blaze of glory rather than with a whilmper, but would definitely read the stories about supporting cast if they decide to do it.
Allison, I’ve been to 2 book signings with Illona and Gordon. They have stated multiple times that there will be 2 more books featuring Kate and Curran after Magic Shifts and then that’s it. They may do other things in the world, but they have a plan for wrapping up the Kate, Curran, Roland, Atlanta storyline.
I too was fascinated by the Rowland/Julie hints and talk in the Magic Stars.
I want the “you belong to another” hint to be a leftover from when Kate used a power word on him, cos he’s a wolf & loyalty is ingrained he is hers forever. Kinda like Julie. I also really like that she’s figured that out.
@Teri Strutt:
Dang, I hadn’t even considered it like that. But no, I am still going to go with Derek and Julie as a future item.
@Teri Strutt:
That’s what I figured it was, anything else seemed a little… premature? to me.
@Lozza:
I don’t know, he wouldn’t have felt the need to put up the wall like he did so hard if there wasn’t something there.
@Erin Burns:
Oh, I’m not denying that there’s some serious hinting of FEELINGS and foreshadowing of future romantic developments, but that particular line (and implied relationship) seemed inconsistent to me with how the authors have handled romantic relationships in the past. This is obviously just my reading, but I feel like the authors have generally had romantic relationships develop in a pretty mature, measured, kind of way. Even when the canon relationships have elements of obsessiveness and stalkerish-ness (which seems common if not par for the course among the shifters), I feel like they’ve made it explicit in the text that consent and reciprocation and boundaries are still important, and that without those, it’s not a real relationship and it’s creepy to talk about things like “belonging” to someone. That’s why “you belong to another” read as a romantic thing, in the context of a relationship that has never had ANY explicit romantic overtones, doesn’t actually feel romantic to me- it feels melodramatic and stereotypically-YA to me. On the other hand, these characters ARE younger, so maybe it’s appropriate in that context. Either way, I look forward to finding out, and I’m always excited to hear more from the Andrews crew!
@Lozza:
I don’t know, maybe I am just nitpicking, but there is a pretty big difference between as a person deciding their own heart belongs to someone else, and saying that other person belongs to you. The former of which is all kinds of YA/NA romantic exuberance, and the latter of which, to me, would be the creepy stalker ish.
The creature it just felt like it was pretty explicit that you had to seriously love someone else to withstand them.
Loved it. Love Derek. Love Julie. I too thought the “you belong to another” statement referred to Derek being in love with Julie and therefore “his heart” belonged to another BUT that may just be a superficial reading (I’m not great at remembering all the details of previous books, I’m more in the moment). Time will tell.
The way I read it, Derek and Julie are a lock – eventually. Derek’s conscious mind may have some catching up to do, and of course, they’re both very young.
@Kaetrin: Agreed, Derek’s going to eventually see the light. I think Julie made her mind up in the very first book she appeared in. She’s just waiting for him to figure it out.
@Sandra: I thought the context of “you belong to someone else” was clearly romantic and yes, Julie’s made up her mind about Derek. Yay!
I’m going with Derek ‘belonging’ to Julie because he’s a wolf and they’re insanely loyal. Even if he can’t allow himself to think or feel that way about Julie because he sees her as too young, his wolf side recognizes her as ‘the one’.
Spoiler
When he went a little crazy and he was all wolf, he identified her as his and he wanted her. Human Derek feels Julie is too young, but wolf Derek doesn’t care.
Kns – agreed. And Derek held Julie’s hand while he was not completely out of it – I of course don’t know if they will decide to write more about their grown up adventures, but if they will I am personally sure that they are a go as Kaetrin said.
@Kns: Yes, agree.
Thanks for reviewing this! I was so excited when I checked the blog last week and saw it was out early. It really was an unexpected treat for the series readers. (I totally agree that this is not a good starting off point for anyone interested in dipping their toe in for the first time. And I heartily recommend that *everyone* who hasn’t already dipped their toe in do so immediately!)
@Sandy: On their blog, I got the impression that they might be winding up the Kate-centric books, but that there definitely could be additional works set in the Kate-verse, possibly even Atlanta with some of the characters already known to us. But I could have misunderstood and they mean to go further afield.
@Teri Strutt: Wow. I hadn’t even considered that possibility, but it could be a point of consideration. Both Julie and Derek belong to Kate, magically speaking.
I have to confess that I’ve never been a big Julie fan, so I didn’t have my heart set on a Derek/Julie pairing. That said, Julie showed a lot more maturity in this book, and I trust the Andrews team to be able to convince me if that’s the route they take. (Which seems like a given at this point.)
A lot of stuff happened in this little story, didn’t it? I definitely need to do a couple of re-reads and some musing, and am really looking forward to seeing who they get for the audio release.
I have been tempted to try out the Kate Daniels series , but I can’t stand majorly jealous , possessive , overbearing alpha heroes .
Could somebody please tell me if the curran is like this .
@Anon: yes and no. For the record I usually cannot stand those characters either – Curran is the only alpha character which I like a whole lot. Jealous? Not really – there was no other romantic interest for Kate so that did not come into play. Over protective ? Absolutely – but Kate is also an alpha who stands up to him pretty much always and when she insists that she needs to do things he usually respects that. And he grows as a character in every book can’t guarantee you will like him but hopefully it was helpful.
I would have definitely disliked Curran if Kate weren’t so badass. Those two are perfect for each other.
@Anon:
Curran, he’s like that, but Kate is more than capable of standing up to him.
@Erin Burns: I feel llike Derek pledged to defend and protect Julie from long ago…and there IS a pretty good spark between them….He does belong to her.