Magic Bites (Kate Daniels, #1) in Read, Reading, Planning to Read and More

Dec 19, 2017 BJ rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: loved-it

Outstanding intro to Kate and Curran. It's a complicated world, h and H and strong characters, playful and deadly. Fantastic writing, the story just pulls you in. Devoured this and every book in the series. Everything this couple write is 5 super stars. ...more

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Jul 13, 2018 Jillian rated it did not like it · review of another edition

Shelves: books-i-reviewed, fantasy, read-in-2018, urban-fantasy, read-on-kindle, gave-up-on, didn-t-care-for-it, magic, shifters, vampires

When "awful" and "hate it" are your first two real feelings about a book, it is not a good sign. Then when you add "confusing" and "boring" to the list, it gets a little daunting. Unfortunately, this book was a huge fail for me and a big disappointment. I love fantasy and urban fantasy and I have had this series mentioned to me multiple times. I was really excited to read it finally; well, until I actually started reading it.

The biggest problem that I had with Magic Bites in the beginning was t When "awful" and "hate it" are your first two real feelings about a book, it is not a good sign. Then when you add "confusing" and "boring" to the list, it gets a little daunting. Unfortunately, this book was a huge fail for me and a big disappointment. I love fantasy and urban fantasy and I have had this series mentioned to me multiple times. I was really excited to read it finally; well, until I actually started reading it.

The biggest problem that I had with Magic Bites in the beginning was that it was a massive information dump. Things weren't allowed to happen and be explained, oh no, they were all just thrown at the reader from the very beginning. There was so much that it was confusing and difficult to keep straight, especially with all of the made up names and titles and various characters.

The next biggest problem for me was the flow and the horrid cadence. So many sentences were just a mouthful and while I consider myself to be a pretty decent reader, I was stumbling over the sentences left and right.

By 25% in, I pretty much hated the book. It was confusing, the cadence was awful, and worse yet, it was mostly filler. Filler of random and excessive information and knowledge that the reader was somehow supposed to load up on. And yet, it still didn't really explain what was happening. Worse yet, I don't care about any of the characters or what is happening. I don't know enough about the main character to have formed an attachment to her. While all the information provided, we still have yet to get to know the main character.

I decided at this point, a quarter of the way in, that I would try a bit longer because after asking around for why I would even want to continue, I was told that it is a rough start to the series but it gets tons better. So okay... I tried harder. I read a few pages at a time before setting it down for lack of interest or because it was making me fall asleep.

Then at page 82, or 32%, I surrendered. Out of the last 526 books that I have read, only 8 others have been DNF. Even when I don't like a book, I try my hardest to finish it. I hate giving up on books. It is almost OCD for me to finish no matter what. I just can't with Magic Bites.

Typically, if I DNF a book, I won't give a star rating if I am DNFing because the content just isn't for me. I am giving a star rating on this book because my problems aren't that the storyline just isn't my cup of tea. I had problems with the writing and technical aspects of this book. Plus, I invested a lot of time attempting to read this book so I feel a star rating is warranted. Besides, given the current number of ratings, over 82,000, my rating isn't going to impact the overall rating for the book.

It is important to me to point out the positives as well, whenever I don't like a book, but unfortunately I don't have any. So what I will say is that everyone's reading experience is their own. Just because I didn't like this book doesn't mean that you won't. This book has a ton of great ratings, approximately 77,000 3 star and above, with only around 5,500 2 star and below. As I said before, I was told that the series gets better after you get through book 1 so if you can get through it, it may very well be a great series.

On a more positive note, this is not the first book that I have read by these authors. I have read the Innkeeper Chronicles series and the Hidden Legacy series. I absolutely loved those books and highly recommend both of those series'.

I am rating Magic Bites as 1 star. Maybe someday I will go back and attempt to finish this book so I can give book 2 a shot but right now it isn't looking likely.
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Jan 24, 2018 Michelle Watson Forbes rated it liked it · review of another edition

Hope the next ones are better....was too confusing and I was always having to remind myself where Kate was and what she was doing....

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Jan 22, 2020 Mia Wolffe rated it it was amazing

This series, and The Dresden Files, are my favorite paranormal or urban fantasy. I'm a little blurry about where paranormal ends and urban fantasy begins.

This book feels like the prototype for "girl fights her mysterious father" trope. None the less, I liked the ending of the series and will read it again. The characters developed in a logical way without changing their core personality. The leading man is well written, never becoming a prop for the plot. Though I haven't read all the associate ...more

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