Gunmetal Magic (Kate Daniels, #5.5; World of Kate Daniels, #6 & #6.5; Andrea Nash, #1) in SOS: Serious Overload of Series

Nov 12, 2012 Shelleyrae at Book'd Out rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Gunmetal Magic is a spin off from Ilona Andrews Kate Daniels series featuring Andrea Nash. It begins a few weeks after Andrea was summarily dismissed from the Order of the Knights of Merciful Aid, her shape shifter status having been revealed in Magic Slays. Having spent some time metaphorically licking her wounds, mourning not only the loss of her career but also the messy demise of her relationship with Raphael, she is working for Kate at Cutting Edge when she is assigned to investigate the de
Gunmetal Magic is a spin off from Ilona Andrews Kate Daniels series featuring Andrea Nash. It begins a few weeks after Andrea was summarily dismissed from the Order of the Knights of Merciful Aid, her shape shifter status having been revealed in Magic Slays. Having spent some time metaphorically licking her wounds, mourning not only the loss of her career but also the messy demise of her relationship with Raphael, she is working for Kate at Cutting Edge when she is assigned to investigate the deaths of four Pack members. The murders uncover the theft of a priceless artifact that leads Andrea to an Egyptian God determined to rise again, and suddenly Andrea is fighting for her life and the lives of those she loves.

The world building is phenomenal as always, of course I am familiar with most of it having read the Kate Daniels series but Andrea's character offers a slightly different perspective. The action is frantic, and often violent given the nature of the were's. Andrea is kick ass and doesn't shy away from any physical confrontation.

Much of the character angle of the novel involves Andrea coming to terms with her werehyena (bouda) nature. As a beastkin she endured a horrific childhood and has avoided the Pack as much as possible, but now she is outed she has to find a way to make peace with who she is and the Clan that claims rights to her.

There is romance too of course with Andrea and Raphael's relationship in a mess to begin with. It takes some sorting for these two stubborn characters to work out their differences, providing both some hilarious and achingly tender moments.

Many of the Kate Daniels series characters make appearances including Kate, Curran and Ghastek. Though Gunmetal Magic is technically the start of a new series, familiarity with the Kate Daniels series would definitely enhance the reading experience of this debut.

I loved Gunmetal Magic and I am impressed that Andrews has been able to continue the momentum of her well established world into Gunmetal Magic. I can't wait for the next installment.

*A fabulous birthday surprise from Jackie! ...more

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Oct 02, 2012 Kimberly rated it really liked it

Shelves: 2012

I knew Andrea had a bad past, but reading it in a bit more detail emphasized how bad it was. We're finally told what happened to her after the last battle when the Order took her away and why she couldn't contact Raphael. Roman was great and I hope he shows up in more books along with Ascanio. I didn't realize Barbaras was so funny. The end when there was more about Anapa and Anep was kind of weird. But I don't like snakes anyway.
I hope there are more spinoff books about side characters in the K ...more

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Oct 13, 2016 Kelly (Maybedog) rated it really liked it

Shelves: what-modern-fantasy, how-audiobook, where-grr-mine, why-i-would-like-to-thank, what-vampires, what-paranormal-romance, what-shifters, what-female-protagonist, what-magic

This started out a little rough. It was hard to read from Andrea's perspective when I hadn't particularly cared for her before. I didn't dislike her, but I found her annoying. She was good in this, though. There was lots of action, peril, death bed scenes, etc., which kept me happy. I liked some of the secondary characters and both Andrea and Raphael were distinctly different from Kate and Curran.

This was much more of a romance than previous books which was fine. But Raphael did some unforgivab ...more

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