Magic Bites ( Book One in the Kate Daniels series) by Ilona Andrews

So Mark finally got me to read this and as predicted, I loved it. I have only read Magic Bites, and am nearly  through Magic Burns, the second in the (currently) 5 book series. 

It goes like this...

There has been a magic apocalypse somewhere in the not so distant future. Technology had taken over the world and magic decided it wanted to come back in full force - descending upon the city of Atlanta (and everywhere else in the world) in random waves knocking out all technology. 

Kate Daniels is a Mercenary/Guild Member/ Trained killer with a bad mouth on her and a way of putting herself in bad situations. She is a strong willed and beautiful woman, who has a hilarious sense of dry wit. Quote "Nothing kills a party like an over sized hedgehog" - if you knew the context in which this was being said, you'd fall over laughing too.

 

The first book Magic Bites starts off with Kate's life long mentor, Greg, being murdered. Of course Kate goes on the hunt for the killer and during the process of attempting to gather information, she learns a lot more about Greg's acquaintances. They include the Pack, who is controlled by the ferocious Beast Lord Curran. Curran controls the pack with ruthless authority, and Kate really knows how to get under his skin. She learns that 7 members of the pack have all gone missing, and also 5 members of the "People" have also gone missing. The people are necromancers who control the living dead aka Vampires, who without the mind control of the people would be walking monsters tearing up and eating everything in their path.

The story ends in a major show down, with enough twists and turns to make you immediately  want to pick up the second book.

The plot is basically a murder mystery, with lots of sword fighting and gore thrown with a slight trace of romance. The main protagonist is Kate and the story is told via first person. Which normally would aggravate me to no end, but it suits the story. Being inside Kate's head is an interesting journey, she has secrets about her past that have not fully come to light ( me being only up to book two) but the way the authors hint at it is making me incredibly curious. I'm sure as I progress through the series I will work out what the secret to her blood is!

So to make it short and sweet. Seriously cool books, not at all what I expected ( which was along the lines of crappy heroine pouts after sappy lion etc etc).

Definately worth the read.