I was without power for most of last week and the beginning of this week. Last Tuesday we had a snow storm that deposited over a foot of snow over night. Wednesday a tree fell over a power line and since we have an electric pump that meant our water was out as well as the electricity. Then to make matters worse on top of the snow we had an ice storm that took out even more trees and branches. After the ice we had a wind storm that cleared out the branches that didn't quite fall all of the way out of the trees. During all of this we were one of around 300,000 people without power so you can imagine there was plenty of work to be done to restore everyone. They had to bring in extra crews to help out with all of the clean up, restring power lines, repairing the main towers and fixing substations. On the news today there were still a few people that didn't have power but that should be fixed fairly soon if not already. Not having much else to do and just before my kindle's battery ran down I did finish reading another book by Ilona Andrews. This one is called 'Magic Mourns' and is only available in e-book form. The book fits inbetween 'Magic Burns' and 'Magic Strikes' but is not part of the regular series. In the book Kate is recovering from the mid-night games so her best friend Andrea is filling in for her at the order. A call comes in for Kate concerning one of the shapeshifters. Andrea takes the case and soon finds herself in over her head. It turns out the shapeshifter in trouble is Raphael, who's advances Andrea has been trying to avoid, and he is being chased by a big, three-headed dog. It turns out the dog is Cerberus, the hell hound, and has the power to regenerate. Andrea reluctantly joins forces with Raphael and the two of them set out to find why the dog isn't guarding the underworld. As in all of the other books put out by Ilona Andrews this one is full of mystery, romance and mythology. It goes rather quick once you start reading.

Earlier in the week I wrote about the latest book by Ilona Andrews in her Kate Daniels series. Today I am going to give some background and go through what happened in the first five books. In the world that Kate lives in there has been a wave that has brought the worlds of technology, magic and myth into the same plane of exist. One day the technology world might rule and all the cars, phones and everything else that is mechanically based works and the next day the magic takes over and nothing mechanical works. That is when when witches, wizards, and other odd assorted magical beings shine. In the first book, Magic Bites, Kate works for the mercenary guild, a group of bounty hunter that chase down rogue magic users, disarm spells that have gone a wry or anything else that the authorities don't want to be bothered to handle. On one of here jobs Kate finds out that her godfather has been killed under some mysterious circumstances. Kate feels that it is her duty to find out just what happened but to do so she need the resources of the 'order of knights of merciful aid'. She goes to the 'order' and takes her godfathers old office where she becomes a special liaison between the guild and the order. In her investigations she finds that the shapeshifters (pack) are also being attacked but joining forces with them means meeting the beast lord (Curran). She meets up with him and after some minor incidents gains favor in the eyes of Curran and the pack. Together they track down the what is behind the attacks and wage battle. Both Curran and Kate are nearly killed but manage to pull through. In the second book 'magic burns' Kate takes on a case for the Pack to retrieve their maps that were stolen from the keep(the packs fortress). She gets the maps and returns them only to have them stolen again. She discovers there is much more going on and once again she must join forces with Curran. They soon find themselves battling against demi-gods and demons. In the third book 'magic strikes' she helps out a few of the pack by fighting in the midnight games, a magic battle royal to the death. In this book we also find out part of the secret that Kate hiding her entire life. In the forth book 'magic bleeds' we find out more about Kate's family. Her and Curran, with the help of the rest of the pack and Kate's best friend Andrea, fight Kate's aunt, who is out to destroy the pack.

Magic Slays by Ilona Andrews

Anyone that enjoys fiction, fantasy, mythology and mystery with a little romance sprinkled in the mix will enjoy the latest book by Ilona Andrews. It is called 'Magic Slays' and is the fifth book in her, actually I should say their since her husband co-writes the books, Kate Daniel series. In this book Kate is now mated to the beast lord, a shapeshifter named Curran, and has opened her own supernatural bounty hunting agency. At the start of the book her business isn't going to well but soon picks up when an old acquaintance stops by to hire her to rescue the person she was guard and also recover a machine he was building for an unnamed group of investors. Kate and her best friend Andrea, a former Knight in the order, accept the case but soon find out that there is much more to this than they have been told. After Kate gathers more information, she and Andrea soon enlist the help of Curran. Kate, Andrea, Curran and some of the other shapeshifters set off to track down the invention before the group that has it can wipe out magic and anyone that uses magic. They manage to find what they are looking for but not before it has been used cleanse an entire village of magic along with all of the people. They capture the group that stole the device and find out that they have another more powerful device that can wipe out magic and magical beings in a five mile radius. Know that their problems have escalated Curran sends word to gather the rest of the clan, 1500 shapeshifters; the people, necromancers; witches and all the other groups of magical beings. Soon every magical being is search Atlanta for the second device and the group that is set on purging the city of magic. Once they track down the device they have precious little time to get to it and disarm it.