Audiobook Review – Magic Breaks (Kate Daniels, Book 7) by Ilona Andrews (5/5 stars)

Reading Level: Adult
Genre: Urban Fantasy
Length: 16 hours and 23 minutes (400 pages)
Publisher: Recorded Books
Release Date: July 29, 2014
ASIN: B00M3EW3ZQ
Stand Alone or Series: 7th book in the Kate Daniels series
Source: Audiobook from Audible.com
Rating: 5/5 stars

This is the seventh book in the Kate Daniels series. There are three more books on contract for this series. The eighth book will be titled Magic Shifts and is set to publish sometime in 2015. I really enjoyed this book, it ties up some major plot points and was very well done.

I listened to this book on audiobook. I love the audiobooks in this series, the narrator does an awesome job. She sounds exactly like I would imaging Kate would sound like and does a wonderful job with emotion and other character voices too. My only complaint is that in the short story Magic Tests the narrator made Julie sound almost identical to Kate, I think this would have been better if Julie had sounded a lot different. Other than that this is one of those audiobook series where I actually like listening to the story more than reading it.

Curran is called away to a hunt in a different part of the country, which he feels he has to attend in order to gain some political advantage. This leaves Kate alone to attend the Conclave between the Pack and the Masters of the Dead. It should be a quick and easy meeting, but then a surprise guest shows up at the Conclave…Hugh d’Ambray. Hugh announces that he has found one of the Masters of the Dead murdered and it looks like it was a Shifter did the deed. Hugh gives the Pack an ultimatum…hunt down the killer or the Masters of the Dead will declare war on the Pack.

This book was really the climax of the series so far. Hugh is in the story a ton. We get to go to Mishmar and meet various members of Kate’s family, primarily her grandmother and, of course, Roland.

Kate also spends a surprising amount of time with Ghastek and as a result we learn a ton about Ghastek and how he got to be a Master of the Dead. We also learn a lot more about Kate’s sword Slayer and where it got its origins.

This book is seriously action packed. It goes from ones chase scene to the next and then there are gruesome fight scenes in Mishmar. There were times where I almost felt like I had to stop and catch my breath there was just so much action, I loved it!

This book does tie up the major story-arc around Kate, Hugh and Roland. I know some readers will think the ending a bit corny…however I really enjoyed it.

Another thing I loved is how well Kate and Curran work as a team. Curran is absent for a good portion of the book, but when he arrives he and Kate work together flawlessly. The trust they have in each other and the way they are always truthful and honest with each other is inspiring and great to read about. There really isn’t any romance in this book. Kate and Curran love each other and enjoy each others company, but there is too much going on for them to get much time together.

Overall I absolutely adored this book. I think it was a wonderful addition to this series. I love the action packed story and all the interesting places we got to see. I enjoyed learning all the background around Kate’s family, Ghastek, and Mishmar. There are some very creative places and scenes in here. This remains one of my absolute favorite urban fantasy series, second only to The Dresden Files by Jim Butcher. The whole series is highly recommended to urban fantasy fans.

This book goes towards the following reading challenges:
– Audio Book Reading Challenge
– You Read How Many Books? Reading Challenge