Review – Magical Midlife Battle (Leveling Up, Book 8) by K.F. Breene (4/5 stars)
Reading Level: Adult
Genre: Paranormal
Length: 454 pages
Publisher: Hazy Dawn Press, Inc
Release Date: September 19, 2023
ASIN: B0BYMDBSLC
Stand Alone or Series: 8th book in the Leveling Up series
Source: Borrowed ebook from Kindle Unlimited
Rating: 4/5 stars
“The battle to save Kingsley’s pack, and Austin’s place of birth, is upon them. They have their team, they have their supplies, and they have a very nerve-wracking secret weapon that Edgar devised.
They aren’t even close to ready.
If they lose this battle, every shifter in the world will be in jeopardy. But to fight means danger they might not all walk away from.
If only the battle was their sole worry.
Austin has come home for the first time in fifteen years. He left the pack in tatters and a great many people haven’t forgotten, his family included. He must finally face his past.”
Series Info/Source: This is the eighth book in the Leveling Up series. I borrowed a copy of this on ebook from Kindle Unlimited.
Thoughts: This was a well done continuation of the Leveling Up series. This book picks up where the last book left off. Jessie and crew are preparing to journey to Kingsley’s pack to help with the epic battle against the evil mage Momar.
This book spent a lot of time switching POV, sometimes even within a chapter, than previous books have. While it was sometimes interesting to see different characters’ points of view, at times it really broke up the story. I also found because there were so many different characters whose point of view we were reading from I would forget which character we were reading from mid-chapter and have to page back to remind myself. The characters’ voices just weren’t always distinct enough that I could tell whose voice I was reading in.
Aside from the above issue I enjoyed this. It was fun to get to meet Austin’s family and to watch Jessie’s rather insane crew try to meld with Kingsley’s uptight crew. I loved Edgar’s weaponized flowers, Tristan’s dark secrets, and Nessa’s obsession with winning a cook-off against Austin. All of these characters have grown so much over the series and it is especially fun to watch Jessie step into such a strong leadership roll.
This book has a side romance going on between Nessa and Tristan (hopefully we see a novella on this or something in the future) because those two are crazy! I also really enjoyed the gharettes (sp?, female non-shifting gargoyles) who joined the battle.
Despite feeling a bit drawn out because of the POV changes, the story moves at a good pace. There is a lot of action, magic, and hilarity here and I really continue to enjoy these characters and this world.
My Summary (4/5): Overall I really enjoyed this continuation of the Leveling Up series. This book does feel longer and more scattered than the previous books. I think there were two many character POVs and they sounded too much the same. Hopefully the next book in the series will stick with 2 or 3 characters viewpoints rather than the six or seven (I think?) that were in here.
