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Magic Triumphs

Book 13 in the series:Kate Daniels

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'Magic Triumphs' is the final book in the 'Kate Daniels' series by Ilona Andrews. The story revolves around Kate and Curran facing new threats to Atlanta, including a mysterious big bad causing havoc. As Kate embraces and masters her power, she works with various factions to save the city. The book culminates in a battle with Roland, Kate's father, as she strives to protect her loved ones. The writing style is described as smart, crafty, and subversive, delivering a satisfying and unexpected finale to the series.

Characters:

The characters exhibit significant growth, with Kate and Curran embodying strength and vulnerability, while familiar faces enrich the narrative.

Writing/Prose:

The prose is fast-paced and engaging, combining humor and action with strong character development that enhances emotional connections.

Plot/Storyline:

The plot intricately weaves Kate's struggles with motherhood and the looming threat of her father, while introducing unexpected plot twists and a significant time jump, enriching the climax of the series.

Setting:

The setting is an alternate Atlanta where magic and technology intertwine, creating a vibrant and complex world.

Pacing:

The pacing is generally fast, though some moments may feel rushed as the story wraps up.
A thin sliver of watery, predawn light broke through the gap between the curtains. The magic was up. On my left, in the little nursery Curran had sectioned off from our bedroom, Conlan stood in his cr...

Notes:

Magic Triumphs is the final installment in the Kate Daniels series by Ilona Andrews.
There is a time jump of about two years since the last book.
Kate Daniels is now a mother and is depicted navigating parenting challenges.
The book features a huge diverse cast of characters, most of whom appear to say goodbye in this final book.
Kate faces her father, Roland, and a new formidable enemy who threatens Atlanta.
The story includes plenty of action, humor, and emotional moments, wrapping up character arcs satisfactorily.
Hugh, a character from Iron and Magic, makes an appearance, adding complexity to the plot and Kate's relationships.
The dynamic between Kate and Curran evolves, showcasing their chemistry and partnership as parents.
The book received praise for its solid writing, world-building, and character development over ten books.
Readers are encouraged to read Iron and Magic before Magic Triumphs to fully appreciate the story and character connections.

Sensitive Topics/Content Warnings

Content warnings for Magic Triumphs include themes of violence, emotional distress, death, and the supernatural, suitable for a medium level of caution.

Has Romance?

The romance elements in the book are prominent, particularly focusing on the relationship between Kate and Curran as they navigate parenthood and their responsibilities together.

From The Publisher:

Mercenary Kate Daniels must risk all to protect everything she holds dear in this epic, can't-miss entry in the thrilling #1 New York Times bestselling urban-fantasy series.

Kate has come a long way from her origins as a loner taking care of paranormal problems in post-Shift Atlanta. She's made friends and enemies. She's found love and started a family with Curran Lennart, the former Beast Lord. But her magic is too strong for the power players of the world to let her be.

Kate and her father, Roland, currently have an uneasy truce, but when he starts testing her defenses again, she knows that sooner or later a confrontation is inevitable. The Witch Oracle has begun seeing visions of blood, fire, and human bones. And when a mysterious box is delivered to Kate's doorstep, a threat of war from the ancient enemy who nearly destroyed her family, she knows her time is up.

Kate Daniels sees no other choice but to combine forces with the unlikeliest of allies. She knows betrayal is inevitable. She knows she may not survive the coming battle. But she has to try.

For her child.

For Atlanta.

For the world.

Ratings (32)

Incredible (11)
Loved It (18)
Liked It (1)
It Was OK (2)

Reader Stats (40):

Read It (34)
Want To Read (3)
Not Interested (3)

3 comment(s)

Incredible
2 weeks

"You and me, Kate. We're forever. Conlan will grow up and go his own way, and you and I will still be here, squabbling over who is going to save whom." 😍

🤓 [b:Iron and Magic|35126152|Iron and Magic (The Iron Covenant, #1)|Ilona Andrews|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1525921420s/35126152.jpg|56444518] is a must-read prior to this finale - just sayin' ... you'll be happy you read it first

 
Incredible
1 month

Because this series has been my very favorite for a long-ass time, I was really slow to read this final book. It's a weird thing I do, sometimes. Like, I still haven't watched the last episode of

Orphan Black. It's almost as though, by avoiding the ending, I can pretend it didn't end. So whereas I'd normally devour a new Kate Daniels book within the first 24 hours of release, this one sat a bit on my Kindle, staring at me for a few weeks. Months? I can't remember exactly when the release was.

Anyway, I'm going to give this 5 stars. Because I love Kate, and I love Curran, and I love Erra, Barabas, Roman, and so many other secondary characters. And I love Roland, and his complicated relationship with Kate. He's evil, for sure. But in some weird way, they care about each other, and the emotion loaded into their encounters is tremendous. I thought the main arc was fantastic, and I really enjoyed it.

However, I have lots of nits to pick, and I'm going to spit them all out below in spoiler tags, so beware.

1. I really hate Julie.

Maybe this is just me, but I find her overly precious "I-know-best-about-everything-and-if-you-stupid-adults-would-follow-my-lead-I'd-have-this-all-wrapped-up-perfectly" personality to be awful. Like, I was legit hoping she'd die. Not even kidding. She's been an ego monster for several books - from the point where she decided she was training with Roland, no matter what Kate thought about it - and she's made one stupid decision after another in a horrible chain. I hate that Kate is constantly in the position of having to save Julie from herself, and I hate how this book ended in regards to Julie. Literally hate it. And because of all this, I know I won't read any more in the KD world, because the authors have said it will be years down the line with Julie and Derek, and I just can't even. She's awful. An egotistical overpowered asshole who is beyond selfish - she's not sparing even a second to think about how taking off will impact anyone else in her life, and given that she hasn't spoken to Kate in a week, it's just a spoiled child move. I hate that she gained even a speck of power from Kate. She doesn't deserve it, hasn't earned it, and she throws it around as if it is hers. I honestly wish she had died. Especially because you know Derek is going to follow her stupid ass, and then Kate is going to lose yet another family member from her life. It hurt her so much to have Ascanio cut away. Now Derek too? All because Julie is an asshole? Great. I hope that Kate fucking takes Curran and Conlan and disappears into the world, so assholes who take advantage of her and her open heart can't come barging back in at their convenience.

2. Retconning freaks me out.

I get that the authors never intended to redeem Hugh, so they had to retool some things to do it. But saying he was helping Christopher? Come on. He wasn't. We were told in that book (I think it was book 7) that Christopher was being given a cup of gruel and some water every day. Not enough to stop the torture of starvation and thirst, but enough to keep him alive. That wasn't a mercy on Hugh's part, it was torture. I can buy into the stuff about Roland eroding his will and making him into a monster, and I can even forgive him, as Kate did. But please don't make it seem like good Hugh was sneaking in good deeds on the sly, because he was a good guy at heart... even when he was in the throes of Roland-controlled psychopathy. He was a monster in those books. Let's not pretend differently.

3. I'd like some resolution with the Pack.

I never thought Jim was betraying them, as they worried. I never thought he'd gone that far. But his ego has pushed him to a really shitty place in the last few books - being Beast Lord is frankly bad for him, and he's making shitty, stupid decisions - and it seems like that has even rubbed off on Dali. Kate and Curran saved their asses even as recently as the last book, when they decided to pick a fight with Roland and burn down his castle. And the Pack still treats them like garbage. I know they've got quiet loyalty from the Boudas, Clan Heavy, and Desandra... but I just overall find the Pack to suck, and it particularly hurts that Jim, who was a friend, is now just an asshole.

4. I still don't get Nick.

I appreciate that there were some moments of sibling-esque banter between Nick and Kate in this book, but honestly, I don't get why he hates her. He didn't in book 1, and he had to know who she was to Greg, at least by the end. So whatever grudge he had about her mom, that should have been present in book 1. And the mom thing is nonsense. Kate's mom didn't break up Greg's marriage - he didn't leave Anna for Kate's mom. He had a crush on the woman, fine. But like, firstly, how is that her problem, and secondly, why on earth is that baggage to push on Kate? That's nonsense. And it is equally nonsense for him to just randomly decide that Kate is evil because Roland is evil. I mean, come fucking on with that. Kate has always opposed him, and you can see that in her track record. Hell, Nick was with Hugh when he was sent to hunt Kate down! It makes no sense. So I kept waiting to get another reason - a real reason... like, Greg made Nick stay away from him and out of his life, because he didn't want Kate to ever know about Nick - or for Nick to come to his damn senses. That didn't happen, and I don't get it. I also wonder ... if Hugh ended up in the position Nick was intended to be in. Because Hugh and Kate then rolled into this sibling place, in this book. I just wonder if Nick's situation felt so weird and unresolved because, when they decided to redeem Hugh, he rolled into the arc that would have been Nick's?

5. WTF, Boudas?

They felt unceremoniously dropped from Kate's life. Like, Raphael asking her to let Ascanio go was weird. And does Ascanio even know they talked about this? Or does he think Kate randomly kicked her out of his life? Honestly, the Boudas as a whole now fall under the "Fuck the Pack" heading. They are all over Kate when they need something, and then are gone when they don't.

6. I'm mad that Curran decided to do this whole god thing without talking to Kate. And I'm mad that Kate didn't talk to Curran about the B Plan (even though it was damn obvious)..

I thought we were past this crap? I thought they were a team now. Kate not telling him about the B Plan was less of a big deal to me, because it was an obvious option that has been on the table - like the elephant in the room - ever since they found out Roland had bonded them together. But Curran doing this god thing ... it's not an obvious thing. He should have talked to Kate about it. Not even to let her talk him out of it, because Kate and Curran are always both going to do what they feel like they need to do, but because they're supposed to be on the same goddamn team. That means big plans are discussed. They can fight about them - and have - but eventually they love each other and accept that they can't change what the other needs to do. And with this god thing, that's exactly where Kate landed with it anyway. So why the secret? It was shitty, and it felt like they were manipulating her ... just like the arc everyone hates from the trip to Hugh's castle several books ago.

7. Why in fuck does shitty Julie - who we've already established has the sense and judgment of a moron - get to know these plans but Kate doesn't?

Why does she know about Hugh? Why is she on these hunting trips with Curran? WTF, seriously?

8. WTF with Saiman dying offscreen?

Adora got more of a death, and we barely know or care about her. This felt like an odd choice for a major secondary character. It is super forgettable. By which I mean, I barely remembered that he DID die, until I was looking at friend reviews.

 
Loved It
7 months

A great ending to this series, although I wouldn't say it's the best book in the series. It is still great entertainment.

The plot is very good. The pace of the story is really fast and, as always, we find some interesting twists here. But perhaps the best is the humor with which this story is written. I've really laughed a few times, and it's not easy to make me laugh at all.

Of course, we meet all the well-known characters that we met in the previous books. Several unexpected alliances are formed, and a few people reveal powers we didn't know about before. All this makes the book really interesting and an excellent final addition to the series.

This is the last book in this series and I have mixed feelings. On the one hand, I appreciate the authors who make the decision to end their most important series and not drag it out over an endless number of subsequent volumes. I like when the series has its ending, it makes it look to me like it's going somewhere and the author knows what they want to achieve. On the other hand, it is difficult to part with those characters with whom I spent so much time. I know there is a spin off of this series and I will probably read it to come back to these characters, even though I don't usually care about it.

It's a bitter sweet feeling - I feel like I've achieved something, closed a chapter, finished a series that I started reading many years ago, it always brings me the feeling of fulfillment. But at the same time, this series made me so much fun that it's hard to part. Fortunately, I started reading a series about Nevada and her sisters from the same pair of authors a while ago, and I love it, so I have something to wait for.

 

About the Author:

Ilona Andrews is the pseudonym for a husband-and-wife writing team, Gordon and Ilona. They currently reside in Texas with their two children and numerous dogs and cats. The couple are the #1 New York Times and USA Today bestselling authors of the Kate Daniels and Kate Daniels World novels as…

 
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