Ilona Andrews San Diego Signing

So awhile back I found out that the universe had aligned itself the husband and wife writing team Ilona Andrews would be visiting Mysterious Galaxy Bookstore in San Diego as part of their tour for Magic Rises. 

Yes. That Ilona Andrews. 

At this point, imagine me jumping around the house doing wildly uncoordinated fist-pumps while the hubby looked on in amused bewilderment. Keeping up a steady manta of "I want to go to there," I immediately called upon my dear friends Becca and Gladys to make the three hour road trip with me to meet one of our favorite writing duos.

Here we are at Mysterious Galaxy Bookstore.

Despite my almost normal expression here, imagine an entire colony of juiced up butterflies pinging around my stomach at this point. I was a wee bit excited.

The bookstore was packed but somehow Becca and I wound up literally sitting at Gordon and Ilona's feet during the Q&A session. Which Gordon opened up by simply saying "So. What do you want to know?"

By the end, my butt was numb and my legs were all jittery from sitting still for so long but it was totally worth it. We are such book nerds.

Because this totally happened... 

I got to meet them!!!! And they kindly agreed to sign all my Kate Daniels books.

I cannot even begin to tell you how super cool and nice and gracious and funny they were. Maybe you can tell by my crazed I'm-a-swimfan-grin I've got going on here but they pretty much were amazing. Also. Ilona hugged me. I think I died.

Still high on endorphins and sheer giddiness, we met up afterwards with Maggie from Young Adult Anonymous (who is incredibly cool) 

 and enjoyed some seriously delish sushi while we rehashed every single hilarious thing Ilona and Gordon said (and the fact that they sorta matched, which was kind of funny). 

Like the fact that even though we all knew that Ilona was from Russia none of us expected her to actually have such a killer Russian accent... 

Or that some of the things Gordon said would remind me so much of Curran. I think at one point when they were talking about some changes they wanted their editors to make to Magic Rises very late in the publishing stage he said: "We're not asking you. We're telling you. It's our name on that book." I sat there giggling to myself just thinking of all the times Curran said something like that to Kate or to one of the Pack...

Or that Aunt B is their favorite character to write *sobs*...

Or when asked if Derek is ever going to get the girl and his own happily ever after Gordon responded with "Well he should!"

It was an incredible day. I could not have imagined them being more candid or funny or working so well together. Frankly, I'm still a bit in awe of their abilities. And of their books. Thank you so much for doing what you do so well. This is one loyal fan you've got in your corner forever.

It's okay, you're supposed to laugh

I'm not really a fan of book trailers and it seems as if Ilona Andrews is of the same opinion. BUT she has crafted this excellent spoof of a trailer for the next Kate Daniels book, Magic Slays, which is just too awesome not to share.

"A Questionable Client" by Ilona Andrews

I'm not sure if it's because I'm so used to reading all the wonderful snippets Ilona Andrews posts on her blog or if the husband-wife writer duo is just excellent at writing period (I'm thinking it's the latter), but I was exceptionally pleased with their latest novella "A Questionable Client" found in the Dark and Stormy Knights anthology. After Magic Bleeds rocked my world earlier this year, I was in need of another Kate fix fast and this short and sweet little story did the job nicely.

"A Questionable Client" is set a few months prior to Magic Bites; a few months prior to Kate Daniels' move to Atlanta and her first meeting with the Beast Lord Curran  - so don't expect his Furriness to make an appearance in this one. In the absence of Kate's favorite sparring partner, our fearless mercenary for the Order of the Knights of Merciful Aid winds up meeting the slippery Saiman for the very first time. After Saiman's original bodyguards bail while still on duty, Kate is called in as a quick replacement and winds up spending one hectic night facing down all sorts of nasties that would like to see Saiman very dead. In the course of the eventful evening, Saiman becomes fascinated with the smart and capable mercenary who is immune to his constant shape-shifting.

Saiman has always been a favorite character for me, so the explanation of how he and Kate first became 'business associates' is truly intriguing. As is her bottomless wealth of knowledge: this time featuring a good deal of Russian folklore which went a long way in making this reader happy. As for Kate herself? Despite it's short format, "A Questionable Client" still contained plenty of Kate's trademark wit and sarcasm as well as her deadly sword-swinging skills. All very good things. But man, how much longer do we have to wait until Magic Slays?

Read an excerpt here.

series reading order:
~ "A Questionable Client" (novella in Dark and Stormy Knights anthology)
~ Magic Bites
~ Magic Burns - my review
~ Magic Strikes - my review
~ "Magic Mourns" (novella in Must Love Hellhounds anthology) - my review
~ Magic Bleeds - my review

Because Everyone Likes a Second Opinion:
All Things Urban Fantasy review
Inside of a Dog review
My Book Addiction review

book source: my local library

My inbox overfloweth

I have this friend who really likes fantasy books - especially the Patricia Briggs' Mercy Thompson series - I'm thinking she has good taste. But she'd never heard of the Kate Daniels books and so I have been bugging her for some time to track them down cause I know she'll just love them. I even supplied her with my copy of Magic Bleeds since it hadn't become available on her Kindle yet.

I hadn't heard anything from her for almost a week until yesterday when I got the following texts on my phone:

MARY: Finished the Kate books! I luv Kate and Curran!
ME: yay!
MARY: Curran all growly and protective is  my favorite =)
ME: i know! isn't he just yummy?!
MARY: uh huh
ME: have u read MAGIC BLEEDS yet? it is AMAZING!!! it turned me to goo
MARY: Finished this morning! I luv-luv it! Your furriness! =o) i luv when she says that. i just luv those two crazy luv birds.
ME: Of course u luved it! i'm so happy ;)
MARY: their 'intimate' moments suits their relationship. I'm glad she [Ilona Andrews] wrote it that way. cuz their relationship is so...amazingly crazy.
ME: so happy.


My work here is done.

Magic Bleeds by Ilona Andrews

If you've spent much time around this here bloggy, then there's a good chance you've heard about how crazy I am for Ilona Andrew's Kate Daniels series. The constant back-and-forth between Kate and Curran never fails to entertain me and Andrew's phenomenal world-building of a magic-ravaged Atlanta (my hometown!) always keeps me intrigued. After reading what I shall hereafter refer to as The Goodness - Magic Strikes - I've been on tender-hooks waiting for the sequel ever since.
 
Magic Bleeds opens with what has to be the best prologue of all time - it's that good. There is positively no contest here folks. In the interest of not becoming all spoiler-y, I won't go into details, but just know that after the dust settles, we are left with one mad Kate. Mad with a capital M. And it would be safe to assume that most of that barely controlled animosity is directed firmly at His Fuzziness, The Beast Lord, Curran. Fortunately for us, Kate isn't like the rest of world when she's furious. She's a teeny bit more dangerous since she never goes anywhere without her enchanted sword, Slayer, strapped to her back. That would add a little bit of swagger to any girl's stride.

So Kate's already seeing red when the Order of the Knights of Merciful Aid calls upon her to investigate a bar fight turned deadly. Upon her arrival, Kate finds not only an entire bar of spent brawlers who have no idea why they began fighting in the first place, but a man staked to a telephone pole, crawling with what appears to be a fast-multiplying, deadly disease. Kate contains the disease (barely) but then finds herself up against all sorts of obstacles upon discovering that the victim was a shapeshifter and therefore part of Curran's territory. Not someone she really wants to deal with at the moment. But as the plague-spreading culprit strikes again and again, Kate realizes she's gonna have to call in every favor and rely upon every weapon in her arsenal before this newest enemy can wreck complete destruction on the city of Atlanta. And that means working together with the Order, the Guild, the People, and most importantly the Pack to control this centuries-old evil from destroying everything Kate holds close.

I can feel myself starting to grin like a idiot right now because I've just got to say it: This. Book. Is. Awesome. And then some. Like if Awesome and Mind-Blowing went and had a love child it would be called Magic Bleeds. It's been obvious since day one that husband and wife writer duo Ilona Andrews has had a plan in store for Kate (and us), but Magic Bleeds just went and and blew all my expectations right out of the park. Weighing in as one of my top picks of 2009, Magic Strikes set the bar pretty dang high as far as impressive books go: we finally got to know Kate's Big Secret and saw some very nice relationship development between her and Curran (roar). I wasn't sure it would be possible but it's like Magic Bleeds took those eye-popping elements and then ramped up the intensity, the action, and the sizzle (whoa baby) one-hundred fold. Magic Bleeds simply delivers.

And dang it, but every time I'm enjoying watching Kate kick some serious butt, I end up forgetting just how frightfully brilliant she is. The girl is a total sword-swinging killing machine; too often taken for a simple mercenary with nothing much going on upstairs. Not so. Kate is infinitely more capable - and deadly. Sometimes it's hard to remember that not only has Kate been training as a warrior since age two (or earlier), she's also been getting a comprehensive education in mythology, history, and magic at the same time. It's not until she rattles off the minutiae of some obscure, ancient belief system at the drop of a hat to stunned audiences that I remind myself to pick my jaw up off the floor and just turn the page. She's just that good and I cannot even begin to explain how skillfully her story has been crafted. It's okay, we all want to be Kate. Go ahead and admit it. You'll feel much better after you do.

series reading order:
~ Magic Bites
~ Magic Burns - my review
~ Magic Strikes - my review
~ Magic Mourns (novella in Must Love Hellhounds anthology) - my review
~ Magic Bleeds

Because Everyone Likes a Second Opinion:
Angieville review
Book Harbinger review
Lurv a la Mode review
Smexy Books review
That's Queen Bitch to You review

book source: purchased

Must Love Hellhounds: Magic Mourns by Ilona Andrews

I'm not really one to pick up anthologies but seeing as though I have to wait at least until June for the next Kate Daniels book, Magic Bleeds, I made a special exception in the case of Ilona Andrews novella Magic Mourns in the Must Love Hellhounds anthology. Usually I'm not a huge novella fan simply because I don't think the format can adequately give an author the time or space needed to truly maneuver characters into an engrossing story. Inevitably, letdown occurs and I'm left dissatisfied. But knowing I'd get a chance to spend more time with Kate's friend and co-worker Andrea and her gung-ho suitor Raphael, whose antics I laughed myself silly over in Magic Strikes, I succumbed (hint: I wasn't disappointed).

Like Kate, Andrea is also a Knight but instead of magic Andrea specializes in tech. Her focus? Guns, baby. The woman could probably load, fire, hit a bulls-eye, and reload before anyone else could even draw their weapon. Handy that. In Kate's absence Andrea is taking over her cases (come on, we all want to be Kate, just admit it) when she gets a strange call asking for someone to rescue a shapeshifter who has run into a dog the size of a house in magic stricken Atlanta. Said shapeshifter turns out to be the one and only Raphael. The man who has been doggedly pursing Andrea for the last six months and whose idea of wooing happens to include breaking and entering. Although Andrea is convinced she can remain professional in the face of Raphael's Casanova charm, figuring out how to tame a dog the size of a house just might get her a little nervous. But that's what the big guns are for.

Magic Mourns wasn't Kate but frankly, I'm okay with that. I couldn't help but be lured in by Andrea's candid honesty and fierce arsenal. I also couldn't help but love her bald description of Atlanta:

I liked the city. I wasn't born here, nor did I come to Atlanta by choice, but now the city was my territory. I walked its streets, sampled its scents, and listened to it breathe. Atlanta wasn't sure about me. It tried to kill me every now and then, but I was confident we'd come to an understanding eventually.

Not one to mince words or make any excuses for herself, Andrea effortlessly grabbed me from the get-go. Magic Mourns was fast, fun and just might have changed my opinion regarding novellas. Maybe. I still haven't read the other three stories yet. But I might.

Because Everyone Likes a Second Opinion:
Darque Reviews
Errant Dreams Reviews
Janicu's Book Blog review
Literary Escapism review

book source: my local library