Magic Tides – Ilona Andrews

People who enjoyed the Kate Daniels series will enjoy this book. (This book was not written for readers who are not familiar with the backstory.) The KD series takes place in Atlanta, where Kate and her husband have achieved mythic status. Which sounds good, except that it makes it hard to raise a family. So they’ve moved to Wilmington, where they plan to keep a low profile and lead a normal, low-profile life. That plan begins to unravel when their contractor’s nephew is kidnapped and Kate decides to rescue him. (They have a contractor because they are renovating a fort to serve as their new home. It may be that they don’t have the low-profile mentality.)

The book consists largely of the keep-a-low-profile plan going from one unraveling to another. Kate’s abilities are conspicuous. Kate is conspicuous. She also keeps meeting people who know her, some of whom wish to follow her. The running gag of Kate continually lagging in the low-profile sweepstakes is the best part of the book.

The book’s main weakness is the flip side of that running gag: The “first book in a series” vibe overwhelms the story. The book is basically spent introducing and recruiting a cast for sequels.

So… Main strengths: The return of characters that readers of the KD novels will want to see more of. Good, humorous story telling. A good story. Main weakness: The flow of the story is sacrificed to introducing characters and setting up background for sequels. To end the review as it began, if you enjoyed the earlier series you’ll enjoy this one.