A strong instalment to the series: Rachel has only a reasonable amount of tstl moments in it. Understandable, due to what she goes through in this..."episode" _ a lot, as usual .

This is the most chaotic series that I've ever read: There's a witch, that may turn out to be an actual demon..but she doesn't want to be a demon.

She wants what she's had her entire life...if only people would leave her alone!

But now in her life there's a living vampire, a family of noisy pixies _ with the occasional fairy _, a demon who once was the big threat to her life, and now is more like a comforting presence? Yes, I am talking about All.

It's complicated.

An ex-coven witch who was killed and buried alive _ *shiver* _ on what is now Rachel's and Ivy's _ officially more like Jenks _ church grounds, and may now be a sort of significant other to Rachel...if only he didn't insist on killing demons.

____

Now, imagine all this people, together, in one car.....

________

___________

Yes, it's a mess. An insane _full of non stop adventure _ mess.

As always in the end, Rachel ends up, in even dire straits that the ones she started in, to begin with.

You know? Basic, Rachel Morgan's insanity all around.

Oh, and a secret about Trent is revealed, lol, and I am not going to say which one. ;)

But it was nice to see Rachel and Ivy finally _ Oh, God, I hope it lasts! _ come to an understanding. I was getting sick and tired of their back and forth dance.

Leave a love triangle simmering in a tasteless broth. When it looks as if the thing may not have a single reason to exist, turn the power up all over again!

Insert about 20% cringe jokes so that it may help downplay all the emotional drama happening.

Add close to none character development, so that the characters don't have to...I don't know?

Grow up?

Kill characters at discretion...you will determine when enough is enough _apparently never :/ _ by the cries of former devoted readers...

Angst, angst, and more angst....when in doubt add more.

Let the characters behave as idiots as much as possible, without no regard for logical reasoning...

Kill one of your favourite , FAVOURITE, character, in a move completely illogical (according to his personality) and very faith oriented...

Leave the readers _who are reading fantasy _  upset with the somewhat preachy tone of the thing...

"There were marks of pain on his face, but no anger and no fear. He looked a little sad."

(..)

He stayed like a shadow in every corner of our home, stayed a stain on our hearts. I felt it. I can’t believe that good will leave us when evil remains. I will not. I do not.”

ARGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!

Some people will probably say:

"Oh, she's mad because ______ _______ was killed, so she's taking it out on the author and on the story."

I am not.

 And I am not mad...reading this, left me somewhat empty of emotions. .. I may think about it once in awhile, and question what possessed  me to read this volume _ the fact that I loved the previous two volumes may have had something to do with it _ but I don't feel angry enough to be...screaming or ranting :/

I am just sad.

The beginning was good, and I was looking forward in seeing Jared being rescued.

Unfortunately after that, things went into a carousel of ya "love triangle mess" angst fest    that was just _as other reviewers have mentioned it before _ prone to a lot of headesking.

The angst!

The idiocy!

Yes, we all know that Jared is a special flower with whom we need to have a lot of patience dealing with, but c'mon!

No one's that stupid! And clueless!

And Ash?

Ash?

Who cares about Ash?

Between the number of things that I just couldn't understand are:

Jared is being held prisoner at Aurimere. His aunt who is a sorceress can cross the "magical" fire, and blend into the shadows...

SO WHY DIDN'T SHE TRIED TO FIND THE POOR GUY??

Also, you're caught in a town controlled by raging lunatics.

People are being killed as flies.

You have no power with which to fight the bad guy..what do you do?

A) Try to leave the city as soon as possible

B) Make up another crazy plan that will probably end up with another person being killed..

Yes, Kami went with option B, which is only natural, because the story takes place in Sorry in The Vale.

BUT, I really think that the option A should at least have been mentioned as a possibility: maybe they were magically locked  in there. Fine. But at some point people, logical, sensible people, like I don't know...Rusty? Should have mentioned it....and at least tried to do something about it.

The statue scene...I found it too..."Disneylike" especially after what had happened with you know whom...

There where characters who were brought into the story apparently for only sacrificial purposes...

Kids were being constantly kidnapped...  

People kept crossing magical fires that no one should be able to cross ..

Rescue attempts were done involving a great, great number of people: It was like seeing a bunch of tourists in a place where they shouldn't be.

Stealth, people!

The last part of the story, and all that happens _and not only that "specific killing" _ didn't work out for me.

The battle was....meh..

The relationship between Angela and Holly that was placed on hold for what felt like forever...and then dealt in a time and place, in which most readers probably didn't care about anything else at all.

And the last pages were really too lame to talk about.

A sad, and bloodthirsty story... yes.

Creepy and romantic, not really. Unless you're considering the definition of new adult's romance.

Best characters in the book?

Jon, Lillian ( I KNOW!!)...and Rusty.

Author's Official Site

Buy ( o_O):

Unmade:

@Bookdepository.com

Let me just give you an inkling, of how my relationship with the Kate Daniels series used to be:

(excerpts taken from my reviews)

 Magic Bites #1:

"This series has in this book a very promising start. Kate Daniels is an independent _ by force of the circumstances _ strong and with no regard of diplomacy, kick-ass character (..)"

Magic Burns #2

"Non stop action. That's what you get when you read a Kate Daniels book."

Magic Strikes #3

"Truly and utterly amazing. "

(not trying to be concise here....this was really all I wrote about it..)

Magic Bleeds #4

5stars

 "If you like great world building, a kick-ass heroine, a stubborn and irascible alpha male, riveting stories, non stop action, with a smouldering romance, then this book is for you."

Magic Slays #5

4 stars

"As always, loved the story and the characters. However, i still prefer "Magic Strikes" and "magic Bleeds" to this one. "

Magic Rises #6

"(..) this part really didn't work for me, because it just felt convoluted in a YA Drama Teen Fest kind of WAY !!"  

 ____________________

Present Day....

Okay, when this book was releasead  a couple weeks ago, I decided I wasn't going to read it.

This used to be one of my favourite series, and part of me is still dumbfounded _and angry _ with what happened in "Magic Rises". I'm not even talking about the character that dies _although yes, I found that a little too convenient to place "you know whom" on top of that clan's food chain .

I got angry because Magic Rises basically twisted a number of rules that should never ever be altered in a fantasy series setting.

_The characters starting behaving as idiots and out of character,

_There was a lot of stupid angst that should only exist on a ya book,

_Which in turn ended up ruining a perfect good plot.

But here we are, more than two months after its release, and I just couldn't help myself:

I had to read it. I missed the characters, and part of me kept hoping _part against my better judgement and basically ignoring some "not so stellar reviews" of this story _ that I would love this.

So, this is how things went...

Wow, almost 10% read and I feel as if am reading a Kate Daniels encyclopedia!

What's with the double info-dump?

Forgive me for saying this, but this is the seventh book in a series, if people don't understand what they're reading, that's because they haven't read the previous ones o_O...

So..."newbies" go read the previous ones, and everything will make sense...

The characters of the Kate Daniels world...

Almost all of them are interesting to read about. Of course I have my favourites _ as everyone else does _, but the thing that bothers me, is that the authors seem to have decided to focus on the romantic aspect of the story between Curran and Kate _ even when the guy isn't right next to her, she's pinning for him...which I found really...ya :(  and not very Kate Daniels(sy)_ while neglecting the other threads of the Kate Daniels world!

Most of all, I miss the companionship between Andrea and Kate. I miss the relationship between Kate and Julie...I missed the relationship between Kate and Derek!(sorry, but calling him Wonder boy is just not enough!)

 Heck I even missed the dog!!

In fact, where was Grendel throughout all this story? o_O

Where was Saiman? (there is Ice in this cover design..obviously I thought he would enter!)

Where is Dali?? We never heard from her again since...I don't even remember the last time we saw her appear!

Instead we get the boys: Derek and Ascanio, and I am sorry to say this but, Ascanio seems to be taking over Derek's place.

With the boys, we get a lot of: "pretty, pretty"....I mean Ascanio...."he used to be handsome"...Derek.

We get it. I get it.

Stop it.

____

Having Kate trying to save this and that, mostly in the companion of teenagers, means we get treated to a lot of jokes. Hey, even Desandra delivers some macho crap, and some offensive jokes...

Sorry, but after awhile this started sounding a little like stand up comedy. Not my thing.

Also, unlike the plot of Magic Rises, I didn't find this plot all that interesting: There were some convenient developments and people with explanations for things that were happening, that were to say the least... contrived.

Kate in this book acts too much like a damsel in distress. Something that I found extremely "distressing" to read about! :/

There's even one moment in which she manages to diffuse a potential dangerous situation (a rare occurrence in the book), so everything is fine for some milliseconds...

"I had stopped this war from happening."

 And then all of a sudden she sees that Curran is arriving, and her mental processes revert to: Oh My God, Curran is coming!

"Curran.
The relief drowned me, turning me weightless, and for a short blissful moment I was completely and utterly happy. Curran!"

o_O

Oh My God! I have this image of Kate Daniels in my head and she's giggling and jumping up and down!

WHERE IS KATE? AND WHAT HAVE YOU DONE TO HER?

She's KATE DANIELS!! SHE IS THE DAUGHTER OF A GOD ( or whatever mad powerful entity!) SHE KNOWS HOW TO DEFEND HERSELF!!

 Do not cast her as some helpless maid :/

At least make her say something along the lines of: About time, you lazy bastard!

God :/

________

Do you remember what happened the last time Kate found herself alone in the keep?

While Curran was in a coma?

She's not exactly seen as Consort material by all those shape-shifters!

So what does Curran do in this book?

He goes away with the boys _ Raphael and the Kodiac guy _ leaving Kate alone to deal with all the Keep's politics. And this happens after what he did to her in the last book.

So, now he trusts her?

____

Oh, and does that lovely subject of what happened in the previous book gets mentioned as in: "You know, Curran behaved like an ass, so I don't know if I can ever trust him again...". Because I think that would be a logical follow up to what had happened...

But no, it does not.

It is like it never happened.

The thing is: It happened.

And it is still very much alive in my mind, and other readers minds.  And I don't care how many "I love you's" got thrown in the text, _and I am not even counting the "baby's" references, because I don't find that charming, or sweet  at all! _ Curran?

You're on my black list.

Well, at least a grey one o_O 

Surprisingly enough, towards the end, when the guy deigns himself to speak more than two words,  he managed  not to be that bad...and okay, there were moments in which he managed to grow a little in my consideration.

Especially what he does in the end...although I think he is going to drive Kate insane.

Now I just need that Kate stops behaving as some sort of Curran wannabe.

And people should tell her that she's not that funny anymore...

Bottom Line: Fifty-fifty...there were things that I hated but there were also things that I liked...

So this is mostly a two star rating. The extra half star is given because of characters such as Desandra and Ghastek, who really deserve it _loved the fact that we are given some basic insight into what made Ghastek who he is.

Author's Official Site

Bookdepository.com

If you're still on the fence about reading it, why not waiting for the paperback edition? :)

 It is released February, 24 th.

Pre-order Magic Breaks (mass market edition):

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I really wanted to like this book _as I do with every single one I read! _ but unfortunately the writing style didn't work for me. ( I am however aware that I've become extremely nitpicky with my old age, and that in the past I've finished books worse than this one! )

It isn't as if this was carelessly done, quite on the contrary!

But as I read this, I couldn't help feeling as if a little kid had had access to her mother's (father's) makeup, and really indulged in all those colours and textures. The phrases are overdone with an excess of adjectives, that end up clashing with the more colloquial speech that the characters use.

Also there's this sugared tendency, that for me became cloying:

"(..)the shadow that stalked her gently."

"Bliss frowned prettily at her companion."

"..smile his gentle smile.."

You know how there's purple prose? Well, this book's writing style made me think: pink one!

Also the main character is called Story, and her name is used in practically every sentence:

It becomes too much.

The characters, despite apparently being on their twenties, felt as if they're only teens as proved by their less than intelligent actions...

Also in this story you can expect the: You're special..snowflake factor.

The thing is, there's characters who know how to use it, and others who don't.

In the forty percent of this that I read, Story was just being her clueless self who was not that interested in changing that situation.

There was also a heavy dose of insta-love/lust...with two couples, probably three ( I didn't get to that part o_O).

The world building was relegated to Story occasionally saying something along the lines of: Oh, I remember this..and that...and that was it.

Too much telling, not enough showing.

Sorry, not for me..maybe with a heavy dose of editing this could work out, but at this point I don't find either the story or the characters that interesting to begin with.

 Author's Official Site

Buy "Fracured Dream"

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