Take a photo of a barcode or cover
4.07 AVERAGE
4.07 AVERAGE
So I've been picking up the crumbs that have been dropped about Raphael and Andrea in the regular Kate-narrated books, and oh man was [b:Gunmetal Magic|12288282|Gunmetal Magic (Kate Daniels, #5.5)|Ilona Andrews|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1331230049l/12288282._SY75_.jpg|17264774] a feast for the senses. I've finally figured out why I'm so into Andrea/Raphael, despite Kate/Curran being the far more central ship of the series. Kate and Curran have excellent chemistry and consistently priceless banter, but Andrea and Raphael is a ship built on drawn-out longing, stubbornness, unresolved feelings. All three of those things are my catnip.
And Raphael is just so boldly, unashamedly, proudly devoted to her. He shows up and sits by her side whenever she needs him, every time, even when she wants him to leave to save her pride. He's always there because he wants to be with her and help her; like it's the most important thing in the world to him that she has him. Andrea gets severely injured a hell of a lot, and I swear Raphael is there every time. I read a lot of romance novels so I'm used to male professions of devotion (not that I'm still not partial to a good one), but actually showing Raphael consistently being there, holding Andrea's hand, teasing and commanding and soothing quantum sufficit, is very different from what you get in most romance novels: one grand gesture at the end. Probably if we analysed this further I'd discover something uncomfortable about myself, so I won't, but I will say this: the fact that Andrea doesn't ask for it definitely makes it more meaningful.
Anyway because this takes place several angsty weeks (months?) aftertheir breakup it had multiple opportunities to punch to the gut, which it merrily did. A personal fave underrated moment was when Andrea began her rant with, "Raphael, you are adored. You have everything," to which he said, "Not everything," and then the conversation moved on because Andrea didn't care and was launching into her speech, but WE knew what Raphael was saying.
Plus this was full of plot gems too — like when they had to go to a fancy party together, thus rocketing up the tension from ice-cold to fiery-hot. Or when hebroke into her house and moved all his stuff in and made it look like he'd been living there for years, and signed off her furious phone call with, "Love you, babe." Or when she, in retaliation, vandalised every item of his house with a truckload supply of the ugliest purple shag carpet, and the long, almost pedantic, hilarious descriptions of everything in the house being wrapped in the stuff, and then the lovable trio Raphael, Kate and Curran standing in the kitchen staring at the atrocity that is the decor and Kate saying, straight-faced: "Wow. I had no idea you liked carpet so much, Raphael." There was a pretty cool magic plot going on too, but mostly I was in this for the hijinks.
I need to end it here but one last thing I have to quote:
Anyway it's Raphael x Andrea forever, and also what an ending. Truly, Doolittle is the perfect romantic foil.
And Raphael is just so boldly, unashamedly, proudly devoted to her. He shows up and sits by her side whenever she needs him, every time, even when she wants him to leave to save her pride. He's always there because he wants to be with her and help her; like it's the most important thing in the world to him that she has him. Andrea gets severely injured a hell of a lot, and I swear Raphael is there every time. I read a lot of romance novels so I'm used to male professions of devotion (not that I'm still not partial to a good one), but actually showing Raphael consistently being there, holding Andrea's hand, teasing and commanding and soothing quantum sufficit, is very different from what you get in most romance novels: one grand gesture at the end. Probably if we analysed this further I'd discover something uncomfortable about myself, so I won't, but I will say this: the fact that Andrea doesn't ask for it definitely makes it more meaningful.
Anyway because this takes place several angsty weeks (months?) after
Plus this was full of plot gems too — like when they had to go to a fancy party together, thus rocketing up the tension from ice-cold to fiery-hot. Or when he
I need to end it here but one last thing I have to quote:
"You can use a day off. You look like hell."(NB I am quite a Jim/Dali fan though I could do without the emotional weight of Dali's cripplingly low self-esteem, and I really enjoy the contrast and common ground between them.)
"You'll spend your life a bachelor, Jim."
Anyway it's Raphael x Andrea forever, and also what an ending. Truly, Doolittle is the perfect romantic foil.
I like Kate more than Andrea but Andrea did get a bunch more attitude in the course of the book so that was nice. I'm getting a bit annoyed at the whole "pick a pantheon" style of choosing bad guys. But other than that I did enjoy the book.
Loveable characters:
Yes
Is it horrible of me that I am a little relieved to be done with Andrea's book? Because I am, happy. I want to go back to Kate, she is a much better narrator. Why did anybody think it was okay to give Andrea a full book? A Novella would have sufficed. Give me a full book of Jim and Dali! Those two are much more interesting characters (both together and apart).
To be honest, I think I was just tired of Andrea's pity party and subsequent teenage rebellion. It felt so...cliche. Like I was reading a bad YA novel (and trust me, I love me my YA novels, just not this one). I was half expecting Andrea to hit the local Hot Topic and start hanging out at the mall in between temper tantrums.
Though, it wasn't all a waste. You get to read about Roman, who is getting ever more interesting as the world continues to develop. He is a dark mage from the Russian Volvhs, but he seems to be only a dark mage because that is the side he was born into. His family has this notion of maintaning balance, so there is a part of the family that services the dark side, and the light. Roman may be a dark volvh, but his character is so full of this inner light... his juxtaposition intrigues me. His only character flaw so far? He was into Andrea (eeks).
Another chapter that was a highlight was seeing teenage Julie dealing with Ascasio. They are getting on each others nerves constantly, which I also find a little strange since Ascasio saved Julie in the last novel, you'd think she would be a little more grateful. Anyways, add Derek into the fray... I smell a love triangle brewing (and I am actually very interested in getting THAT team a novel).
I guess it was also great to see Andrea's past, and how it came back to haunt her. Though the way THAT little part of the novel was resolved left me a little perplexed. I think it was a little too cut and dry and a lot wasted potential.Andrea meets once more one of her past tormentors, who is asking to be let into Clan Bouda. The tormentor (Michelle?) is an adult now, with children, and a mate. Instead of, let's say, having this tormentor be a little more repentant (and maybe fuck with Andrea's head) she instantly verbally attacks Andrea, and Andrea almost kills her in front of her children (she doesn't, Raphael stops her). The tormentor then leaves, and THAT IS IT. Maybe 5 minutes of confrontation. It was quite disappointing as this vital piece of Andrea's character could have been further developed by allowing this tormentor into clan Bouda and exploring that. How does Andrea even know that the tormentor's children are okay? Why didn't that even cross her mind? THINK OF THE CHILDREN ANDREA. But nah, why give her story more depth. Nobody needs that. We need more broken hearts, and references as to how Andrea is no longer gonna play by the rules!
Andrea, please go back to being Andrea. The "good Order knight" was actually more interesting to me than this "good girl gone bad" scenario.
PS; Raphael, you are so very uninteresting you don't even get a full paragraph.
To be honest, I think I was just tired of Andrea's pity party and subsequent teenage rebellion. It felt so...cliche. Like I was reading a bad YA novel (and trust me, I love me my YA novels, just not this one). I was half expecting Andrea to hit the local Hot Topic and start hanging out at the mall in between temper tantrums.
Though, it wasn't all a waste. You get to read about Roman, who is getting ever more interesting as the world continues to develop. He is a dark mage from the Russian Volvhs, but he seems to be only a dark mage because that is the side he was born into. His family has this notion of maintaning balance, so there is a part of the family that services the dark side, and the light. Roman may be a dark volvh, but his character is so full of this inner light... his juxtaposition intrigues me. His only character flaw so far? He was into Andrea (eeks).
Another chapter that was a highlight was seeing teenage Julie dealing with Ascasio. They are getting on each others nerves constantly, which I also find a little strange since Ascasio saved Julie in the last novel, you'd think she would be a little more grateful. Anyways, add Derek into the fray... I smell a love triangle brewing (and I am actually very interested in getting THAT team a novel).
I guess it was also great to see Andrea's past, and how it came back to haunt her. Though the way THAT little part of the novel was resolved left me a little perplexed. I think it was a little too cut and dry and a lot wasted potential.
Andrea, please go back to being Andrea. The "good Order knight" was actually more interesting to me than this "good girl gone bad" scenario.
PS; Raphael, you are so very uninteresting you don't even get a full paragraph.
adventurous
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Loveable characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
what an awesome addition to the Kate Daniels series. I loved how they fleshed out Andrea's character, and really enjoyed the parallel storyline technique.
adventurous
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
I didn't realize how much I missed the world of Kate Daniels until I started reading this. It was so awesome to spend more time with Andrea and see things from her perspective.
Also, I couldn't stop giggling when she covered Raphael's house in the purple carpet. That was magical.
I just love this series. Highly recommended.
Also, I couldn't stop giggling when she covered Raphael's house in the purple carpet. That was magical.
I just love this series. Highly recommended.
I love the Kate Daniels series, and I love the world that Ilona Andrews has created. Unfortunately, this book wasn't quite as good as the books told from Kate's perspective--but I did still really enjoy getting to read more about all the characters.
I loved Andrea's debut as the POV character in a full length book. Like Kate, she's tough and kick-ass with a wicked and sarcastic sense of humor. Her relationship with Raphael is on the rocks at the beginning of this story and I simultaneously feel for each of them and want to knock their heads together when they are hurting each other. And although these are firmly UF and not PNR, like Kate & Curran, Andrea & Raphael do work it out.
The plot was pretty typical for this series. It was heavy on mythology and involving myths and Gods from a number of cultures. As usual, there's a good balance between, action, investigation, humor and relationships.
It was great fun to see the characters through a different POV. I loved the scenes where we see Kate & Curran through Andrea's eyes. As always, there are some great secondary characters, Doolittle has a large role, we see more of Jim and Roman gets some expanded screen time and makes the most of it. I certainly hope we see more of him as he was charming, slightly cheesy and completely kick ass.
This series is in my top 3 UF series (with Harry Dresden and Mercy Thompson) and I really enjoyed the change in POV and think that getting Andrea's story expanded the world in new and interesting ways. I'm always torn when new Ilona Andrews book comes out. I'm excited to read it right away but now since I did I have a longer wait until the next one.
The plot was pretty typical for this series. It was heavy on mythology and involving myths and Gods from a number of cultures. As usual, there's a good balance between, action, investigation, humor and relationships.
It was great fun to see the characters through a different POV. I loved the scenes where we see Kate & Curran through Andrea's eyes. As always, there are some great secondary characters, Doolittle has a large role, we see more of Jim and Roman gets some expanded screen time and makes the most of it. I certainly hope we see more of him as he was charming, slightly cheesy and completely kick ass.
This series is in my top 3 UF series (with Harry Dresden and Mercy Thompson) and I really enjoyed the change in POV and think that getting Andrea's story expanded the world in new and interesting ways. I'm always torn when new Ilona Andrews book comes out. I'm excited to read it right away but now since I did I have a longer wait until the next one.