A review by amym84
Gunmetal Magic by Ilona Andrews

5.0

I was impressed with this book. I absolutely love the Kate Daniels series and I've loved every book / story that Ilona Andrews has written for the series including the novellas for anthologies which have featured a different POV than Kate. I was a little unsure how I would like a full-length book with Andrea as the narrator. I like her character, but I like how she is through Kate's narration. Plus, not having Kate and Curran in the foreground wasn't something I thought I would like.

Gunmetal Magic starts off after the events in Magic Slays. There's still a lot of things that Andrea has to deal with in regards to the pack and mainly Raphael after she left at the end of Magic Bleeds. She hasn't spoken to Raphael since their fight and she figures things with them are probably off for good, but she still has feelings for him. Both of them are full of pride and feel like the other doesn't understand each other's actions with the Erra situation.

I'm glad to say that Ilona Andrews doesn't skirt around the issue. We all know it's there, and it will get dealt with. I like that it's acknowledged and it's not Andrea and Raphael avoiding each other the whole book but we only get to hear internally what Andrea is feeling. They put all their issues on the table and each of them has to decide if the relationship is worth it. There's a lot of work that has to be done on both sides becuase honestly in my opinion I can see this situation from both points of view and I think they were both equally hurt by the other.

Kate and Curran are still around don't worry. They are off on their own adventure for a little bit (see the extra included short story Magic Gifts at the end) but they eventually join in to help Andrea and crew find out what killed 4 shapshifters on one of Raphaels dig sites. Which leads into an investigation of gods of all sorts.

I'm always impressed with the historical mythology that Ilona Andrews provide. They obviously spend a lot of time with research and it shows. I like that just by reading the books you can tell they really put 110% into it and really it should be that way with every author / story they write.

I think if you happened to pick this book up at random and read it, you wouldn't be lost, but I think it's much more enhanced knowing all the background information and where everyone was coming from beforehand going into the story.

This writing goup just keeps getting better and I can't wait until their next release (regardless of which series because they also have an awesome series "The Edge" with [b:Steel's Edge|12119496|Steel's Edge (The Edge, #4)|Ilona Andrews|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1341723527s/12119496.jpg|17088789] book #4 coming out in November). Until Then!