A review by kzimm2024
Magic Dreams by Ilona Andrews

5.0

Loved it! Great story. First read and I remember why I didn't stop to read it before, I wasn't a big fan of Jim and was in a rush to see what happens next for Kate and Curran. But this time I am reading them all in order and am so glad for this novella. Really interesting and hopefully that horrid poacher market meets its end.

Highlights and spoilers ahead:

I really liked Dali and Jim's dynamic:
Jim pondered the little piece of paper. “You want me to go back into that house protected by a magic sticky note?”
“Don’t even start,” I told him. “It’s working. If it weren’t working, you couldn’t drag me into that place.”
“What did you write on here? ‘Don’t die’?”
“No, I wrote, ‘Don’t be an a-hole!’” I headed for the house.
“On yours or mine?”
“On yours.”
“Well, in that case, your magic isn’t working. I’m still an asshole.”

Yes Jim you are :)

They face an unknown threat that puts its prey to sleep:
It took me more than an hour to drive over there through the crumbling city, and the entire time I watched Jim out of the corner of my eye. I punched him in the arm a few times to make sure he stayed awake.
After the first eight times he told me to quit it. (LOL)

and Dali's mom- hilarious:
My mother made a short cutting motion with her hand. “No!”
“Yes. We need to buy the snail.”
My mother drew herself to her full height. I stood up and did the same.
“No, and that’s final.”
“You can’t keep me from doing it.”
“I am your mother!”
Jim opened his mouth. “Mengapa?”
Oh my gods. He spoke Indonesian. My mother’s eyes went wide and for a second she looked like a furious cat. “He speaks Indonesian!”
“I know!”
“Why didn’t you tell me he speaks Indonesian? This is a thing I need to know!”
I waved my arms. “I didn’t know!”
-----------
“I can jog around the room pretending to scream if you would like,” Jim offered.
My mother raised an eyebrow. “You’re working so hard to dig your own grave, you might work yourself to death. Simmer down.”
Jim drew back as if she’d smacked his hand with a ruler.
“We have to sever the connection between you and whoever is doing this,” I said before they started slapping each other.
-----------
He snarled. I showed him my teeth.
A rolled-up newspaper landed on my head and then on Jim’s. “None of that in my house!”
Oh my gods. The alpha of Clan Cat just got smacked with a rolled-up newspaper.
“Mom!”

But Jim has Dali's number:
“The only thing you’re proving is that the smartest woman I know has zero common sense. You have powerful magic, you’re smart, you’re competent, but none of that matters.
I have a dozen Nadenes, I only have one you. What good would Nadene do me right now?
-----------
The morning came way too slow. Jim had almost dozed off four times and I ended up moving next to him, with my bucket.
At some point he asked me if my girly emotional outbursts were over, and I swore at him for a while in Indonesian.
And then he ruined it by asking me what some of the words meant, and of course I had to teach him how to pronounce them properly.

They defeat the demon spider and get their HEA:
His eyes told me he understood. This could be the last time we spoke to each other. “I’m sorry about our fight.”
“I forgive you,” I told him, and sliced through the first line. The keris severed it in one short cut. It blinked and vanished. “You just don’t understand what it’s like not to be pretty. It’s because you’ve always been hot.”
He coughed. “Hot?”
“Mhm.”
“Have you ever looked at me?”
“I have. I look at you all the time, Jim.” I severed the second line. It disappeared. A shudder ran through Jim’s body. His legs trembled.
“About Indonesian,” Jim said. “I learned it so I could talk to you.”

AS WE SUSPECTED Jim...