Magic in the Shadows by Devon Monk – Review

Magic in the Shadows is the third installment of Devon Monk’s Allie Beckstrom series.  The first two books, Magic to the Bone and Magic in the Blood, put Allie through a series of adventures centered on some illegal and immoral magic use that has a connection to her late, estranged father.  This time around, Allie has to deal with her father on a more intimate basis.  His voice is inside her head.  Her attempts to discover whether his ghost is actually inside of her head or whether it is some sort of mental break caused by all of the stress she has been through lately becomes the background upon which we watch Allie learn more about magic, make new friends, and win new enemies. The action in this book picks up directly after the last one with Allie now trying to take care of the group of Hounds that she “adopted” from a friend lost in the last book, as well as dealing with her father’s widow, the multimillion dollar company she now owns, a homicidal pseudo-werewolf, and her attempts to learn more about magic and its use.

I found this to be the most interesting and fun of the series so far.  Several factors contribute to this feeling.  The first is that we get to see more of Allie’s best friend Nola.  Nola comes to stay with Allie temporarily, and her mothering attitude and friendship serves to give Allie warmth to come home to each evening – and someone to share things with.  The second factor making this book more interesting than the first two is that while there is a great deal of action, we get breathers in between action sequences, and the story has a much more steady pace whereas in the first two the reader hardly gets a break until the end.  Additionally, we get more information about the mysterious Zayvion, and his relationship with Allie grows.  The reader follows as Allie herself is growing in magic knowledge, responsibility, and as a person.  Aside from these factors, Allie gets followed home by a fun and interesting new friend, Stone, who is a very strong ally and who becomes my new favorite character.

I would have liked to see more development in Allie’s magic lessons as well as a bit more background on Nola and the reason for her visit.  But these do not truly detract from my enjoyment of the story.  The series is one of my favorites in part because of the magic rules that are so logical and unique, but mostly because it is just a well-written story with likable and realistic characters.  Magic in the Shadows is a fun urban fantasy with strong worldbuilding and characters readers can enjoy following.  If you have not read the first two of the series but you love urban fantasy, you need to check them out.  Except for the first in the series, they do not work as stand-alones and need to be read in order, so get the first two books before you start on this one.

About amberdrake

I'm a 40 year old desk jockey who amuses herself with lots and lots of reading. My favorite things in books are dragons, steampunk, wizards, comedy, and lots of action!