Friday, March 30, 2012

Magic to the Bone (Allie Beckstrom, #1) by Devon Monk


Magic to the Bone by Devon Monk

Magic to the Bone by Devon Monk


Using magic meant it used you back. Forget the fairy-tale, hocus-pocus, wave a wand and bling-o, sparkles and pixie dust crap. Magic, like booze, sex, and drugs, gave as good as it got. 

Everything has a cost. And every act of magic exacts a price from its user - maybe a two-day migraine, or losing the memory of your first kiss. But some people want to use magic without paying, and they Offload the cost onto innocents. When that happens, it falls to a Hound to identify the spell's caster - and Allison Beckstrom's the best there is. 

Daughter of a prominent Portland businessman, Allie would rather moonlight as a Hound than accept the family fortune - and the strings that come with it. But when she discovers a little boy dying from a magic Offload that has her father's signature all over it, Allie is thrown into the high-stakes world of corporate espionage and black magic. 

Now Allie's out for the truth - and must call upon forces that will challenge everything she knows, change her in ways she could never imagine ... and make her capable of things that powerful people will do anything to control.




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I give Magic to the Bone by Devon Monk 4/5 stars

The novel, Magic to the Bone, really took me by surprise as well as this review. I had previous planned to write a review every two novels, seeing as how there are around eight books in the series. However, I found myself dying to talk about this novel. 

Magic to the Bone

Magic to the Bone takes place in a world that has been deteriorating from over excessive magic use for the past three decades. The heroine, Allison (Allie) Beckstrom, is the daughter of one of the city’s most well known names in the magic industry: Daniel Beckstrom. Since Allie has such a powerful and influential father, life should be fairly easy for her. However, Allie, by no means has any interest in following in her father’s footsteps. Since this is the case, she often finds herself dealing with hard times: hence her recent issue with becoming the main suspect in a murder case. 

Allie Beckstrom

I originally began this series because of its similarities to the Kate Daniel’s series (Magic Bites). 


Similarities between Allie and Kate: 

1. They both live in a world dealing with the negative after effects of magic. 
2. Allie and Kate take on cases that are influenced by said destructive magic 
3. They each have their share of massive daddy issues 
4. They have attitudes that match their badass-ness 


Allie is the kind of heroine I love to read about. She is independent, strong, has a great personality and isn’t afraid to fight for what she believes in. Allie lives a hard life. Having split from her father, and his money, seven years ago, Allie now lives in the ‘bad part of town’ taking on hounding jobs to support herself financially. 

However, ‘hounding’ is no easy task. Not to spoil anything, I will only say that every time Allie goes on one of these hounding jobs, she has to deal with the after effects of the magic she is required to use. The consequences? Oh, just mind splitting headaches, temporary blindness/deafness, bruises that could cover your entire body, memory lost, and etc. Despite all of these negative attributes of her job, Allie still continues to do it because it makes her independent and allows her to help people others’ would choose to ignore. 

Zayvion Jones

Calmest hero I have ever read about. Seriously. Even in the heart of trouble and chaos, this guy continues to keep his Zen face on. 

I instantly liked Zayvion the minute he appeared in the novel. I do tend to have a weakness for the strong and silent type. 

I can’t really say much about Zayvion. He is a very private person who chooses to keep past and motives a secret. Since this is the case, it took a while for him to really start to let the heroine in and even when he did, I still feel there is more to this guy that meets the eye. He is a mystery; I have found myself desperate to crack. The good thing about this is that Allie finds herself on a mission to crack him too. 

I really liked Allie and Zayvion’s relationship progression in this novel. Though at times, I may have felt it was fast but I have come to realize it’s just there personalities. Allie and Zayvion are very mature people who know what they want in life and aren’t afraid to get it. There is no immature drama between these two. 

Recommend?

I would totally recommend Magic to the Bones . Since Allie’s world is very similar to Kate Daniel’s (Magic Bites), I feel those fans would enjoy this book as well. I know I did.


I originally posted this review March 16, 2012 on http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/271784100

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