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22 of 23 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Deja Vu - All Over Again!, May 18, 2009
This new urban fantasy series from Devon Monk is good in a lot of ways. The heroine, Allie Beckstrom, comes from an incredibly rich (in money and magic) family. Unfortunately, Allie's father is a major control freak with delusions of magical world conquest. Allie strikes out on her own and picks a career as a Hound. Hounds do detective, Private Eye, work by using their magical powers to sense, taste and track spells on criminals and "people of interest". The problem is using magic in this new world Allie lives in creates physical illness, pain and memory loss for the user. A "disbursement" spell can be used before casting magic, so that the magic user can pick their "own poison" so to speak - in other words, they can decide if using magic will cause them a migraine later, a case of the flu, body aches, etc. Without the disbursement spell, things can get quite rough.
In Allie's life, there are entirely too many people interested in her and following her - and not just because of the family money. Allie is just now finding out that she is incredibly powerful (in fact, she still hasn't got it, just the reader and everyone around her), and there are various factions wanting to either use her or contain her.
Allie's love interest is Zayvion Jones. He started out watching her, but in this book has gotten to the point of loving and pursuing her. The problems between the two are many - but a huge lack of trust and memory loss on Allie's part has certainly compounded the problem.
I have enjoyed both books, but Magic in the Blood will be my last of this series. While the writing is excellent, the mysteries cool, Zayvion is beyond awesome and Allie's buddies are great, there is one glaring, overwhelming problem. I hate the memory loss that goes on with Allie everytime she uses big magic. Hours later, she literally has not a clue what happened in the most pivotal moments of her life. She carries a notebook to write down daily events - when she remembers. She comes to terms and grips with Zayvion and other people in her life over and over. She is in constant danger, but is blindly wandering around trying to figure out who to trust, what to do, what was said and who to watch out for. Quite frankly, the memory loss has become a huge detraction to the series and one I can't continue to deal with. I was annoyed with it in the first book, but thought there might be some kind of resolution for it in Magic in the Blood. Not so. If anything, certain critical things have happened to actually carry the annoyance into dislike.
Perhaps other readers will have more patience with this "fatal flaw", but I'm done.
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9 of 10 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Not bad but could be better, May 29, 2009
If I could, I would've given this book 3 1/2 stars. I like and care about what happens to Allie and really enjoy the world Monk has created. I am looking forward to reading the next book. However, the book did have some major flaws.
Like some of the other reviewers, I'm tired of the memory loss angle. The fact that Allie can't seem to remember pretty much the whole first book makes me wonder why I even bother reading it. Also, Monk left some dangling threads from the previous story that was never picked up in the 2nd book.
I got a bit tired of all the angst. I am ready for Allie to do some major butt kicking and hope that she develops some trust, esp with mysterious Zayvion. I say let the angst go and the trust, love and lust begin. I also got impatient with the way Monk portrayed Portland. As someone who previously lived in Eugene, OR and who was a frequent visitor of Portland, I felt that Portland got the shaft. Sure it rains alot in Oregon but it's also green, lush, beautiful, especially in the summer time. In the next book, I hope to see growth in Allie and to have the story takes strides forward otherwise, Allie and I might just have to break up.
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7 of 8 people found the following review helpful:
2.0 out of 5 stars
No better than the first, June 24, 2009
After the last installment of this series, Allie is experiencing massive memory loss due to the amount of magic she used at the end of the last book. She no longer remembers dating Zayvion, along with a lot of other things. A division of the police department asks for Allie's help in tracking missing teenage girls. Around the same time, a crime lord that Allie helped put away is threatening her.
Let me start by saying a lot of people really like this series, however I do not seem to be one of them. This book wasn't great. There were a lot of times where I felt like people were not talking to Allie when they should. I am getting tired of the secrecy. I have to say that I was not overly impressed with this installment and will probably be skipping any future books.
I am tired of the characters, for some reason I haven't connected to Allie or to Zayvion. There are some interesting plot developments (like the magic enforcement division and Stotts, as well as learning more about the Authority and meeting some of them. Also, I am tired of her father. Basically for some reason this book didn't reach out and grab me and so I will not be reading any more of them. All in all, I would recommend skipping this book and this series, although this book does have more going for it than the last one. Also, even though I didn't enjoy this book, a lot of others did - so they must have seen something I did not. Whatever you read, enjoy!
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