Magic to the Bone by Devon Monk

Allie Beckstrom, #1
URBAN FANTASY

rating

Allie would rather moonlight as a Hound than accept the family fortune - and the strings that come with it. All magic use has costs -- hers include migraines and memory loss. She finds a boy dying from a magic Offload with her father's signature, then her father is murdered. Allie's search for the truth calls on her country friend and the handsome man originally assigned as her bodyguard. Someone is forging magic signatures -- and hers is on her dead father.

“Instinct told me it was dangerous. I could handle dangerous. Dangerous and me went back a long way. We did lunch when dangerous was in town.”

Magic to the Bone is another Urban Fantasy novel involving magic, but there are twists. When you use magic, you have to pay a price such as a memory or some sort of pain. People illegally push the costs off to victims, and that's where the MC comes into play; as a Hound, she tracks down people using magic illegally. Unfortunately for her, one of her clients leads back to a bad source, and soon there is a murder investigation and much higher stakes.

Allie is a likeable, guilt-stricken and stubborn heroine. There's not much that stands out about her other than her ability to focus much more magic. Since the first book is showing her just learning this still making mistakes, it's not that impressive just yet. Her choices are a little frustrating. While she's stubborn, she almost distrusts to the point of angst, jumps into relationships way too quickly, runs to the wrong people without thinking it through, argues against friends but bends to them anyway.

Honestly not much really goes on in this book, it just seems like it does. After the one boy is injured, there's one death and a tiny mystery Allie doesn't actually solve. She runs into the villains and then at the end they expose themselves.

On the plus side I appreciate the creative checks and balance system with this world of magic, the potential of future plots with the newly invented technology and Allie coming into her own powers. On the downside the book could have held more oomph action-wise and didn't need to dive so quickly into romantic zone.



   Book Quotes:

“I promise I'll stay as safe as I can. And since Zay refuses to leave me alone, I figure if things get bad, I can always shove him into the line of fire while I run like hell.”

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