Review - Magic at the Gate (Allie Beckstrom, Book 5) by Devon Monk (4/5 stars)

Reading level: Adult
Genre: Urban Fantasy
Size: 368 pages
Publisher: Roc
Release Date: November 2nd, 2010
ISBN-13: 978-0451463623
Stand Alone or Series: 5th book in the Allie Beckstrom series
Source: Bought
Rating: 4/5 stars

This is the fifth book in the Allie Beckstrom series by Devon Monk.  The sixth book, Magic on the Hunt, is due out April 2011.  This was an excellent addition to this series.  Things get even crazier than they have been in previous novels and it seems like Monk is setting the storyline up for something really huge.

This book starts up right where the last book left off.  Allie is entering the gate into death with her dead father and her animate gargoyle, Stone.  Allie will have to make a choice; should she sacrifice her internal magic to save Zayvion from death?  Meanwhile solid Veiled are showing up on the streets; they appear to have Allie's father's magical disks fused to their ghostly bodies and it enables them to walk around like normal humans.  These Solid Veiled are bent on taking over magic in the city; the only thing between the Veiled and humanity are the Authority and Allie.  With the Authority so fractured it will be a difficult battle.

This book moved along at a good clip and was very engaging.  We get to know Allie's dad better and Shame is turning into a truly awesome character; in fact I think Shame is my favorite character in this series.  Stone is in the story a lot too; he is a lot of fun and promises to continue to be interesting. 

Allie continues to gain new and strange powers which is intriguing and fun to read about.  Zayvion spends the majority of the book in a coma and he absence was very noticeable. 

More of the history about why light and dark magic is split apart and broken is revealed; the history is interesting and creative.  There is humor sprinkled throughout to lighten things up a bit.  This book ends better then Magic in the Storm did; not as much of a cliffhanger.  Although there are definitely large things here that need to be tied up.

I am still not totally enraptured by Allie as a character; I may never grow to really love her.  I do love the world Monk has created though and I am very attached to some of the other characters (mainly Shame).

Overall a solid novel in this series.  Some seriously interesting magical stuff going on in this book; although at times it felt like this book was leading up to something more and was mainly a transition book.  I will definitely be reading Magic on the Hunt when it comes out next month.

This book goes towards the following reading challenges:

- Horror and Urban Fantasy Challenge

- 100+ Reading Challenge