Review - Magic in the Blood (Allie Beckstrom, Book 2) by Devon Monk (4/5 stars)

Reading level: Adult

Genre: Urban Fantasy
Size: 368 pages
Publisher: Roc
Release Date: May 5, 2009
ISBN-13: 978-0451462671

Stand Alone or Series: 2nd book in Allie Beckstrom series
Source: Bought
Rating: 4/5 stars

This is the second book in the Allie Beckstrom series by Monk.  It was a solid book and introduces the reader to even more of the magic in Allie's world.

Allie is recovering from her coma and memory loss that happened at the end of the first book, Magic to the Bone.  She can't remember most of what happened during the first book and remembers almost nothing about Zayvion.  Then she finds that one of the men she helped to convict and send to jail has been released and is out to get her.  On top of that she is expected to take over her father's company, is occasionally seeing ghosts, and is hired by the police to help on a kidnapping case.  Things get stranger and Allie has a lot to deal with in this book.

This book was written in an easy to read style and was a fun read.  You learn a lot more about magic in Allie's world and how it is affecting her.  This book was more investigative than the first book because Allie is trying to Hound down the sites of some kidnappings.  I have been enjoying how Monk has both a storyline to be tied up in one book (the kidnappings) and also has another over-arcing thread that is built on in each book (the stolen magic disks).

It was also intruguing that Allie can't remember most of what happened in book 1.  It makes all of the revelations between Allie and Zayvion that happened in Magic to the Bone disappear.  Basically Allie and Zayvion have to fall in love all over again; it was weird but an interesting way to string out the tension in their relationship.  Allie herself is an interesting character, not as compelling as some urban fantasy female leads, but she is still fairly engaging.

There was more action in this book than in the previous one.  I am still loving how magic users have to pay a price for the magic that they use; Devon uses this is so many creative ways and does a great job of making it part of the story.

These are going to be hard books to review separately because so many things that happen flow right from one book to the next.  This book introduced some new and interesting characters; mainly the group of other Hounds and Stotts the lead investigator for the magical division in the police department. Anyway, this book ended well but also opened up a whole new series of questions.

You can really tell that the first two books in this series are just scratching the tip of the ice berg here.  Devon hints at so many other things going on below the surface and I hope we will be introduced to those in future books.  I did kind of wish that things moved faster in these book; it just seems like not much is happening in this book and that the story is only progressed a little bit.

Overall a solid addition to this series.  This series isn't as good as the Kate Daniels series by Ilona Andrews or the Elemental Assassin series by Jennifer Estep; but it is solid and fun.  I enjoyed watching Allie learn to use her new powers and enjoyed learning more about the magic and how it works.  I am looking forward to reading future installments in this series and hope they are a bit more complicated than this installment.

This book goes towards the following reading challenges:

- Horror and Urban Fantasy Challenge
- 100+ Reading Challenge