In that note, he feels the need to brag about having sex with 'half-breed' women. A bad guy leaves Kate a severed head and a threatening note. And yet, certain types are rape crazed too. Vampires? In this book they are just rotting corpses controlled by a necromancer. What do I mean by 'rapey atmosphere?' Well, the author could have had bad werewolves go mad and kill people, but no, they also turn their daughters into sex slaves. It was the sullen, pessimistic air and the rapey atmosphere that finally pushed me over the edge.

I was going back and forth on whether or not to abandon the book, and then the little things caught up to me, because I wasn't that attached to Kate. This almost saves the book, but it's too little too late. The second half gets more interesting and exciting, as the author actually develops the relationship between Kate and some other characters (Curran, the wolf, and the doctor guy.) The plot also picks up, as the clues start to come together and we actually get some idea as to what is going on. I forgot a lot of character's names because they were so unimportant. I get that Kate is a loner, but it would have been nice to have a rival, or a frienemy, or someone for her to play off of during the first half of the book. No other character really becomes important until Kate meats Curran halfway through the book. The next problem is that the book has too many minor characters with small roles and little impact. That's part of what makes it hard to connect with Kate early on in the story. Did he take over legal guardianship when she was 16, but never lived with her? Had he raised her since she was 6? Would have been nice to know! Many scenes dealing with his death lack emotional death and impact - the conversations with his ex-wife have no emotion at all. Kate learns that her guardian was killed, and yet we get very little context with which to understand the significance of Greg's death.

Magic Bites is a typical Urban Fantasy that ticks most of the boxes, but I just didn't like it.

Magic bites series in order