Magic Bites: Kate Daniels, Book 1

I'm usually a little wary of Urban Fantasy and Paranormal Romance books because so many of them are full of fluff but Magic Bites is pure steel! The plot is filled with twists and turns and lots of mystery. The ending leaves a feeling of closure, yet still has you wanting more! Kate, the main character is a strong female lead with issues and integrity. Ilona Andrew's Atlanta is unique and more than a little bit sinister.

So why did I give this book only 4 stars? The narration. Renee Raudman does do an excellent job narrating but she mispronounces a lot of words which made the narrative jarring. The most noticeable example being the way she said wolf. Woof.

I own all three audio books of this series and find them very enjoyable. There is a nice balance of action and character development and it's refreshing to see a tough heroine with other motivations than just being tough and catching the fancy of the lead male. That being said, the first audio book is the weakest of the lot. I was very surprised to hear the amount of mispronunciations throughout the book. It didn't make me hate the book or the narratior, just wonder if anyone bothered to edit it afterwards. Characterization and narration picks up in the next book and if you enjoyed Magic Bites at all I highly recommend the others as there is much more world building, plot development and most of the narration annoyances are hammered out.

I loved this series, if you like paranormal stories, with magic and all the wacky stuff in between, then you"ll love these 3 books..this is the first book of 3, and the main character Kate Daniels is a funny, kick your butt kind of girl, I loved her..
Renee Raudman narration is great through out all three book, she does a great job with all the characters..

I think for people who enjoy good urban fantasy such as Harry Dresden series would love this series. The characters/species are well developed, the world interesting, and the main character Kate is just superb as wise mouthing, tough swords woman who has a penchant for serious trouble. All the ingredients for a great story is there and Ilona Andrews cooked and made it into a great series. In the audio books Renee Raudman offers a great performace as Kate and stirs up our imagination!

For once, a writer who doesn't need explicit, 5 page long sex scenes to sell a book.
I bought two books this time, the other book was an abysmal disappointment. There's some pretty descriptive gore-fits with the story, some nice humorous moments, and a damn good story.
I would've given it a triple 5 star except the narrator had a couple mispronounced words, a little distracting but not awful.
If the other books in this series are this good, I'll be a happy reader. Most books on this site have been pretty awful and a waste of credits.

hmmm... I think this story would have been better in paper format because every time the protagonist gets into a fight (or recalls a fight/emotional moment) - and there are a lot of these scenes - the narrator whines her communications - making Kate sound weak and complain-y rather than strong and kick-butty. It was so bad after the first 5 hours that I actually fast-forwarded through the fight/emotional moment scenes because I got sick of listening to the supposedly strong female protagonist being narrated with whine and whimper and squeak.

And I'm not sure if there are too many fight scenes or just that the fight scenes each last too long - I'm not a teenage boy and don't need pop-bang-pow over and over and over again to keep my attention. (Not that I think teenage boys would even read this book.) Kill a dozen monsters and move on with the plot, don't go killing another dozen in case I missed the first batch of gore. And if it's a necessary fight scene, please, it doesn't need to go on and on and on - more plot, less... whiny fighting? (Sorry, I think the issue is that I can't determine if the fighting would have been as annoying if I had read it, or if it was just the bad (whiny) narration that tainted the whole thing.)

The narration of the story, excluding the emotional/fighting points, was not bad - it's just that Kate ended up sounding like she was crying anytime she should have sounded like she was killing something.

The story itself is good, and the magic is cool, and the characters are interesting. If I had read this in paper format, it'd be a 4 star. I will read the next book, just won't get it in audio.

This is undoubtedly the most cumbersome of all this series. It is slow disjointed and almost unbearable at times. However, if you can trudge through the magical meanderings of places you don't know and people you don't yet care about you will find an interesting door at the end, metaphorically speaking. The plot is spattered with mythological beasts and people which ground the interest in the series which compare to other magical series like the Nicholas Flamel books. The action sequences are set clearly and will engulf you. The consecutive books continue to improve so trudge on and it will pay off. I recommend this for people who love to read series of books rather than the one-shot novel.

This is your basic urban fantasy with a tough, kick-ass heroine and better than average world-building. Recommended for fans of the series by Kim Harrison and Patricia Briggs, though this not quite as distinctive as either of those two. {Excellent for female readers who loved LOTR as girls and wished they could have a sword with a name, though.)

I'd give it four stars if the reader were more appropriate. For the first-person narration of a wise-cracking, seen-it-all Southern woman, they have picked a very earnest reader with a Great-Lakes accent. She makes Kate Daniels sound more naive and uncertain that the character is clearly meant to be by the author.

I loved this book! The narrator is extremely adept at voices which makes it very enjoyable. The story itself draws you in, I just couldn't stop listening. What I liked best about it though was the mixture of magic/sci-fi with mystery. Also, the main character Kate reminds me of Stephanie Plum - a kick ass and take names version but one still stuck with all her inherent problems, tough love life and a strange ability to find herself in bad situations.

I can't believe it took me this long to start this series. What was I thinking. Excited to get on to the next books. I've heard so many good things about this series and for some reason I just kept putting it off. This is a great start though. Most series have a rocky first book and so much is wasted on explaining that the reader has a hard time getting drawn into the world. Not this book. I was drawn in and the story and world building just flowed for me.