Magic on the Hunt

Allie Beckstrom Series, Book 6

By: Devon Monk

Narrated by: Emily Durante

Length: 9 hrs and 49 mins

Publisher's Summary

There aren't many girls who can say they've gone into the realm of death and lived to tell the tale. But to restore her lover Zayvion's soul, Allison Beckstrom had to pay a bitter price - and things are about to get worse.

It turns out that the leader of the Authority, the council that decides what can - and can't - be done with magic, is being held hostage. But when the trail leads Allie and Zayvion to the secret prison where the Authority locks away magical criminals who are too dangerous to be held anywhere else, they find more than they bargained for. An undead magic user has possessed one of the prisoners, and he wants his freedom - and then some. Now Allie and Zayvion are the first line of defense against the chaos he's about to unleash on the city of Portland.

Spellbound? Listen to more titles in the Allie Beckstrom series.

©2011 Devon Monk (P)2011 Tantor

Series coming to a head?

Who was your favorite character and why?

Daniel Beckstrom, Allie???s not-quite-dead father, is getting to me. There is a person in my life exactly like him. Though my real life person may never learn I do think Daniel is catching on that he has to be the old dog that learns a new trick or he just may lose the daughter he truly does love. I don???t get the sense that Allie is catching on to this yet, but there are still more books to come.

What does Emily Durante bring to the story that you wouldn???t experience if you just read the book?

I am increasingly fond of Emily Durante and in this book her talent is pushed to its measure. When one character possesses another and the narrator has to figure out how to voice 2-as-one, it???s challenging, but in this volume, several characters posses others and it gets confusing to even keep score. Durante made it easier by her voicings. I think this book would have been more difficult to follow in print.

Any additional comments?

When a series gets past #3 the back story has to be inserted cleverly at times to explain to new readers just what is going on. How an author does this is interesting to me because I read so many series. Introducing a new character who can say things about past events is often done, or have a present character explain something the new person doesn???t know will inform the new reader to the backstory. Monk often has a character think about what has happened before as the view what is happening now to insert her necessary backstory. This is easy but I do think in this book #6, an editor missed some details of backstory that a reader like me finds slightly annoying. Someone picking up book #6 as the first Allie Beckstrom story would not notice anything odd.

Series coming to a head?

Who was your favorite character and why?

Daniel Beckstrom, Allie’s not-quite-dead father, is getting to me. There is a person in my life exactly like him. Though my real life person may never learn I do think Daniel is catching on that he has to be the old dog that learns a new trick or he just may lose the daughter he truly does love. I don’t get the sense that Allie is catching on to this yet, but there are still more books to come.

What does Emily Durante bring to the story that you wouldn’t experience if you just read the book?

I am increasingly fond of Emily Durante and in this book her talent is pushed to its measure. When one character possesses another and the narrator has to figure out how to voice 2-as-one, it’s challenging, but in this volume, several characters posses others and it gets confusing to even keep score. Durante made it easier by her voicings. I think this book would have been more difficult to follow in print.

Any additional comments?

When a series gets past #3 the back story has to be inserted cleverly at times to explain to new readers just what is going on. How an author does this is interesting to me because I read so many series. Introducing a new character who can say things about past events is often done, or have a present character explain something the new person doesn’t know will inform the new reader to the backstory. Monk often has a character think about what has happened before as the view what is happening now to insert her necessary backstory. This is easy but I do think in this book #6, an editor missed some details of backstory that a reader like me finds slightly annoying. Someone picking up book #6 as the first Allie Beckstrom story would not notice anything odd.