Magic to the Bone

Allie Beckstrom Series, Book 1

By: Devon Monk

Narrated by: Emily Durante

Everything has a cost. And every act of magic exacts a price from its user---maybe a two-day migraine, or losing the memory of your first kiss. But some people want to use magic without paying, and they Offload the cost onto innocents. When that happens, it falls to a Hound to identify the spell's caster---and Allison Beckstrom is the best there is. Daughter of a prominent Portland businessman, Allie would rather moonlight as a Hound than accept the family fortune---and the strings that come with it. But when she discovers a little boy dying from a magic Offload that has her father's signature all over it, Allie is thrown into the high-stakes world of corporate espionage and black magic. Now Allie's out for the truth---and she must call upon forces that will challenge everything she knows, change her in ways she could never imagine, and make her capable of things that powerful people will do anything to control.

©2008 Devon Monk (P)2011 Tantor

Great premise. Narration was boring.

The narrator sounded like AI. The story is interesting, characters are engaging. I may read these instead of listen.

Good intro

I enjoyed this story although the ending was drawn out. Thought the magic concept was good, The heroine wasn't much for thinking outside of the box. Looking forward to future books.

Okay start to a series

I loved the magic and the romantic interest in the story. The main character and the narration, not so much. The story did hold my interest to continue on--I'm currently on #3, but if the main character's flaws aren't corrected soon, I may stop.

She seems to be stubbornly oblivious to anything else but what she wants. This makes her very unlikable. And for someone who is supposed to be an investigator, she sure leave a lot of facts just hanging in the air. It feels too much to me like a bit of a lame plot device--left open for a big reveal later.

Despite my problems with the book, I loved the magic and this world. I see enough potential in this series for me to give it 3 books. I hope it lives up to it and I can finish it.

Not sold yet

A Hound is person that is able to identify magical signatures and Allie Beckstrom is the best there is. When a little boy is almost killed because someone offloads their magic to him, Allie traces it back to her father. She confronts him and finds out that there is more to it than she ever imagined. Now someone is trying to kill her and she is being set up for murder. She just has to stay alive long enough to find out what's really going on and who is actually behind it all.

This series doesn't have the usual suspects in UF. There are no supernatural creatures, at least not yet, instead it's all about Magic. Magic is like a commodity and her father holds a lot of power in the corporate world of Magic. Different- I liked that. However, there was still something missing for me to really love it. I think I needed more character development and world building. It was almost like listening to an abridged version vs. the unabridged. I'm not completely sold on the series yet but I'm willing to read the next book at least. There is still a lot left unanswered. Hopefully, I'll find that missing something and have a new series to finish.

Does not really do well as an audio

The story is a good one, the narrator does a good job with narrating...but this one did not seem to translate well to audio for me, I got bored with listening and went back to reading the book.