Magic on the Storm

Allie Beckstrom Series, Book 4

By: Devon Monk

Narrated by: Emily Durante

Length: 10 hrs and 34 mins

Publisher's summary

Allison Beckstrom is committed to her work tracing illegal spells. Now, there's an apocalyptic storm bearing down on Portland, and when it hits, all the magic in the area will turn unstable and destructive. To stop it from taking out the entire city, Allie and her lover, the mysterious Zayvion Jones, must work with the Authority - the enigmatic arbiters of all things magic - and take a stand against a magical wildstorm that will obliterate all in its path.

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

©2010 Devon Monk (P)2011 Tantor

Critic reviews

"Fans of Patricia Briggs or Jim Butcher will want to check out this inventive new voice." (Monsters and Critics)

I've enjoyed every book in the series

Any additional comments?

I've read or listened to every book in this series. I hadn't taken the time to write a review but after reading the only one posted for this book I had to write my own. Audible has already provided a synopsis of each book so I'll just skip to my impressions. I think each book has gotten better than the last with more exiting action sequences and stronger more involving storylines. The main character Allie is a Hound. She finds things and people, her sense of smell helps with that. Sometimes, in the first book, stopping to describe the smells would take me out of the story and slow the pacing down but the author did figure out how to use that to enhance the story instead of hinder it in the following books. A memory loss problem from using magic was also utilized heavily in the first few books but again the author seemed to have a plan in mind that culminated in the last book. Allie is far from perfect and she does make big mistakes which can make the reader want to throttle her. But when I'm so involved with a character and the story that I stop to mentally berate them that usually also means I've gotten really invested in the book and care about the outcome. If Allie was perfect and right all the time she'd be annoying too. Anyone remember the Wesley Crusher character on The Next Generation? I think you should start with book 1 in the series even though it's not the best. My sister in law did start with book 2 and didn't have any problems catching up with the characters and storyline. This is more of an Urban Fantasy than a Paranormal Romance, there are a few love scenes occasionally here and there in this series but they're part of the flow of the characters development not the main plot point. I like the fantasy world the author has created and I care about the characters, flaws and all. I can't wait for book 8.

Hard Headed Allie...

I have been enjoying the Allie Beckstrom story lines pretty well.
However... Her steadfast stubbornness is starting to grate on me.
It is no longer endearing and is instead verging on stupid.
I hope Monk decides to let her "learn" a little going forward, else I'm probably gonna end letting it push me out of the series... :(
Great fun thus far though..

I've enjoyed every book in the series

Any additional comments?

I've read or listened to every book in this series. I hadn't taken the time to write a review but after reading the only one posted for this book I had to write my own. Audible has already provided a synopsis of each book so I'll just skip to my impressions. I think each book has gotten better than the last with more exiting action sequences and stronger more involving storylines. The main character Allie is a Hound. She finds things and people, her sense of smell helps with that. Sometimes, in the first book, stopping to describe the smells would take me out of the story and slow the pacing down but the author did figure out how to use that to enhance the story instead of hinder it in the following books. A memory loss problem from using magic was also utilized heavily in the first few books but again the author seemed to have a plan in mind that culminated in the last book. Allie is far from perfect and she does make big mistakes which can make the reader want to throttle her. But when I'm so involved with a character and the story that I stop to mentally berate them that usually also means I've gotten really invested in the book and care about the outcome. If Allie was perfect and right all the time she'd be annoying too. Anyone remember the Wesley Crusher character on The Next Generation? I think you should start with book 1 in the series even though it's not the best. My sister in law did start with book 2 and didn't have any problems catching up with the characters and storyline. This is more of an Urban Fantasy than a Paranormal Romance, there are a few love scenes occasionally here and there in this series but they're part of the flow of the characters development not the main plot point. I like the fantasy world the author has created and I care about the characters, flaws and all. I can't wait for book 8.

Biding Time

Where does Magic on the Storm rank among all the audiobooks you???ve listened to so far?

I am following the Allie Beckstrom series and enjoying the character and story development. I like the series format but sometimes find the passing hard to handle. You develop your favorite characters and when a book comes out that does not focus on any of those characters you feel sort-of cheated. Book #4 was good and had a great story line for 2 characters that another ready might find fascinating, but there was not much happening for the main characters in this volume.

What did you like best about this story?

This volume focuses on the development of Derick and Shane ???s relationship within the magic world. I did appreciate how the author gave these 2 supporting characters some attention but it seemed that no attention was give to the main characters since Zayvion was unconscious for the whole story. This is not necessarily a criticism, just an observation of how the story development goes in this volume.

Did you have an extreme reaction to this book? Did it make you laugh or cry?

No extreme reactions for this volume

Badly written series

This goes for the entire Magic Series by Devon Monk: Allie Beckstrom is willful, stubborn, ignorant, distrustful to the point of paranoia, and fairly inept. She refuses to learn and will not admit to mistakes. She manages to get people killed and injured on a regular basis and then wonders what went wrong. She is one of those leading ladies who, when told by the hero, "No matter what happens, do NOT get out of the car," promptly gets out of the car. The main problem is that she survives while most of the good folks around her don't.

Devon Monk is a redundant writer. He says the same things over and over again either because he doesn't think that the reader is smart enough to get it the first time around or that the reader is too stupid to remember what he just said. He also spends way too much time describing the surroundings while leaving nothing what so ever to the imagination of the readers. During action sequences, he spends so much time describing the scene that the reader forgets what the main characters are supposed to be doing. His leading lady just stands there doing nothing while the chaos goes on around her. Of course, most of the time she doesn't have a clue about what she needs to be doing because she has refused to listen or learn from those who have tried to teach her.

This is an annoying series which could have been great if Devon Monk was a better writer. As written, it demonstrates fuzzy logic worshiped to the point of religious insanity.