Magic to the Bone Devon Monk Read Online
When I was a kid, and I fell ill, my mom used to give me this horrid porridge that was supposed to help me recover quicker. It was flat, banal, tasteless and coated my mouth in a mode that made every mouthful a chore. Reading Magic to the Bone kind of reminded me of being dorsum in bed, ill, and forced to eat some atrocious mush. This book is not exciting, it'due south not enchanting, it'south non funny, it'southward merely. plainly. blah. Allie Beckstrom is a Hound. In a world where the use of magic always extracts a price, information technology is her job to track down spellcasters who illegally Offload the cost of magic onto innocents. When Allie is called in to Hound a five-yr one-time whose Offloaded illness bears the unmistakable signature of her rich, estranged father, it is upward to her and her mysterious partner Zayvion to uncover the truth behind a conspiracy that is wider-spread than it seems. There'south a bunch of things that made me slog through this book despite a deep desire to cut my losses and move on. Devon Monk is a competent writer. Past this, I hateful, her story makes sense, she doesn't have any glaring grammatical or typographical errors, and her world-edifice is decent. An alternate reality where magic is non some pretty, like shooting fish in a barrel thing with no consequences, where even the most powerful person needs to pay a price to use their talent, where there are limits to how you tin use magic, where technology and magic co-exist, all of this adds up to the elements for a fascinating story. So, of form, Monk would take to go ruin a perfectly good idea by making her heroine oh-and then-special, oh-so-unique and oh-so-tortured. Past creating a human who is then unnecessarily mysterious, he loses all mystique. By losing rails of her plot and making her characters run all over the place with no articulate destination in mind. This is a volume that could accept been so much better than it actually was. Why exercise so many UF authors insist on making their heroines supernatural superstars who are too stupid to live? It's like a secret motto saying "With great power comes great stupidity". Retrieve about this. Allie is hurt, she has been shot in the breast by an assassinator, and healed herself with magic. She is so weak, she'south still seeing stars, and standing upright is a major task. Her lover/partner tells her to stay put while he goes out and finds them a safe hiding identify. As shortly as he's gone, she decides to get out. Non because she doesn't trust him. Not because she doesn't want to put him in danger. No, she's fucking off from there, fifty-fifty though merely getting off the elevator nigh puts her flat on her face, because she doesn't want to await around for him to salve her. Yes, I'k sure sensible people the world over will applaud her feminist instincts and her great sense of timing. Not to mention that she immediately takes off towards the most unsafe part of town. This woman's thinking makes no sense. Similar the fourth dimension when she'southward being chased past some compensation hunter on the mode to the police station. She evades her pursuer, grabs a cab and... three guesses every bit to where she heads. If y'all're guessing the constabulary station, where she was going in the first place, you would be Incorrect! No, our gutsy heroine decides to head to the seamiest part of town in search of.... a telephone! To call the police! Jesus H. Christ. It's like Devon Monk has ready points in her plotline- A,B,C,etc. And she doesn't really care how her heroine gets from A to B, as long as the stop points are there. There is no forethought to her plotline, no idea that she's considered causes, effects, complexities. Although I thought the chemical science between Allie and Zayvion was fine, Zayvion himself was kinda annoying, with his overt and meaningless coercion to be ambiguous. Fifty-fifty after he'due south alleged his beloved for Allie, he doesn't tell her anything near himself, what he does, who is threatening the woman he claims to love, and other such unnecessary information. I'thou sure I'm supposed to be waiting with aside breath to discover his deep, dark secrets in the 2d book, but I couldn't intendance less. The just thing I liked in the book was the portrayal of Cody and his Kitten, and Allie'due south condescending treatment of him annoyed me. Cody was the but character in the book who made me sit up, pay attention and experience some emotion that wasn't boredom. And so, of course, Cody's story concluded awkwardly, with no closure, except a couple of lines about him in a conversation. Ugh. All in all, I'd say it was a book worth reading. If, yous know, yous were mysteriously shipwrecked on a desert island with no Tv or internet and the only other book y'all were carrying with you was Hush, Hush.
Magic to the Os is another Urban Fantasy novel involving magic, but there are twists. When you lot apply magic, you have to pay a price such as a memory or some sort of pain. People illegally button the costs off to victims, and that'southward where the MC comes into play; every bit a Hound, she tracks down people using magic illegally. Unfortunately for her, 1 of her clients leads dorsum to a bad source, and before long there is a murder investigation and much college stakes. Allie is a likeable, guilt-stricken and stubborn heroine. There'south not much that stands out about her other than her ability to focus much more magic. Since the first book is showing her just learning this withal making mistakes, information technology'south not that impressive but yet. Her choices are a little frustrating. While she'south stubborn, she almost distrusts to the bespeak of angst, jumps into relationships way also speedily, runs to the wrong people without thinking it through, argues against friends only bends to them anyway. Honestly not much actually goes on in this book, it only seems similar it does. After the i male child is injured, there's one death and a tiny mystery Allie doesn't actually solve. She runs into the villains so at the end they betrayal themselves. On the plus side I capeesh the creative checks and balance arrangement with this world of magic, the potential of hereafter plots with the newly invented technology and Allie coming into her ain powers. On the downside the book could have held more than oomph action-wise and didn't need to dive so quickly into romantic zone.
I dunno what to say virtually this one This book was a bit of a rollercoaster, up, down, up again. The commencement part was interesting, with the new world and all that. I absolutely loved the idea that you lot have to "pay" to utilise magic (it was a kickoff for me). Also loved the thought that magic was "discovered", "invented" even. Like fire or water or sliced breadstuff. So, I tin can say that I found a lot of really interesting things in this read. The bad function was that, later on the "wow" thing passed, I kinda got bored. The story didn't make me curious and the characters weren't as skillful as I had hoped. And for some reason I really didn't like the male MC (he has a complicated name, something with a Y and an I and a V). Merely later on I decided that information technology's a boring volume, it started being interesting again! Ok, just about the last 10%, merely I absolutely loved loved loved the idea! Dunno why, maybe because information technology's new and all that, simply I found it damn interesting to see that So yeah, in the end, information technology did kind of make me curious about the adjacent book in the series and what will happen. And who knows, maybe the writing gets better and the characters more interesting!
New (to me) author Devon Monk has imagined a world where magic exists--just extracts a serious price from its users. The more than magic you utilize, the bigger the price in pain, blood, or loss...unless you're rich plenty, or ruthless enough, to transfer that price to someone else. Allie knows all well-nigh magic's toll. At least she would, if she could only call back. After all, her father and his wealthy corporation have their fingers in all the magic 'pies' in the earth. And she was all set to follow in those footsteps and join the family unit business organization--until she worked herself free of her father's 'Influence magic'. Since then she's made her own life, and spends a lot of it tracking downwards those who misuse magic and turning them in to the authorities. So when her latest job reveals her male parent's magic 'signature', she tries non to exist surprised. But of a sudden, weird things start to happen, her father's expressionless, she'southward the number one doubtable, and in that location'due south an incredibly handsome still strange man who always seems to be around when things become badly. And did I forget to mention the nigh dead man and his kitten? A mysterious hunky homo, lost memories, magical sexual practice (although peradventure not quite enough of information technology!), murder, a cute kitten, industrial espionage...this story has it all. The action is fast paced, the plot is well spun, and the romance vs. suspense quotient was just right for me. Monk has written a stiff, yet emotionally vulnerable heroine with a drive for justice that often works against her all-time instincts. If I didn't know in that location was a second book coming, I would take found the author's website and hounded her for i! There's a lot of potential in her world and her characters and I'k hungry for more. I loved the idea of a physical cost to magic and how that could play out in today's world. Devon Monk had me hooked from page three and I only couldn't stop reading 'til the end of this book. Now I'm tapping my toes waiting for "Magic in the Blood" to exist released in May 2009 and hoping the story picks upwards right where this one left off!
All right, yous, now here'southward the affair; I read this series earlier I was on here and didn't go into it with the same thought procedure I have now. That doesn't mean that I love this series any less, it but means that I can admit that there are issues with this book that I hadn't really paid attending to before. This book has that Beginning Book Syndrome, and Allie makes some questionable decisions, simply this remains one of my favorite series. The story is set in a world like ours, but dissimilar ours, magic is a real thing having been discovered some xxx years ago. Instead of most books that allow magic be all kinds of wonderful (so many times in my And I love it. One of the ways the price of magic use is taken, is by having the inmates pay the price, and I idea that was absolutely awesome! Magic tin make you lot pay by whatever number of ways including: flu, retention loss, bruising, fatigue, torso pain, and and then on. Other than the inmates serving their fourth dimension as proxies, there are also people who practise that for money. Then at that place are people who Offload the cost of their magic apply on unsuspecting people. That'southward where we first meet Allie. She is a Hound, someone that uses magic to track spells to their castors, and she'south skilful. She Hounds a spell that striking a little boy and tracks information technology to her very powerful father. See, Allie's dad is the guy who basically invented ways for the people to employ magic (tempest rods), and he'due south not but a powerful figure because of that, but he'due south as well a very powerful magic user. She isn't on skilful terms with him since he wasn't a very good dad, and when she traces the hit to him, it'south the first fourth dimension in vii years she'south seen him. Information technology is too the last. Hounding the hit on the boy is only the beginning in a series of events that completely change Allie's life. A little data on my daughter. She's a 26 y/o Harvard grad, who gave upwards all her male parent's money and influence in order to make it on her own, and I love that about her. She's tough, and real, and knows how to work. She is flawed, and makes some choices that aren't exactly the All-time Choice Ever, but whose perfect?! I beloved that she's able to mess up and move on. Through her Hounding she met Zayvion. He's...something. In this volume I recollect how I didn't actually like him too much, and the reread reminded me why. He does something in the end that I even so feel wasn't resolved to my liking, but what tin can you lot do? He's a stiff guy, both physically and magically, and Allie is drawn to him from the get go. I don't detest her for this, even if she made some bad timing calls with when to go a petty muddy with him. Nobody is perfect. I can't say I'd exist feeling horny if I had an unconscious dude in the backseat of the auto, and smelled of garbage/cat pee/dirty river water, but hey, I'1000 not judging too harshly, lol. About the ending . It'south hard to review this book based as the first since I have and then many thoughts about the serial as a whole, and have to continue stopping myself from pointing out bits that happen in the future, merely I will say that if you lot can get past the Kickoff Volume Syndrome than you won't be sorry. Assuming this type of world is upward your alley patently. I personally beloved the way Devon Monk writes, and have almost every one of her books. I love the characters, I love the world, I honey the way they aren't perfect, and I honey that equally the series progresses we come across lots of change in all of our primary players. I highly recommend this series to people who similar a gritty story (though not equally gritty as Stacia Kane's Downside--which I adore), flawed characters trying their best, sense of humor, realism, action, and magic. Here are a few quotes: "At that place was something nigh that man that fabricated me finish and want to wait. Fabricated me stop and desire to experience." "Good things practice not come up in small packages--mean things did." "It was strange, simply, in a fashion, she probably held more than memories of my life than I did." "I promise I'll stay as safe as I can. And since Zay refuses to get out me lonely, I effigy if things get bad, I can always shove him into the line of burn while I run like hell." "Is there an option C? Take a vacation somewhere sunny, and beverage a lot of rum until the globe un-fucks itself?"
life youth have I wished magic was real), in this world magic uses you back. "Since he'd shown me no reason to trust or distrust him still, out of convenience I distrusted him."
I finished two books today, quick audio reads and they've both been disappointments for me. Let me say here that both should take been labeled PNR (PareNormal Romance) rather than UF (Urban Fantasy). This book started out for me as perhaps a high 3. It is a proficient idea (over again a mage type character with a limited power that will manifestly abound). Sadly it devolves quickly into soap opera with "concerns of the middle" trumping story. "Our" relationship with our begetter, our friends...and of course our on again off over again love interest predominate. I got then tired of it. The book starts out in an interesting manner with our protagonist using her "talent" to "hound out" who had foisted off the negative cost of his magic onto a male child. (This "boy is the son of ane of our protagonist's friends. She has multiple sons and she calls all of them "boy". Every fourth dimension that happened I flashed on Steven King'southward Dark Belfry series and the "bumbler" they called boy and it would call itself "'oy" as like a dog it couldn't make a "b"). Our protagonist you lot see is a "hound". She can recognize a person's "magical signature" and trace or track them. The volume's magical system is very much still in the determinative stages. What had been the "rules" of magic are beingness broken so like the book's characters we are left to wonder what can happen and what can't. As I said I liked how it opened till nosotros got into the internal dialogues, emotional malaise and of course the hot feelings shooting up our/her leg that have null to do with magic. I lost interest before the halfway mark, skipped a couple of pointless but explicit scenes (I presume the point was the romance and information technology'south evolution). By the time nosotros reached the climax (of the book not the characters) I was bored and set for the book to end. Merely the idea and the interesting opening save this from getting a one. We are left with the requisite "more to come ending" and the "tiny clue" nigh what'due south to come. It'south just non plenty to draw me dorsum in. Too bad really. Another I'll take to try and become Audible to allow me to return.
This was a very promising start to a new-to-me series. I'm quite fussy about which UF series I get involved in, just this I liked. Information technology seems that we have only touched the tip of the iceberg in terms of globe building and what we know of the magic organization. I liked the main protagonist, Allie Beckstrom as well every bit her friend Nora and the dear involvement, Zayvion. Looking forrard to continuing the series.
With Magic to the Os, Devon Monk creates a globe of magic that's a little different from the usual urban fantasy. This first installment was enjoyable, merely had its convoluted moments. Allie Beckstrom is a Hound, a magic-user whose talent is tracing a spell back to its pulley. She exists in a version of Portland, Oregon where magic runs from deep wells of power within the globe, wending its way upwards through atomic number 82 and glass distribution systems which carry the ability source throughout the city. Nigh people seem able to access this magic, but its use comes at a price. For every spell cast, there is an Offload of equal measure. Small magics might effect in a migraine; large-scale magics might mean death for the caster. I liked the notion that the universe creates its own organization of checks and balances. I also appreciated the fact that no matter what the universe has in listen, there are always less scrupulous folks who are willing to shirk consequences and manipulate the organisation and so that the rules won't apply to them. Magic to the Bone starts with but such a state of affairs--a young boy is saddled with the effects of someone else'south magic, bringing him close to death. What follows is a lot of madness. Allie is defendant of murder, discovers magic can do improbable things, gets betrayed countless times and almost dies in every other chapter. Some of her actions make zero sense to me--like constantly returning to a place she insists is a safe haven, simply to be threatened and treated poorly time and again. Allie isn't stupid exactly, but she doesn't seem the all-time judge of character. Allie'southward frequently inexplicable choices frustrated me, though considering the hurdles she faces I guess I can excuse some lack of focus. The romance was heated but very sudden, again making me question her judgment. The bad guy is rather obvious from his first advent, ruining most of the mystery aspect and making me wonder why Allie didn't suspect him sooner. What keeps the story adrift is the magic. Though it'south widespread, its properties are more often than not unknown or misunderstood. Having only been harnessed within the last 30 years, in that location are many aspects of magic that haven't been explored. New legislation and technologies are yet developing, and various factions are seeking command over magic and its utilize. I get the impression that Allie is going to be at the middle of a classic expert vs. evil scenario in the books to come up. What I've read so far is encouraging enough to continue with the 2d book, but I'm not drastic to go it into my hands.
I really like the earth so far and how the magic works. I didn't like that it switched from A'due south 1st person pov to third person pov for Cody. It was a little jarring. But and so I felt so bad for Cody I did similar his scene. I but don't like how it goes from 1st to 3rd person. This is set up in Portland which I savor, since I alive in Portland. Nonetheless I have a higher opinion of Saint Johns than the writer does. Some of the phrasing is weird to me, like: "My oral cavity watered so hard I had to swallow." some of the phrases just make me finish and go "huh". And the phrase, "oh, good loves." is really annoying, IMO. As well the five or half dozen guys all named "Male child" annoys me. I get tired of reading the word boy over and over The whole diner scene is slow and seems pointless. I don't intendance to read about her listing over her soup. Or him stealing all the bread. She has all of the sudden turned into a 13 year onetime with a vanquish... :( This had to exist the well-nigh detailed eating scene ever written ... That's not a good thing, that's a very tedious thing. Will this scene e'er cease or accept a betoken? Now she's maxim "good loves" as if "sweet loves" wasn't abrasive enough What with all the "Zen" crap? Eh, 17% she kisses him. It'southward so wtf. She knows he's paid to follow her and has only been lying to her almost everything just he'south hot so she kisses him? At first his cologne smelled like bleached toilet water but at present that'due south sexy besides. There is NO connectedness here at all! And she has no reason to buss him except she's actually a stupid 13 year sometime. This story had such a strong opening but its just sinking into mushy swooning teenagers (garbage, it's turing to consummate rubbish). I constitute the first/world building to be fabulous. Just my 20% the characters pretty much suck. Only cool ones Cody and that's just because you feel and then bad for him. This chick is bad ass. She doesn't fifty-fifty wear a seat chugalug! This chick went swimming in trash and shit water and caught on fire and they making out. She smells like a burning trash dump and half her body cerise and burned... But she however goes acrobatic in the automobile and pops a squat on him in the drivers seat You never get to know Zay at all. Everything he says is a lie. I think he was supposed to me a tall dark and mysterious character. But it got really abrasive. There as then many unanswered questions through out the volume information technology'southward ridiculous. I'd especially like to know what Zay and James relationship was Allie isn't a good mc to read about. She has retentiveness loss so stuff got very repetitive and actually annoying. This could have been awesome if it had stronger editing. Parts were amazing merely sadly they didn't really shine because of the mundane details, repetitive writing, and poor character development. I'll even so read the 2nd 1 but hope at that place is a lot of improvement in the writing because this one was really choppy and it took half a month to read because it was like shooting fish in a barrel to put downwardly
three.5 Stars Devon Monk has given usa a earth where magic exists, but it's not a pretty world. There are steep prices for using magic of whatsoever sort, and as always, in that location are ways to circumvent the system. Allie'due south gift allows her to track those that would wish to hide their magical doings. She prefers to go her own way, forgetting the blood she shares with the man who made harnessing magic possible - her begetter. When the story opens it'southward Allie'southward birthday, and she's determined to practise something nice for herself. Unfortunately, her plans go awry and she ends up getting called out the Hound when a boy gets deathly sick. When that hounding leads her to believe her father is responsible for this illegal Offload, Allie goes to confront him. Seven years since she'southward seen him last, and all the old bitterness and disappointment comes dorsum so easily - especially when she finds out her male parent has hired a human being, Zavyion Jones, to trail her. She thought she had all the shocks that would come her fashion, but she was incorrect. It was only showtime. I really enjoyed that the world the Devon Monk created was gritty. The utilise of magic left a residue that yous could smell and feel in the air, the earth, the water. The characters tin set Disbursements that let the magic offload to exist handled in a specific way, sometimes through proxies and sometimes through specific effects on themselves. It's a well realized world, filled to the brim with possibilities. I retrieve there's a lot of room for us to encounter more here. I really enjoyed experiencing this book through Allie. She's a strong, stubborn, honorable person. She likes helping people, using her magic to protect and benefit, and has her ain set up of lawmaking that she tries to alive by. I as well really like that she can at turns be impulsive, rash even, and at others she can exist extremely cautious. She doesn't mind paying the toll for using her magic, accepts it every bit the cost of living how she wants to. I discover this admirable, simply I have a trouble with information technology too. One of her major costs of doing magic is memory loss - hours, days, weeks, months? I'm not sure if I can trust her to be a reliable narrator, to actually move forwards into any sort of life, and the one thing measure she's taken to make sure she doesn't forget forever is writing in a notebook. But the notes she writes are inconsistent, vague, and not detailed plenty, in my opinion. However, this is a small-scale complaint. At that place are some alternating third-person point-of-view scenes in this book besides, merely they felt unnecessary unless that graphic symbol comes to be more important in the future. Then there'southward Zavyion. Allie was very drawn to him from the beginning, even against her own better judgement. He'due south an intriguing graphic symbol. I experience similar nosotros didn't get to know plenty about him as he spent a proficient portion of the book evading answering any questions. But I do know that his actions spoke fairly loud and I want to know him more. The pacing of the story felt a little deadening to me. While I was curious the entire time I was reading, information technology took me virtually 90 pages to really get interested in what was going to happen. What I didn't like is that there seemed to exist far too much talk, and little action. Allie does some magic and then spends the next 75 pages talking most what she learned, what it could mean, what she should exercise at present. I would have liked some more action. Though I can appreciate that a showtime book in a series is going to take some time setting everything up. Overall, I enjoyed this intro to Allie Beckstrom's world, though I felt there were some areas that could have drawn me in even more. If you lot're looking for a gritty world with depth, and a strong heroine, then I'd definitely recommend trying Devon Monk's Magic to the Bone.
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