Book Review: Magic to the Bone by Devon Monk

Magic to the Bone by Devon Monk

My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I met Devon Monk at Orycon last weekend. She was on an Urban Fantasy panel, and she's sharp and sounded like she knew what she was about. And she sets her Urban Fantasy in Portland. I'm writing an Urban Fantasy set in Portland.

So out came my Kindle and 42 seconds later I had Magic to the Bone.

It's a fun, fast read. Allie Beckstrom is a Hound, a person who uses magic to track down other magic users, like the person who almost kills a young boy in Johns Landing. She runs into Zayvion Jones, a close lipped man who has been hired by her father to watch her.

Violence, romance, and some very intense magic ensues as Allie tries to stay alive. And when she uses magic, she often looses memories. Large parts of her life are gone, and the more she uses, the less she can recall. A serious price to magic.

The book is in first person, from Allie's point of view, except for a few scenes in third person that center around a strange prisoner called Cody. Since it's in Allie's PoV, it's very jarring when she can't remember what happened a few pages ago. The reader feels the price she pays.

I would give this four stars, except for the ending. I enjoyed the entire book, but the ending did not grab me. Will the other books have endings more to my liking? I liked this enough to want to find out.

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