Magic Claims (Kate Daniels: Wilmington Years, #2; Kate Daniels, #10.6) by Ilona Andrews 
Series: Kate Daniels: Wilmington Years #2
Published by NYLA on June 13, 2023
Genres: Paranormal/Urban Fantasy
Format: eBook
Source: Amazon
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A new town, new friends, new challenges…. And a new heart-stopping adventure from #1 New York Times bestselling author, Ilona Andrews. Kate, Curran, and Conlan may have left Atlanta for Wilmington, but the usual magic mayhem has also hitched a ride!
Kate and Curran have just settled into their new home and their 'low prolife,' when a local businessman approaches them with an offer they can’t refuse. A mysterious evil has spawned in the nearby forest and is holding a defenseless town hostage. The ‘due date’ is rapidly approaching.
It’s exactly the kind of fight the Lennarts can’t resist, not for the prize the town offers, but for the people who will surely die if they ignore it. If they succeed, they’ll be rescuing an entire community and can build a strong new base for their family and the Wilmington Pack. If they fail...well, fail is a four-letter word.
Nothing comes without a price. Now Kate must decide if she has what it takes to pay it.
We have missed Kate and Curran and this story proves that their adventures are far from over.
Kate and Curran Lennart as settling into their new quieter life on the beach of Wilmington, North Carolina. Their home renovation are finally finished and it should be time for them to kick back and just worry about Conlan finishing his homework but since Kate rescued Darren, the neighbors have started talking as neighbors do. So it is no surprise when they receive a visit from a representative from the Town of Penderton. Penderton is a small town surrounded by a forest which is closing in more and more and one where, after the last flare, a woman approached demanding a tribute–of humans. When the Town refused to send out a sacrifice, the mysterious woman attacked and now no one from the Town can leave without succumbing to a mysterious illness. Now each year, the woman returns wanting more and more sacrifices and this year, she wants 20 people.
The Town of Penderton have come to offer Kate and Curran 82,000 acres of that forest if they can help release the Town from the hold of this mystery woman and her foul magic.
Kate knows they had Curran at the mention of 82,000 acres of land but they also had her at the mention of innocent people being sacrificed. In Atlanta, Kate and Curran could have called upon their alliances with either the Pack or the People or even the Order, although Nick would have probably make Kate beg. Kate’s Aunt Erra has been warning her over and over that a quiet life isn’t for people like Kate and Curran and they need to establish new allies in order to keep Conlan truly safe. But they aren’t entirely friendless in Wilmington since the local shifters are more than happy to align themselves with the former Beast Lord and his Consort.
They go to Penderton but when Kate gets her first taste of the magic permeating the town and comes up against the priests and warriors being sent by the mystery woman in the forest, she wonders if this might be an opponent who is more than they can really handle. Did they leave behind their issues in Atlanta only to make a last stand in a tiny town in the middle of nowhere?
THOUGHTS:
This is the second story in the Kate Daniels: Wilmington Years spin off and while it is the second story, it is the first that felt more like a promise of a new series than just a present to the Fans of Kate Daniels. Magic Tides was enjoyable and answered some questions after Iron and Magic and Blood Heir were released and which jumps around in our Kate Daniels timeline. Magic Claims filled in some more blanks but more importantly, it is showing us that Kate and Curran are setting down some roots not just in Wilmington but in establishing a whole new spinoff series and a promise that the “Wilmington Years” isn’t just going to be a few short stories to placate fans. This is very exciting because when we left Kate in the end of Magic Triumphs, she was just starting to give herself permission to use her blood magic. In Magic Claims, we see that Kate has been really working with her aunt and even her father to learn the extent of her magical abilities and learning spells that she never would have imagined using in the early Kate Daniels stories.
I am excited to see where Ilona Andrews will be going with this new series. Welcome back Kate and Curran!
Favorite Scene:
Hakeem froze.
I caught up with him. “What is it?”
He pointed with his stick in the direction of the giant pine. Four stone spheres about the size of baseballs were stacked on top of each other in the clearing, about fifteen yards from the big tree. By every law of physics, they should have collapsed. They had to be held together by magic but nothing emanated from them. From this distance, they looked like rocks. Unnaturally smooth and round rocks.
“Were you going to poke them with a stick?” Keelan growled.
Hakeem looked uncertain. “Yes?”
“When you find freaky shit in the scary woods, you don’t poke it with a stick. It can explode in your face. What do you do instead?”
Hakeem clearly didn’t know the answer to that question. I almost felt sorry for him. He had just turned eighteen this year, and this was likely his first real outing.
“You ask the Consort. The Consort knows everything.”
“Oh,” Hakeem said.
Keelan pivoted to me. “Consort, please tell us what this is.”
“I have no idea.”
Keelan blinked, his teaching moment temporarily derailed. He took a second to recover. “How do we proceed?”
I held my hand out, and Hakeem surrendered his branch. “I’m going to poke it with a stick.”
To my left Troy snickered. Owen cracked a smile.
Keelan looked like he was about to suffer a conniption fit.
I need to go back and read the original Kate Daniels… Somehow I’ve missed doing so.