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ARC provided by Penguin Random House in exchange for an honest review.

1.) Magic Bites ★★★★
2.) Magic Burns ★★★★
3.) Magic Strikes ★★★★★
4.) Magic Bleeds ★★★★★
5.) Magic Slays ★★★★★
6.) Magic Rises ★★★★
7.) Magic Breaks ★★★★
8.) Magic Shifts ★★★★
8.5) Magic Stars ★★★★
9.) Magic Binds ★★★

“I hold gods prisoner, tormenting them for my pleasure. I bring war and terror. I am Neig, the Undying. I am legend. All who know me bow to me.”

Friends, I promise you, no one wanted to love this book more than me. I have been reading this series for what feels like close to a decade. And this will always be a series that I will cherish and keep close to my heart forever. But sadly, this final book just fell a little flat for me.

For those of you who do not know what this series is about, this is a ten book urban and paranormal romance series about a mercenary named Kate Daniels who will do anything to keep Atlanta safe. This Atlanta feels very much post-apocalyptic, and magic waves come and go along with paranormal creatures that sometimes choose to do bad things. Kate is human, but she has teamed up with the animal shifters, the vampires, the witches, and more to help defend Atlanta from everything that is seeking to destroy it.

And in Magic Triumphs something that is much bigger, and much worse, than anything Kate and her friends have ever encountered before, is trying to take over not only Atlanta, but the entire world.

“For the first time in my life I wished magic had never come.”

This review will not have spoilers for Magic Triumphs but it will briefly talk about things that have happened throughout the other nine novels leading up to this final conclusion. So, please use caution while reading this review if you are not caught up with Magic Binds!

I will also give a caveat and say that I did not read Iron and Magic this June, upon release. I just couldn’t fit it in my TBR, because this summer has been so busy for me with work. But I have always loved Hugh d’Ambray, and plan to pick it up one day. I will tell people that you should for sure read Iron and Magic first, because I was spoiled to something rather large at the end of this book, but it didn’t make it so I couldn’t understand or appreciate what was going on.

Though sadly, I feel like nothing really happened in Magic Triumphs until Hugh showed up at the ~70% mark. The previous ~200 pages? It honestly felt like a constant pattern of someone threatening Kate’s child, Kate getting upset, Kate killing whatever the threat is. Rinse and repeat for infinity, apparently. The “real action” literally was just jam packed quickly into the end, and even though I enjoyed it, I just wanted so much more at that point. And not in the good way of wanting so much more.

And yes, one of my favorite parts of this book was finally seeing Kate and Curran start to build their well-deserved happily ever after. And seeing Kate fully step into the role of motherhood, even though she has done a wonderful job transitioning thanks to Julie. Conlan is the cutest baby to ever be written in literature, and I was always giggling way too hard at the things he did or feeling completely and utterly heart warmed at the things he did.

“Conlan Dilmun Lennart squirmed on my chest and cried. There was no better sound in the world.”

I will say that I loved the epilogue. I think it is easily the strongest point of this book, ironically enough, and I feel like Ilona Andrews is really setting up for something that is going to be really amazing. Oh, and I truly believe that Roland is one of the best villains of all-time, too! He is the most morally grey character I believe in all of literature.

And I will always say that this series was probably the first love letter to found families that I’ve ever read. I truly believe that Kate’s found family and her realizing that she is deserving and worthy of unconditional love will always be the forefront of this story for me. And I feel like Magic Triumphs really showcases that beautifully.

Overall, I’m sad to see this come to and end. But maybe it is for the best, considering I didn’t feel the same magic that I felt earlier in this series. I will also say that I completely recommend any and everything that Ilona Andrews has created. I have loved this series, the Edge Series, and the Innkeeper Chronicles more than I have words for. This wife and husband writing duo really are the queen and king and PNR, and I can’t wait to see what they will have me fall in love with next!

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The quotes above were taken from an ARC and are subject to change upon publication.

Content and trigger warnings for murder, death, mass killing, violence, gore, torture, self-harm, talk of past rape, talk of suicide, and war themes.