Inkspot Fancy

The Kate Daniels series takes a few breaks from its title character in the course of its current run, and this book, Gunmetal Magic, is one such break. In it we follow Andrea, Kate's partner in crime (or crime-busting, I guess) as she does some detective work on her own.

I'll admit up front, this book wasn't to my taste. The writing was fine, the pacing was great, the action was good and I like most of the characters. But man, romance is not my thing. I just don't enjoy reading about it. And if there's anything that can make a romance plotline even less palatable to me, it's the sort of "will they or won't they" nonsense that I can accept from an actual romance book, but which is predictable and tedious as a major plot in an actiony UF book. Clearly in this, YMMV, and some people will no doubt be thrilled to pieces with page after page of "I WANT him! But my pride won't let me apologize. But oh god, hormones! But he's being unreasonable too!" Rinse and repeat. We all know you're going to get back together, even if I hadn't read the Kate Daniels book that falls after this on the timeline and seen it myself.

Independent of that subplot, the main story involves gods and ancient feuds and body snatching and horribly gross awful snake bites. Someone murdered four members of a Pack-owned business, apparently to steal something from a vault in the building they were stripping. Andrea's brought in to find out who did it and get justice for the families.

Overall, if it weren't for that side plot, I would have really loved this book. Andrea dealing with her own hangups about his past and trust issues were solid, the main plot was mysterious and yet more solidly constructed than some in this series, and we get the return of a minor character from an earlier book, with a beefed up part that made him one of my favorite characters in this universe. He's just really joyful without ever being comic relief or looked down on. His power's undeniable, he's just not a hardass or morose about it - refreshing in a character who's not meant to be young and impetuous.

But that romance side plot was so overwhelming that it really affected a lot for me. Alas.