Wanda Pedersen's Reviews > Magic Rises

2022 Re-Read

Another rather grim installment of Kate's saga, with Kate & Curran walking into a situation that they know is a trap. However, there doesn't seem to be a viable alternative. They both do what they deem necessary to protect one another and end up offending each other. It's often difficult to appreciate the other person's perspective. I have to remind myself frequently that if I think I have a say in someone's life, that gives them a say in mine. Shuts me right up, that does.

The authors seem to have realized that they can't just keep on letting their prominent characters escape from every crisis. This is the volume where we lose someone significant, a person that can't be replaced and will be missed. For others to move up the hierarchy, it was necessary. For the sake of realism, too, you have to make some sacrifices.

Despite the loss and the serious tone, I'm still enjoying this visit to magical Atlanta. Who knows, maybe I'll get to visit our timeline's version of that city someday. Wouldn't that be fun?

Original Review

How do you keep the romantic tension in a series where the two lovers have come together? Well, make them doubt each other, that’s how. Plus, introduce Hugh to the mix—plausibly a much better match for Kate than Curran. Still with the arrogant, overbearing thing going on, but as long as she’s being strategic about things, why not go with the more powerful guy?

This whole dominance/submissiveness dichotomy that so much UF & PNR seems to retread endlessly still baffles me. Perhaps because modern women (at least here in North America) have much more responsibility for their own lives now (going to jobs, paying for mortgages, buying groceries, raising children on their own), we like to fantasize about not having to make all the difficult decisions every damn day? I know that’s why I take tour-type vacations. The tour leader will tell me when & where to meet him/her each day, what we will do, where we will eat, and where we’re going to stay. I get a vacation from all of those decisions plus I get to visit a new country & see great new birds. Win-win.

Reading books like these make me glad that I’m hooked up with one of the anti-alpha males, who just wants a peaceful existence and whose worst fault is that he maybe doesn’t pay quite enough attention. But I suspect if he started paying more attention, I’d be the one smiling the large psycho smile, fingering a weapon, and plotting where to dispose of his body, so it’s all good.