Magic in the Shadows Review

Allie Beckstrom works as a Hound using her powers to identify people who abuse magic. Life has been hard for her as every time she uses magic, it uses her back. She’s suffered illness, memory loss, and tattoo like markings on her body from casting magic. For every spell there is a price to pay.

But things are way more complicated now since Allie’s deceased father has somehow entered her mind. While fighting bad guys, it’s his voice guiding her to do spells she’s never even heard of before. The only bad part of having her father constantly in her head, besides how annoying it is, is that people who were after him while he was alive, might come after her now to kill him once and for all if they find out he is still sort of alive inside of Allie.

Allie’s magic is stronger then ever and completely out of control. With no formal training, she is at a loss on how to properly defend herself and how to control all the magic inside of her. Allie’s boyfriend Zayvion decides to take her to meet a woman named Maeve who will properly train her on how to cast magic.

But Allie still has a ton of responsibilities to handle when not training. She has her fellow Hounds to look after, a position as CEO of her father’s business to decide upon, a relationship that she can barely remember, and the crappy problem of constantly being attacked by all kinds of people and creatures who abuse magic.

On top of that she has to decide if she wants to work for Detective Stotts as a Hound for the police department. The same Detective Stotts who is sort of a bad luck charm since every time a Hound works for him they end up dead. Then there’s Nola who’s in town and trying to get custody of Cody and Zayvion knows stuff about the situation but he’s so secretive because it’s official Authority business and all. Things are getting crazy for Allie, how will she hold it all together and figure out a way to control her magic use?

Magic in the Shadows is the third book in the Allie Beckstrom series which picks up right where the last book left off. When we last left Allie, she had discovered her father was inside of her and we didn’t know how this happened or why. We still don’t really know how or why but Allie is learning to deal with the situation and trying to make the best of it. Things are different now though since Allie is being watched very closely by The Authority and her magic use is being questioned. Everything is becoming quite intense for her and the action really picks up in this installment.

Even though Allie’s memory loss put her kind of back to square one with Zayvion, their chemistry and connection heats up a bit in this book. We find out more about Zayvion and what he does for The Authority. Allie is becoming stronger but magic is still hurting her and she suffers because of this. Some interesting theories are revealed which may explain a lot about Allie.

The writing moves at a fast pace with plenty of exciting action sequences to keep readers riveted. Magic is a prominent theme in this book and I love that. This series just gets better and better with each new book and I can’t wait to see what happens next with Allie and Zayvion. Look out for the fourth book, Magic on the Storm due out May 2010.

Reviewed for Night Owl Romance