Review: Much Ado About Magic



Much Ado About Magic
Enchanted Inc. Bk 5
Shanna Swendson

eBook Released: 15 August, 2012
NLA Digital Liaison Platform LLC, eBook, 238 p.
Paperback available: 31 Aug, 2012 (B&N)
ISBN-13: 9781620510520

To Do: Manage Magical Mayhem, Save the Company, Save the World

 

Katie Chandler is back in New York and at Magic, Spells, and Illusions, Inc. – and just in time. The city’s in the grip of a magical crime wave from spells that wizarding whiz Owen Palmer thinks look awfully familiar, and the rogue firm Spellworks is raising its profile in the magical world by selling protective amulets. It’s Katie’s job as the new director of marketing for MSI to fight this battle of public perception while Owen and the other wizards try to uncover what’s really going on.

 

What Katie doesn’t realize is that her idea to stage a showcase for MSI’s magical achievements is playing right into a devious plot more than three decades in the making. Now Katie has to do damage control that has nothing to do with marketing. To save the magical world, she’ll have to prove who the real enemy is, and doing that will require digging deeper into Owen’s mysterious past than he wants anyone to go. If she fails, she not only stands to lose a magical war, but she could also lose the man she loves.

 

 

I have been eagerly awaiting this book for ages.  As a fan of the series since the release of Enchanted Inc., it has been a joy to watch Katie as she navigated her way around NY, as well as her new found knowledge that magic was real.

 

In Much Ado About Magic, picking up soon after the events in Don't Hex with Texas, and Katie has once again wiped the dust from her boots and is in New York and back at MSI.  However, there seems to have been a shift in power since she last walked the corridors MSI.  No longer working with Merlin, it seems that Katie is now heading up Marketing... yeah, I know!?  With staff throwing parties every day, and Spellworks still cranking out shoddy magic, it's up to Katie to once again haul their butts out of the fire.

 

What I loved...

 

Kate back working with MSI.  Let's face it, New York and MSI is where she belongs.  Katie and Owen seem to be a happy couple now (fingers crossed), and most of our past favourites are back - even if they only say "hello".

 

In this book, Swendson has brought Owen's family history into the storyline, which was a real surprise.  It was totally unexpected as I don't remember Owen ever bringing up his birth mother, Rod only mentions the adoption a few times, but it did explain a whole lot.

 

Although Idris was our major baddie in past books, it seems that it's tiime for him to take a back seat as Shanna has gives us a new baddie.  One so devious that even Idris got sucked in!  I won't give him away, but he's a guy you'll love to hate.  And finally, one of the standout moments was when Idris finally got his comeuppance. It was great!  Unfortunately Owen gets caught up in it too which kind of sucks, but hey, that's for the next book ;-D

 

The Bad

 

Idris is still a gigantic pain in the butt.  Geez, how many times did they have to loose this guy over the series before he got his just desserts?  (P.S., it was awesome though!)  There is also the introduction of a new address for Katie and her roommates, plus the addition of a fourth girl to share the rent.  Oh boy.  It seems weird, but I'm hoping that book 6 explains the necessity of adding another totally new character to the storyline.

 

Our bad guy is great bad guy, but the men who make up the magical communities governing body must have been stupid to ever fall for all of his blarney.  Maybe it's just me, but the arc that covered his interest in Merlin, Owen, MSI and Idris came out of left field.  It works, don't get me wrong, but I think with more hinting in previous books, it could have been even better.

 

Now, I mentioned above how great it was to see some of our favourite characters, but there was one connection that I really missed and that was the friendship between the girls from the office and Katie.  Unlike the previous books, I really missed Katie getting drawn into the troubles of Trix and Isabel.  Remember them kissing frogs in Central Park?  Classic. 

 

Speaking of the girls, what about Ari?  What happened to her?

 

So, should I get it?

 

YES!  For goodness sakes, yes.  If you loved the previous books than Much Ado About Magic is a must.  So far it seems to be an eBook only release (available at all good online retailers), but B&N does list a paperback format available - but they are the only ones.  I'm still going to wait for paperback, but if I can't get my hands on a copy I'll be Kindle-ing it for sure.