Product Description

Using magic means it uses you back - and every spell exacts a price from the user. Some people, however, get out of it by Offloading the cost of magic onto an innocent, then Allison Beckstrom's job is to identify the spell-caster. Allie would rather live a hand-to-mouth existence than accept the family fortune and the strings that come with it, but when she finds a boy dying from a magical Offload that has her father's signature all over it she is thrown back into the world of his black magic.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #23189 in Books
• Published on: 2009-01-08
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 368 pages

Customer Reviews

Disappointing
The basic idea is a good one. The problem is that it's badly written and the heroine is strangely unlikable - which is possibly why she only has one friend. She is supposed to be well schooled, intelligent and street smart but doesn't demonstrate this in her persuit of the conclusion of the story. For example, she's apparently starving with enough money for a coffee and a bun left in the world, living in squalor when she gets a call for a job. She does the job - taking a taxi to get there, then forgets to ask for her money and doesn't go back to get it. She regularly takes money from her only friend (who she thinks can't afford it) but refuses to take money from her father (who she hates) who can afford it. I found that, and other examples, irritating.

I think that either a lot was edited out of the book or the author ran out of steam as it started well but quickly slid down hill to the point of me considering whether or not I could be bothered to finish the book or not. There was no character development at all but we were supposed to like the heroine (can't even remember her name she was that forgettable) and fancy the romance interest.

The romance is not good. The sex scenes come from no-where, there's no build up of tension. Suddenly they are just sleeping together for no reason that I could establish other than the heroine had had a bad day and was feeling claustraphobic. It wasn't sexy. Then she falls in love with him (and apparently he with her) for no apparent reason other than good sex. They have the strangest conversations which have no thread or authenticity. At times if you overheard them in real life you would think they were on the phone to other people and just happened to be looking at each other when talking.

I'm sorry to give a bad review to a new author. I'd encourage her to try again though as the basic idea behind the book was a good one.

Loved it!
Magic to the Bone is something a little bit different. The plot is interesting and twisting and not necessarily what you would expect from your average urban fantasy. The characters are well developed and everybody has secrets waiting to be unravelled. Cody in particular makes me want to read more - what is he hiding in his past? I've never read a character like him before.

I will be buying the sequel as soon as it hit the shelves. I suggest you do the same.

Daves Thoughts
Magic to the Bone
This was a good read I enjoyed the story line look forward to the next one