*will contain spoilers from Magic Breaks

If I can sum Magic Shifts in a simple sentence, that will be..Daddy issues. Lol

While Magic Breaks is the finale of the first arc of Kate's battle against her dad, Roland, it's not the end of the series. Their war didn't happen and it's also not happen in this book. There's some turning event, primarily about Kate and Curran break from the Pack so they are no longer Beast Lord and the Consort. But if you think Magic Shifts will filled with mundane things or just a filler book, you're wrong.

While already separated from the Pack, didn't mean the shapeshifter will not go to them when they have some problems. George, Curran's adoptive sister frantically asking Kate's help to find her missing fiance, Eduardo. Kate and Curran's investigation will lead to a sinister being that they never encounter before. This being also somehow connected to Kate's ancestor (and Roland's as well). Meanwhile Kate and Curran now live among humans, and the Beast Lord no longer a lord, so what Curran will do? Become a model citizen among their neighbor while show how big his lion teeth are? The Mercenary Guild also in some hot water and need Kate's help. Just another cherry on top of many problems that Kate face. 

Contrary to Magic Breaks, Curran is now have many appearances and one of the main focus too while the story still told from Kate's PoV. There's no misunderstanding or unnecessary drama between our favorite couple like what happen with them in Magic Rises, but Curran almost lost control when Kate endanger herself (again). The scene when Kate asking sorry to Curran because she break their promise to no getting hurts is kinda hilarious to read but also endearing. We see that she really change from a loner to a woman who will move heaven and earth to protect those she loves. As for Curran, he's really a natural born leader and also business savvy. He totally can become a CEO of his own company and don't forget that he also make money when he still act as Beast Lord. His leadership and charisma is scary to read, complete with his manipulative and scheming skills lol. I like the scene when

he decide to take the Guild's matter to his own hand. Once a Beast Lord will always be a Beast Lord even Curran already left the Pack

. Kate's status as

"the city owner"

also come in handy when she got endangered but I know that she still hesitant about that. The hot tub scene is, hehehe, HOT TUB, indeed. Steamy, just the way I like it.

I said daddy issues in the start because some characters in this book have problem with their father. The most glaring is George with Mahon. Mahon didn't approve of George choice to be with Eduardo, just like he didn't like Kate to be Curran's mate. I did approve Mahon's support for Kate in Magic Rises because he feels that Kate's situation then was just like him in pre-Shift. They are both outsider. But that didn't mean that his views regarding Kate as Curran's mate will change. You can said that Mahon is more like a boomer, a conservative parent that expect their children to be what they want not what their children need. I feel like the relationship between Curran-George-Mahon and Kate-Roland is pretty much the same. The parent (aka the Dad) have expectation for their children, they want to shape their children to their own views and because children have obligation to the parents. But the children have a mind of their own. Just like George doesn't want Mahon to steer her life choice. Just like Curran realize that Mahon try to manipulate him to be a Beast Lord molded by Mahon's vision. And just like Kate that oppose Roland whenever her father want to claim the city for himself or build another towers.

For a main villain, Roland is still in his best behaviors. His "why no marriage yet, Daughter??" toward Kate is a crack. I will never imagine a term "living in sin" will come from Roland's mouth, lol. For a man with megalomaniac tendencies, he sure have some old views regarding marriage. Although the part when Roland describe Kalina might show that he truly loved Kate's mother despite all of his evil deeds. Of course not all his words can be trusted but for me, Roland is one of the best written villain I've ever read. He wore multifaceted face, he can be charming but also murderous next. No one know what he think and what he has for Kate in the future. Also his intels is scary since he know a simple things regarding his daughter. Like, what Kate and Curran want to eat in the restaurant, lel.

As for the mythology, IA dwell with some Arabian myth and Islamic element as well. As a Muslim myself, I feel that they write the Islam aspects of story with respect. LOL, I never expected to read about Ayat Kursi, Al Fatiha or Surat Al Falaq in this book! I might be grumbling about Dali's origin since I'm also Indonesian as well, but I don't have complaint about the way the write Qur'an verses in this book. The book is fantasy and I think they carefully write about my religion in Magic Shifts so I'm okay with that. Beside, I'm not that religious hahaha, and it's been so many years from the last time I read Qur'an, :3.

Sadly, there's no appearance from my favorite black Volvh, aka Roman. But we get to knowing more about Luther, the PAD mage that first introduced in Magic Slays. I still prefer Roman because he left an impressive impression and he was a cahoot in Gunmetal Magic. While Luther is...I don't know, he's Luther. He's okay, I guess. Nick also have some parts but it seems that he still got grudges toward Kate, maybe because he finally know that Kate is Roland's daughter. I don't know about the Order, maybe they are really fanatics and beyond saving in this points. The shapeshifters beside George also have some minor roles. I miss them already, but every scenes that have them is always a delight to read. While grumbling, Jim seems to accept his Beast Lord position while Dali did her best to become his Consort. Derek is still our boy wonder although I missed his bantering with Ascanio. Maybe because both already have major role together with Desandra and Robert Lonesco in Magic Breaks. This is the problem with a series that have so many interesting characters, you want all of them to have at least one or two scenes.

Magic Shifts is another winner (yeah, yeah, I know, I kinda repeat this words) from Kate Daniels series. Each book that I read is a winner and I always want to re-read. But I don't have all the time in the world. There are 3 books that I need to read (Magic Binds, Hugh's book and the anthology) before I read the end of Kate's journey. Will I ready to read the end? I think I will never be ready, sigh. 

I had forgotten about a particular scene in this book and so when I was getting close to it I kept thinking, wait..  is that in this book?  Even knowing it was coming, even knowing the outcome, I still cried.  It was gut wrenching all over again.

I dreaded it, and I loved it all the same.  Definitely one of the reasons why I keep coming back and rereading the series.

Kate and Curran have left the Pack, but their move has complications and a friend has gone missing.

Kate is trying to track down Eduardo while she and Curran settle into their new home outside the Keep. What seems like a series of very strange occurrences related to Eduardo's disappearance turn out to have an interesting and extremely dangerous cause in common. Curran has to financially disentangle from the Pack in a manner that doesn't leave them wrecked, and he ends up taking on fixing up the Mercenary Guild as a very necessary project. The worldbuilding is intertwined with the plot, since the main new things requiring explanation are all connected in some way. Partway through, Kate is grievously injured in a way that perhaps not even Doolittle can fix. Even if he can, it may be at the cost of parts of her that she won't even realize are gone until it's too late.

MAGIC SHIFTS follows up on several things left hanging from the previous book. Roland is lurking around, attempting to be a father figure for Kate. There's also more of a spotlight on George and Eduardo, whose first major roles were in MAGIC RISES. There's a new storyline involving the two of them, which is introduced and mostly resolved by the end of the book. As always, some things are left for later, they're a mix of relationship changes and what I'm pretty sure is Kate setting up a resource for the future. Kate is still the narrator and her voice is consistent with the previous book. As I noted for that one, she has continuity with her immediately previous self, but she has changed enormously from the beginning of the series. Due to an injury partway through, there's also a difference between her narration at the beginning and end of the book, and there may be more effects in the books to come.

Someone who tried to start with this book and hadn't read the previous ones could probably make sense of it and have a good time. This is about things changing as a result of the previous book, and that one would be a much better jumping-on point since it has a series recap at the start. However, if someone did start with MAGIC SHIFTS then they would be reading a procedural-adjacent mystery which is much closer in tone to the first books in the series than to MAGIC BREAKS. It acts as a kind of style reset under the new status quo, with Kate doggedly pursuing a case and trying to get the various agencies to cooperate (except this time she has Curran with her).

This is my favorite book in the series so far, partly but not completely because it deals with TBI in a way that resonates with me personally. Kate is placed in a position where she doesn't know what she doesn't know, and might not even realize that anything is wrong. It's a deeply scary situation, and it's a kind of danger she and Curran haven't dealt with before.