Closet Geeks and Slow Mo

Sigh. So I love the series. I went on a Kate Daniels binge a few months ago and read EVERYTHING I could get my hands on. Really EVERTHING.
So needless to say, I was anticipating Magic Shifts with high expectations.
And to some degree I got what I wanted. Buuuuut also not.
Ok shall we get the bad out first?
One of the things I love about the series is Kate's interaction with the pack. The relationships between the cast- the character building in the series is always great. And don't get me wrong. I am still totally into Kate and Curran- they still gotz it, man! But for some reason I felt like the character building fell a bit short. I found most of the new cast a bit flat and one sided. Roman was - well too normal? - though I am sure there is plenty more to come there, I felt it was kinda sidetracked. Then my favorite sidekicks got really little exposure to start with-and when they did, it was all bit been there done that. I compare to the previous book it's just a bit lacklustre.
And I strongly feel that the character building was hugely overshadowed by the plot. Well, at least by all the fight scenes. Cause let's face it: when you look back - what happened that was of real significance? Not much, well except a hell of a lot of battling. I love the action in the series- but at the end I felt exhausted by it. It was just too much.
Now too the good:
Well Kate is still kickass- Curran still awesome sauce.
This is still really really well written- And frankly I am being probably quite harsh.
There some interesting new storylines in the making. So I am having high hopes for the next one.
And then there a scenes that are so exquisitely well written- the earring scene for example- just those would justify a gazillion more battle scenes.
SO though not my favorite it's still a fab series!