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I've joined the Creator Accountability Network (CAN) as a provisionally credentialed creator! The provisional period is three months long, and at the end of that time I'll be fully credentialed if nothing disqualifying comes to light.  I'll be excerpting details from their website as the best way to explain what this is and what it means for me as a content creator and for you as readers and audience members. The short version is that I've undergone ethics training as part of the credentialing process, and that if you feel my actions have harmed you (now or in the future), you can report harassment, abuse, or other harm to CAN. Quotes in the rest of this post are from CAN's website as of August 16th, 2025. Here's the long version: From CAN's mission and purpose statements:  "The Creator Accountability Network empowers Community Members to build trust with Content Creators through ethical training and credentialing, victim-centered reporting of unethical...

Magic Stars by Ilona Andrews (Grey Wolf #1)

Scarred, solitary Derek Gaunt has separated from his Pack, and is truly a lone wolf. With no family he answers to no one; but is fiercely loyal to a chosen few. So, when several of those close to him are murdered, he’ll stop at nothing to hunt their killer through the magic-drenched streets of Atlanta.

Never one to be left on the sidelines, equally determined—some might say stubborn—Julie Lennart-Olsen soon joins in his pursuit; and what began as revenge turns into a race to save the city. Their search pits them against powers they never imagined and magic so old, it predates history. It may cost Derek his life, but there are things for which even he would risk everything.

TITLE: Magic Stars
AUTHOR: Ilona Andrews
PUBLISHER: Createspace Independent Publishing Platform
YEAR: 2015
LENGTH: 64 pages 
AGE: Adult
GENRE: Fantasy
RECOMMENDED: Yes

Queer Rep Summary: No canon queer rep.

MAGIC STARS is a novella starring Derek and Julie, set shortly before the events of MAGIC BINDS.

Derek is a pretty different narrator than Kate. He’s much more focused on what’s immediately happening. This is partly because, as a novella which fits in a specific place on the timeline without directly involving what Kate and Curran are doing, this is unlikely to appeal to anyone who hasn’t read the first seven Kare Daniels books. For anyone who has, however, it’s a welcome glimpse into a couple of prominent characters in a way that isn’t filtered through Kate. 

The plot revolves around Derek tracking down the shapeshifters who murdered a family. He’s very quickly joined by Julie and they team up to find who put them up to it. I enjoyed the story and it’s a good complement to the main series.

CW for pregnancy (brief mention), fire/fire injury (backstory), blood (graphic), violence (graphic), gun violence, body horror, self harm, child abuse (backstory), torture (backstory), rape (backstory), animal death (graphic), parental death (backstory), child death (backstory), murder, death (graphic).

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A teenage girl with blonde hair stands holding an axe, a hooded boy with a scarred face stands behind her, a grey wolf snarls below


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