Curse of the Wolf (Magnetic Magic, Book 5) (Part 2)

Happy Sunday, all.

This review is Part 2 of the analysis of Curse of the Wolf. This particular section will cover the breakdown of:

• Plot

• Character

• Worldbuilding

• Romance

Please see Part 1 if you’re looking for the big-picture items and a discussion of the prose, or check out the reviews for the previous four books if you need to get caught up on the series. Otherwise, let’s dive right in.

STATS

Title: Curse of the Wolf

Series: Magnetic Magic (Book 5)

Author(s): Lindsay Buroker

Genre: Fantasy (Urban)

First Printing: July 2025

Publisher: Self-published to Amazon

Rating: 6/10

SPOILER WARNING

Mild, unmarked spoilers for the entirety of Quest of the Wolf will be provided throughout this review. The first paragraph of any given section will be kept spoiler-free. Any heavy spoilers for this book will be confined to clearly labelled sections.

Heavy spoilers from the previous books of the Magnetic Magic series will appear throughout this review. These will not be marked. I’m also going to assume that you have already read my reviews for these books, though it’s not necessary to understand this review.

PLOT

A Plot: Duncan’s Curse (Heavy Spoilers)

Early in the book, Abrams reveals to each Luna and Duncan that destroying Duncan’s control device in the previous book has devastating consequences. Duncan’s life force is tied to that device. Without it, he will weaken and die. Luna is immediately filled with guilt at having destroyed the device, while Duncan insists it is a bluff to trick them into bringing the wolf relics to Radomir and Abrams in hopes of finding a cure. As the narrative progresses, though, Duncan begins to show signs of weakness, proving that the curse is indeed real. He and Luna therefore search for a means to save him.

Buroker uses this plot thread much more effectively than the control device. It is constantly looming over the narrative and driving Luna’s decisions. Unfortunately, much like how Quest is resolved by an Amuletum ex Machina, this curse is also resolved by an Amuletum ex Machina.

About 60% of the way through the book, Luna visits her mother and tries to use the combined power of all the wolf relics and the druid relic to heal Duncan. this fails. What Luna does learn from this experience is that the male amulet (which Duncan is still wearing) does not consider Duncan to be worthy of joining the pack. This opens the possibility that, if he does prove himself worthy, the amulet will heal him.

Sure enough, around the 90% mark, Duncan saves Luna’s life by shielding her from falling rubble with his own body. The amulet zaps him with power. The curse is lifted, his full strength is restored, and he even healed of that scar that glowed whenever the control device was used on him.

All this would be fine if the scenario of Duncan saving Luna made sense, but it doesn’t. If anything, it is Duncan’s fault that Luna’s life was in danger in the first place. He threw a grenade into a basement while fulling believing the blast was drop a building on them. Yes, he only did this to destroy the swarm of robot spiders that was chasing them (I can’t explain the robot spiders other than to say that Abrams probably made them), but the fact remains that the situation in which he saved Luna’s life was entirely the result of his own actions. It’s not like the amulet couldn’t analyze that situation, given that it’s clearly smart enough to register that Duncan deliberately shielded Luna rather than merely falling on her by accident. Does this mean that Duncan and Luna could have duped the amulet at any time by pretending he saved her from getting hit by a car? Why didn’t the amulet trigger earlier, when Duncan put himself at risk to test the danger posed by the robot spiders while Luna waited at a safe distance?

All this is to say that the resolution doesn’t feel earned. I can see the outline of what Buroker was going for her. It works conceptually. Her chosen manner of execution just feels like she threw her hands up in the air and picked an arbitrary moment for the amulet to accept Duncan.

B Plot: Crime Wave

Much like the previous book, Luna’s interaction with the thugs takes the form of two action scenes. This time, she chases after them, rather than them menacing her. The added agency makes their involvement much more interesting. Luna both wants to make the neighbor safer and to recover the enchanted silver sword that they stole from her in Quest.

An important detail that is also established in this book is that the thugs are employed by Radomir. He’s the one who supplied them with magical weapons and sent them to loot Luna’s apartment. He also has the house of one of their members blown up at the same time that Luna and Duncan are there to interrogate the thugs.

Buroker does improve the balance of the B Plot against the A Plot in this book, if only a little.

• Luna and Duncan are pursing the thugs to get the sword back, since it is a weapon they can use for added defense against Radomir.

• During one of the fights with the thugs, Duncan’s curse severely weakens him and allows the thugs to inflict some nasty injuries.

• In revealing that they gave the sword to Radomir, the thugs point Luna to the location where the climax occurs.

As stated above and in the Quest review, I don’t think that the B Plot is necessarily bad. I just wish it wasn’t competing for space with the story that was promised to the audience.

C Plot: Luna’s Family

While I am very annoyed that Austin finding out Luna’s secret is resolved off-screen, I do appreciate that Buroker at least addresses that there would be consequences from the events of Quest. I just think that Austin’s letter to Luna would have been far more effective if Quest had Shown us a confrontation between the pair in the falling action of that story. The letter could be a more measured response to follow up on Austin’s initial emotional reaction.

D Plot (?): Raoul & Izzy

As mentioned above, I have no idea what Buroker hopes to do with the revival of Raoul’s death and the introduction of Izzy’s grudge against Luna for it. This seems like something that should have come up in Quest, at the very least. Still, outside of the obvious time constraint from having only one book left, I think the (re)introduction works fine here and has potential for the sequel.

CHARACTER

Curse provides the character work that was sorely lacking in Quest.

A core piece of Luna’s motivation is her guilt over causing Duncan’s condition and her regret that they won’t get to explore their relationship if he dies. This doesn’t feel like the “woe is me, it’s all my fault” angst from other books we’ve reviewed on this site. Luna undeniably is at fault for causing Duncan’s predicament, however accidental it might have been, and while Duncan comforts her and absolves her of guilt, it’s less about validation and more about him accepting his condition without foisting blame onto her. This also propels the events of the story forward, rather than Luna merely wallowing and then deciding she’s all better.

Likewise, we get a scene exploring Duncan’s regrets. This mainly seems to be pushing the idea that he and Luna will be having a child at the end of the series (a girl, judging by Luna admitting in this same scene that she wishes she’d gotten to have a daughter). Still, it’s a nice moment of vulnerability from him.

The introduction of Izzy and her lingering grudge over Raoul’s death had the potential for some keep reflection by Luna. Unfortunately, it goes nowhere. The situation reads like Luna has already made peace with the past and is not just dealing with an unwelcome reminder of it from one who just won’t let the past die.

WORLDBUILDING

Once again, Buroker doesn’t add anything new to the worldbuilding. She merely sticks with the elements she’s already laid out. At most, she confirms the existence of werewolves elsewhere in the country (via Izzy) and expands upon the magical community of the Seattle area (like a the movie theater owner who can sense that she and Duncan are werewolves).

ROMANCE

Building off what was discussed in Character, I feel like the Romance takes a step in the right direction in this book. There is a genuine sense that Luna enjoys having Duncan in her life and would hate for him to go, whether it’s because he died or simply moved on to treasure hunt elsewhere. Likewise, Duncan is willing to be vulnerable with her. There is a real sense of an emotional bond between them. Luna also ponders what a future featuring the two of them might look like, and this feels like something that has been built towards rather than being pulled from nothing.

I’m a bit surprised that Buroker didn’t have a sex scene in this book, especially since the first scene between Luna and Duncan in this book leaned very heavily into the sexual chemistry between them. I remember that Fallen Empire had the first sex scene between the Main Character and Love Interest in the second-to-last book, and there’s no longer a narrative obstacle to them being together. That said, it's entirely possible that sex happened off-screen between the climax and the falling action, given how the kiss at the end of the climax is framed.

Also as mentioned in Character, this series is really leaning hard into Luna having another child with Duncan at the end of this series. It’s to a point where Buroker almost has to end on that note for all this buildup to not be a waste of time. The only bit that’s unclear is whether the series will end with them deciding to have children together or we’ll get an epilogue showing Luna pregnant or with a baby.

THE CURSE LIFTED

While Curse does return the series to the high seen with Kin, it’s another fine episode in the ongoing story. I’m uncertain whether Buroker can stick the landing in Triumph, given how many balls she’s still juggling and how she’s not making these books long enough to properly explore everything. Still, I am at least looking forward to seeing if she can end things on a high note.

HERE BE DRAGONS

Magnetic Magic is not the only series whose reviews we need to wrap up. On January 16th we will review to the War of Souls trilogy for the finale, Dragons of a Vanished Moon.

This finale was rather frustrating for me. With the reveal of the One God’s identity at the end of Dragons of a Lost Star, the authors set up a climactic showdown with an classical enemy of the Dragonlance setting. Unfortunately, their method of doing so ultimately undermined the narrative, invalidating much of the plot and making the struggles of the characters feel narratively unimportant. To cover it in full, we’ll need to break it down into two parts, with Part 1 coming on January 16th and Part 2 on January 20th.

Speaking of dragons, I’ve finished reading Red Dragon, the second book in Buroker’s new Romantasy series. Were going to do a 5-part review series for this one. The first part of the review releases tomorrow, and the rest will follow each Wednesday through February 11th.

Thank you all for joining me today If you haven’t already, I hope you’ll subscribe to the newsletter so that I can send you links to new content each week. Please also share this review with others if you enjoyed it. In any case, I hope you all have a Happy New Year, and I hope to see you again soon.