Magic Breaks

Dear Readers,

Thank you so much for reading Kate’s adventures for these seven years. We appreciate your support. Your enthusiasm for the series keeps us going.

Some really big things happen in this book. It reads like the final book in the series, but it’s not. As we write this, we are under contract for three additional books. Magic Breaks might finish the story arc, but it doesn’t finish the story. For those of you who are just coming to the series, we’ve included a list of characters and “From the Journal of Barabas Gilliam,” a series summary written from the point of view of one of the series’ most popular side characters. If you are a long-standing fan of the series, the information in those two sections will probably sound redundant, and if you choose to skip them, you won’t lose anything.

Some stories are big in scope, where the future of the world seems to hang in the balance, and some stories are small but no less important. Because Magic Breaks is one of those large-scope stories, we thought you would enjoy a smaller story as well, so we offer you “Magic Tests,” a short story about Julie’s adventures in a new school. The fate of the world might not be in jeopardy, but the life of a child is, and we hope you will like the contrast between the two stories.

As always, we would like to thank the people who helped us bring this story to you. Our wonderful editor, Anne Sowards, and our agent, Nancy Yost, who both strive to keep us in line. The senior production editor, Michelle Kasper, and the assistant production editor, Julia Quinlan. Judith Lagerman, the art director; Juliana Kolesova, the artist responsible for the image on the cover; and Jason Gill, the cover designer.

We would like to thank Jonathon Frisby, attorney-at-law, and his wife; Veronique Cantrell-Avloes, attorney-at-law; Noel Goudreau, attorney-at-law, and her husband; Sarah Javaheri, attorney-at-law; Carol Najera, attorney-at-law; Tiffany Murphy, attorney-at-law; Nina Javan, attorney-at-law; and others for their incredible generosity and knowledge and willingness to entertain hypothetical criminal scenarios involving a weremongoose lawyer. We are deeply grateful. Any errors of fact or law are our own.

We would also like to thank our beta readers, who kindly donate their time and skills to help us make the book the best it could be. They are, in no particular order: Ying Dallimore, Carrie Wassenaar, Omar Jimenez, William Stonier, Stella Won, Julie Heckert, Laura Hobbs, Antoinette Hodges, Nichole Walford, Michelle Kubecka, Melody LeBaron, Wendy Baceski, Shannon Daigle, Cathy Thilmany, Jeanine Rachau, Michelle Kraut, and others.

Finally, thank you once again to you, our wonderful readers.