One Good Book Deserves Another

Genre: Urban Fantasy
Series: World of the Lupi, Book 5
Rating: 4 Stars
Length:  352 Pages, 5115 Locations
Formats: Mass Market Paperback, Kindle


Even an FBI Agent with the Magical Crimes Division deserves to take some personal time now and then. That's why touch-sensitive Lily Yu is in Halo, NC with her mate Rule Turner, Lu Nuncio of the Nokolai lupi clan and holder of the mantles of both Nokolai and Leidolf. They've traveled to the town where Rule's son has been living to attend the hearing that will finally award Rule custody of nine-year-old Toby.

Unfortunately for Lily, deserving something doesn't necessarily mean getting it.

Tucked up in bed on the night they arrived, she gets jerked out of sleep by a phone call from Rule. While on a run in nearby woods the lupi prince caught scent of the mangled and decomposing bodies of a mother and her two children. The scene was ugly, the grave shallow and bodies disturbed by dogs. What most troubled Rule, though, was that under the scent of natural decay is the more insidious and corrupt bouquet of death magic.

Before she could even unpack, personal time was a distant memory, replaced by the case of a magically perpetrated and heinous murder. And just to add the cherry to that disturbing sundae, it's the sort of crime that - according to all magical knowledge - shouldn't have even been possible. How do you catch a killer who shouldn't exist before he does more vicious and deadly things he shouldn't be able to do?

Perhaps not one of the more flashy urban fantasy series, Wilks' World of the Lupi distinguishes itself with extraordinary world building and a unique cast of believable, likable characters. In this fifth book, the focus is back on main characters Lily and Rule, and as is the standard for the series, a pleasant balance between otherworldly danger and day-to-day trials and tribulations.

Mortal Sins hearkens back to the first book in the series, with its magical crime and the search for the perpetrator featuring aspects of an accomplished police procedural blended with the supernatural. Lily isn't the ubiquitous kick ass urban fantasy heroine, leather clad and carrying a big sword. She's slight of frame, of Asian descent, and while she's as tenacious as a terrier when set loose on a case, she's also the quintessential FBI agent. Despite her Gift as a touch sensitive, she's about as normal a character as I've seen in the genre, with such superb backstory and development that she's utterly believable and real.

Then again, Wilks has a true gift with characters, be they main, secondary, or ancillary. They are all rather remarkably three dimensional, with a depth and substance that is distressingly rare in so very many books and series once you step beyond main characters.

As top dog, no pun intended, Rule's backstory, the mythos surrounding his heritage, issues with his son, and the clans he serves all blend together to define a remarkable man of honor and integrity. A man who stands as testament to tradition even as he stands strong on the side of sweeping change. I love the dichotomy and the stability in him as a character.

I also love how the dominant Rule respects and treats Lily and the bond between them. There aren't a whole lot of series in the genre that feature and highlight the evolution of a genuine relationship between the male and female lead. I wish there were more, because I thoroughly enjoy exploring the lives of couples after the Happily Ever Afters.

Rule and Lily have been together since the first book, thanks to a bond from the Goddess that Rule's people worship. That bond has caused as many problems as its solved...maybe more, actually...and it's been quite the journey seeing their relationship evolve into what seems in this book to be a solid foundation with a few minor issues. And it was truly a delight to have some of those issues that have been nagging me from the first book get truly and spectacularly addressed in this one.

I wasn't totally invested in the main conflict of the killer plotline in this book. It seemed a little ragged and insubstantial compared to conflicts and bad guys we've seen in previous books. I also felt keenly the absence of many of the secondary characters I've grown fond of since the series started, and felt a little overwhelmed by the number of new names and faces involved in the race to find and stop the killer.

On the flip side, I loved the attention given to Rule's battle for his son, and thought the scenes surrounding Toby were some of my favorites in the book. He's such a little man; more mature than most nine-year-olds, maybe, but still so precocious and charming. This was a thread that felt like a long time coming and I was glad it finally got to get some page time.

While Mortal Sins isn't my favorite in the series so far, it struck me as a very solid addition full of the sort of quality storytelling that sets apart this underrated series. It had the feel of a transitional book in places, actually, with some significant issues being tidied up and some new dangers and complications left dangling like tasty little morsels teasing the hungry palate. Given the scope of those teasers, Wilks has much more up her sleeves to entertain loyal readers. I don't intend to miss it.

Interested readers should start at the beginning, though, because this is definitely a cumulative series, with characters evolving and story expanding and building up from a single starting point in the first book. There is exposition provided, of course, but too much has happened to too many people for that to be sufficient to readers unfamiliar with the world.

World of the Lupi Series:

Genre: Urban Fantasy
Series: The World of the Lupi, Book 4
Rating: 4.5 Stars
Length: 352 Pages, 5214 Locations
Formats: Mass Market Paperback, Kindle


Finder and FBI Agent Cynna Weaver is just starting to accept that she's pregnant, that she and the lupus Cullen Seaborne are going to have a child, when a delegation from the alternate realm of Edge show up in a fountain in a Washington D.C. mall. Offering trade with Earth for assistance in locating a medallion that controls the balance in Edge, the members of the delegation are cagey and secretive, and refuse to speak openly without a magical shield in place. A shield that only Cullen, a sorcerer as well as lupus, is able to erect.

When Cullen pours power into the spell to erect it, however, the truth becomes horribly clear. What spreads across the room isn't a shield, it's a gate between realms. The realization comes too late. Cynna and Cullen, along with the former demon Gan, FBI Magical Crimes Division Agent Steve Timms and a few others end up trapped in Edge, forced to track down the medallion just to get back home.

They're not the only ones after the medallion, however, and while that's distressing, the true problem is that there's someone out there even more intent on stopping Cynna from Finding it...and determined to kill them all to do so.

Taking a slightly bigger step towards fantasy than urban fantasy, Night Season is also the first book of the series to focus solely on Cynna and Cullen as protagonists, with Lily Yu and her lupus mate Rule Turner as little more than briefly featured ancillary characters. It's unusual, but not completely unique, as Kelley Armstrong's Women of the Underworld series is similarly handled, though to a wider extent. Wilks pulls it off nicely here, though, and does so in part because one of her greatest authorial strengths is the realistic, sympathetic, and completely believable evolution of characters over the story arc of the book and series.

Her plots aren't too shabby either, and again I'm impressed by the combination of creativity and steady, thorough storytelling. The World of the Lupi is ever-expanding, and I admire how smoothly and seamlessly the backdrop and current events unfold to create a wider universe. It's been captivating, really, having been pulled into the world the at the beginning of the series and reading through each book as that world and the characters in it drastically...though gradually and naturally...change and become more and more magic-touched. It's been an excellent journey so far, and one I would strongly suggest new readers to the series embark on, instead of jumping in somewhere in the middle. Too much of the truly masterful aspects of this series can only be appreciated with knowing the characters, where they came from, and how they connect.

In part because we got away from a lot of the lupus mythos in this book, I had an easier time with both the narrative and the plotline. It lacked a little of the depth and complexity of previous books, but it also provided a very satisfying romance subplot that was handled with both subtlety and intelligence. That subplot was actually one of my favorite parts of the book, and where I gained the most admiration for Wilks' ability to create and mold her characters and their personal history in such a way that who each of the characters are as people is vital and intrinsic to the nature and direction of the relationship evolution. It sounds so simple...yet in truth, it's so very rare, even in books with a wholly romantic plot. Too many times authors create Character A and Charater B and push them together regardless of the backstory and circumstance written, toss them into bed together, and manipulate the plot to get to the HEA. It ends up feeling inorganic and heavily plotted.

Nothing felt inorganic here. Nothing ever feels inorganic when it comes to character or relationship evolution in Wilks' books.

Wilks does have one quirk to her writing style that I've been consistently dissatisfied with as the series has progressed, and it was in full form in Night Season. Through the implementation of sudden timeline jumps or shifting POVs in the narrative, action scenes are often (though not always) none-too-subtly sidestepped. Fights, major conflicts, and abrupt changes in circumstance occur out of the reader's view, only to end up discussed or explained in retrospect instead of being written out. It's a writing style and choice that isn't to my liking, as I feel it disconnects me from the flow of the story and detracts from my emotional investment in the characters as the plot unfurls.

Issues I've had in the series with exposition overload or boggy narrative during excessive descriptive scenes, though, were not a problem for me in this book, and I felt the overall pace of the story was quick and evenly distributed. Part of that, I'm sure, is due to the less complex plot, but whatever the reason, I didn't have the problem of my mind wandering a bit here and there like I have in a few places in the first three books.

This series isn't really one of the flashier urban fantasy series out there, yet it's one of my favorites among the active ones I read. The plots are solid and well written, the world is creative and expanding nicely, the characters have a satisfying depth and appealing likability, and their relationships are brilliantly and realistically described and evolved. After four books, I'm a little surprised that a series plot arc hasn't become readily apparent to me...though there may not be one, I suppose (or I'm too obtuse to figure it out...which is, admittedly, possible), but that's not a disappointed surprise. It's a pleasant one, actually, because when you don't know exactly where you're going, you truly get to sit back and savor the journey without the heavy weight of expectation. And I plan to keep right on savoring The World of the Lupi series for as long as possible.

The World of the Lupi Series:

Genre: Urban Fantasy
Series: The World of the Lupi, Book 3
Rating: 4.5 Stars
Length: 338 Pages, 1696 KB
Formats: Mass Market Paperback, Kindle


Magical Crimes Division FBI agent and touch-sensitive Lily Yu and her Chosen mate Rule Turner, Lu Nuncio of the Nokolai lupi clan are in Washington DC as Lily works with the Secret Service to identify potential demon possession following the events of Mortal Danger (The World of the Lupi, Book 2). It's been five weeks since Lily got Rule out of Dis and brought dragons back to the world, not that the dragons stuck around once they returned. Rule is still struggling with an imbalance between he and his wolf and dealing with latent emotions over failing and losing the Other Lily, but as Christmas approaches, Lily has sprung an early present on Rule and takes time out of her handshaking duties to take him to the symphony. Cynna Weaver is also in DC, between cases at the moment but driven by a sudden sense of disquiet to get out of her hotel room and wander the cold city streets. Cullen is further away, off...doing whatever it is Cullen does when he's traipsing around the world, but mostly trying to find those ever elusive dragons. He has so many questions!

Each of them, and the whole of the rest of the world, are minding their own business, doing their own thing, living their own lives, when a powerful magical wind blows across the planet, surging from the nodes to whirl through and stir up all manner of magical phenomena before disappearing again with nary a whisper. Leaving everything in its wake changed.

Before Lily realizes the scope of what's happened, there's a large demon coming out of the shadows intent on killing Rule. A demon that shouldn't be able to be there at all. Soon it becomes clear that surviving the demon attack, while preferable to the alternative, is fraught with its own difficulties, and the four friends will have to come together not only to help out as the world starts to tip out of balance, but to stop Cynna's old mentor Jiri from using the increasingly strong magic winds to power a demonic army against the enemy of She who will not be named, the Lupi.

Eileen Wilks continues to amaze and astound with her World of the Lupi series. Fraught with peril, littered with danger, steeped in mythology and history, this series is setting itself far apart and above most in a well-populated genre and doing it with exceptional, twisted, complex plots full of originality and detail, and likable, three dimensional characters who are rich and real and full of culture and personality, driven by fierce pride, love, and honor, and ripe with their own foibles, peccadilloes, and damage.

Unlike the first two books in the series which dealt primarily with Lily and Rule, Blood Lines is more evenly balanced between the four characters, with an alternating third person point-of-view narrative that smoothly transitions between scenes and characters. Primary focus for the series are the female leads in the book, and while this one has been touted as more Cynna and Cullen's story, I actually felt that Cynna and Lily both were well represented and saw fairly equal page time, with their individual strengths and independent - though not necessarily mutually exclusive - plot threads supporting them. As in the first two books in the series, Rule and Cullen had scenes in which the narrative focused on them, but they tend to be fewer and further between than those of Lily and Cynna. I love Cullen, though, and beyond Grandmother Li Lei Yu, he's my favorite character in the series, and this book provided more of him than in the one previous, and offered up less damage to him than the first.

I continue to admire the blending and masterful weaving Wilks does with her plot threads, and the adept way she continues to define and explore her world for the readers, providing characters who are learning along with the reader and allowing more and more of the mythos and history of her world to come into focus as the story progresses. There were things in this book, plot threads connecting to things I'd forgotten about and accepted as unimportant from the first book, that started to fall into place in this one, issues that I hadn't thought to wonder about now being shown to be important. I love that. It's an amazingly unique and incredibly impressive skill to be able to weave a comprehensive story arc with that much attention to detail and it gives this series a very epic feel - something more often found in high fantasy books than in urban fantasy. Each of these books feel like another step up a giant and as yet not quite fully visualized (for the reader - I get the impression Wilks visualizes it just fine) staircase leading towards the enlightenment of the series arc and as I progress up the stairs, I become more and more anxious to reach the top. Even as I am more and more impressed with the journey and want to slow down to savor it.

I still have a few issues with the book and the series. At times the exposition and weighty history of the clans and the explanations Lily and Cynna always ask for (about every little thing) do the pacing of the books a slight disservice. There's so much glorious information and such fantastic culture, spirituality, history, and even religion to impart in these books that it does occasionally overwhelm me as a reader. Wilks is extremely conscientious about her characters, and through them her readers, learning and understanding her created world on a very visceral and real level. I can't say I'd change that, even if I had that sort of mystical power, but it does present moments when I feel almost buried under it all.

And I admit, once or twice I wanted to throttle Lily and Cynna and yell at them to shut up with the darn questions and just go with it. Because their questions are always answered. In detail. And they ask so darn many of them.

As I mentioned in my review of Tempting Danger (The World of the Lupi, Book 1) (my review here) and now notice as more of a stylistic choice, Wilks tends to delve into the greatest and most minute detail when it comes to information but skims over the action, or cuts away as it commences and returns after it's done, only to explain it to the reader through - again - information exchanges instead of writing it for the readers to experience as it unfolds. My reading preferences lie with reading about it as it happens, so I'll never be totally thrilled with that aspect of this book or the series.

I'm more than happy with everything else, though. The characters, the plot, the amazing world building, mythos, and history of it all completely bowls me over every time I pick up a book in the series and start reading. It's not always the most comfortable read, and I can't say I love every little thing about it (beyond what I mentioned above, there are also a few more minor issues that I had with this book) but I deeply admire and respect Wilks for her ability to create it and thoroughly enjoy every delicious hour spent reading it.

Note: If you're new to the series, I strongly suggest you not start in the middle. I believe that you could, because certainly enough exposition is given to draw a reader into the series even with this third book. I read the letter to readers at the very beginning of the book, a letter from Lily Yu that reminds readers familiar with the series of the previous events, and also dips new readers into the world with a brief synopsis. A new reader could start here and at least have the facts of the previous books. I wouldn't recommend that, though. These books are full of the sort of details, layers, and connections that can only be truly appreciated if you start at the beginning and savor each piece as you go along, experiencing it with the characters you'll come to love. Trust me on this one.

The World of the Lupi Series: