Lily’s bond with Rule is as stretched and confused as it’s ever been – thanks to the lessons she is having in Mind Speech. This is the worst time for her to disappear when she cannot be found

But Lily vanishes following up on a favour she cannot deny – while at the same time a conspiracy strikes against the Shadow Unit. The whole apparatus designed to fight The Enemy, Ruben the head of the unit, Rule the head of two Lupi clans are all targeted in a devastating co-ordinated attack.

It’s the worst time for Lily to be out of touch as everything they’ve built begins to crumble.

Back to Lily as a protagonist! I always love this focus, because Lily Yu is an awesome protagonist and one of my favourites

And, of course, I love the world building. I love the massively creative world building. I love that such a lot of originality has gone into not only designing the world with this crash of magic into the technological world, the various magical societies from the Brownies to the Lupi who all have their own cultures and magic and language all really well done together. And then we have the dragons with their completely unique biology coupled with their own culture and traditions and opinions and beliefs. It’s excellent. It’s really original and well developed and nuanced.

And I love Lily. I do love lily. I love that she’s so sensible. I love that even when worried and angry and outraged and upset and emotional she’s still logical and capable and empathetic enough to see from a different point of view. I love how she can be angry with various supernatural beings while also acknowledging that from their point of view they’re a very different beings with vastly different values. She can acknowledge that, understand that, respect that – but not by being a complete door mat to them. The fact they have a dramatically different culture doesn’t mean they’re allowed to treat her in ways that she finds unacceptable because of it.

I also like how, when discussing the history of magic on this world we’re not assuming a global constant and acknowledging that just because something happened in the west didn’t mean it happened the same everywhere

Lily’s awesome. The world is awesome.

And I really like Demi; she’s a character with Aspergers who appears to have been well represented because of it. Her need for patterns and social difficulties along with her thought patterns seem very well presented while at no point being used to make her either this alien super hero (too often autism is created a some kind of weird origin story for some kind of mental super power).  Her courage, drive, knowledge, determination, moral compass and navigating around the lupi and more powerful magical beings around her.

I also quite like the concept of the sinister government org – or some sinister human org. I mean we have repeatedly see various supernatural threats menacing humanity – but magic suddenly becomes real, there are plenty of bad people and bad organisations who are going to exploit that. Part of Lily’s worry about joining the Shadow Unit was her fear over what a unit like this could do with so little oversight. So common human greed and corruption needed to be flagged.

We continue to have excellent portrayal of POC as well – Lily Yu is Asian and informed by her culture and language. It’s more than just a description of her. The Lupi continue to be racially diverse (a leader of Rule’s guard is Jose) as do members of other organisations, the Shadow Unit, et al. Even in a book that doesn’t have that many humans, we still have some POC. We also continue to have awesome female characters – including both the awesome Lily and the Brownie’s, hilarious matriarchal culture.

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Lily learns she was right. Tom Weng—a powerful sorcerer allied with the Old One who keeps trying to take over the world—is still alive.

But that's not the worst. Weng is a dragon spawn, the product of a botched hatching given a human form in an attempt to keep him from going mad. A failed attempt.
 
Meanwhile, Lily’s husband Rule is facing a Challenge to the death. Then there’s the possible reappearance of another sorcerer.

But none of that matters when their enemy strikes out of nowhere in the worst way possible. Lily must face a nightmare and return to a place she never wanted to see again.

The place where she died…

The 13th book of the Lupi series, things get turned upside down for the cast.

There are more secrets and revelations than ever before.

The good vs bad girls that pull the good guys and the bad guys in different directions for more epic adventures.

You definitely want to read the previous books in this series if you haven't picked it up yet. Don't jump into the middle it won't be easy to pick up and follow along.

Dragon Spawn has a lot of twists and a lot of emotional scenes and a lot of trying to figure out how to deal with Ginger and Tom - so much that I kept skipping forward because I was so anxious to know what was going to happen next. I cheated a teeny bit. Yes, I'm guilty but its a good guilty.

The Lupi series only gets better the further in we (the readers) get. Wondering what's going to happen with all the kidnappings, the possessions and the emotional turmoil just adds to the excitement.

If you haven't discovered this series try it out it only gets better the further in you get.

Eileen Wilks

Krissy's Bookshelf Reviews received a print copy. All thoughts, comments and ratings are my own.

Krissy's Bookshelf Reviews received a print copy in exchange for an honest review via the publisher.

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Lily’s engagement to Rule has put her on the hit list of many hate groups – but when there’s a campaign against her, the people she cares for her boss and even a werewolf going on the rampage it’s clear she’s dealing with something far worse than the vandals who sabotaged her care or the people sending her hate mail.

Meanwhile Benedict has found something impossible – Arjennie… a second Chosen

This series has had some ups and downs – and this book is definitely continuing the direction upwards after all of this huge and dazzling world setting has now been absorbed and we’re now keeping the focus on what is relevant. This book takes this wonderful, wide world and makes sure we don’t drown in it while we also don’t ignore it. It’s a lovely balance – this wide world isn’t ignored but nor are we left flailing to try and understand what is relevant in the vastness

And against this backdrop we have some very intriguing characters; the new character being Arjenie. And I love her. Oh how I love her. She’s hilarious, she’s aware yet almost niave in how easily distracted she is. I love her geeky adoration of facts. I love her courage without it being flashy or violent. I love the fact she’s not physically dangerous – and her disability definitely does case her physical limitations – but that doesn’t make her less active or courageous.

There’s also Rule with his fascinating conflict over the Mantels and his relationship with the Leidolf – making good decisions but not emotionally connected ones, feeling duty bound but not emotionally bound is something else that will be good to see.

Other nice gems for me was seeing more of Isen, the Rho of the Nikolai pack. He’s always there as a distant figure and we’d already had excellent moments when he made a distinction between speaking to his sons as both his father and their leader. It makes him both a skilled leader AND a loving and caring father. And, in this book, we increasingly see him as an effective ruler. But better than that – he’s an effective ruler because he likes people. He’s interested in people. He studies people and he uses this knowledge to actually reduce conflict in his Pack

The protagonist – or co-protagonist – is Lily who is always a favourite character of mine. Capable with woo-woo without having super powers. She’s strong without being Spunky, she makes good decisions and has some excellent moments of emotional conflict when faced with her own mortality in this book. I also love how she continually applies logic and cold fact to the faith and woo woo of everyone around her.

Throw in some politics and, yes, the Lupi not being all united and being very human in their objections and I really like how these characters and this storyline come together

One thing I really like is further analysis of the mating bond of the Chosen. I’ve made it no secret in many many many book reviews that I loathe the idea of magically compelled love. I think it’s extremely lazy writing and I think it’s a horrifying violation of consent. I think it’s terrible to basically replace attraction, affection and conscious choice by having some magic smoosh two people – and their genitals – together. I can’t express how much I hate it and generally forcing people into relationships

So why do I love this? I love this because Benedict’s past horrendous relationship shows how terribly it can go. It sounds terrible to say “I love how a character was driven to possible suicide to try and escape the unchosen relationship she is being forced into”, but I do like that the bond is not considered automatically perfect. I like the analysis that says that, no, the bond doesn’t guarantee a happily ever after. No the bond doesn’t guarantee happiness. No the bond doesn’t mean they will accept it. It doesn’t mean it won’t be smothering. It doesn’t mean it won’t end badly. It doesn’t mean that she won’t furiously resist this relationship that is being forced on her and won’t be so very miserable in that situation

Yes some of it is played in Benedict angst, but it’s also used to examine his acknowledgement that Arjenie adamantly protects her own autonomy and privacy. Arjenie greatly values her personal space and Benedict, rightly, is deeply concerned to how she will react to the bond. He doesn’t expect the bond to automatically fix all of this

Of course there’s a happily ever after – but I like that there wasn’t always and there’s a strong indication that it COULD go terribly wrong and magical forced love doesn’t cure all.

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Lily Yu and her mate, Rule Turner are completing the legal procedure to get Rule full custody of his son. It’d be nice if the could do it interrupted- but the looming politics of the press attention for the “lupi prince” and the complication of Rule now carrying the magical Mantle of the Leidolf clan despite them being his ancestral enemies

Then people start dying – and in the post-Turning world with wild magic and long gone creatures now emerging, this is far from a simple murder. And unsimple murders are now Lily’s job as an FBI Agent for the Magical Crime’s unit. Mystical serial killers have to take precedence to even the most important of family dramas

This book was a blessed relief to me. In the last 3 book reviews I have been immensely frustrated by how this series has expanded immensely quickly without nearly enough time to develop it. We started jumping dimensions, suddenly there were more supernatural creatures than we could shake a stick at and I have no idea what was happening and why. I love a big rich world, I really do – but this was too much too soon. It was like sitting down to an epic 4 course meal full of all your favourite food – them having someone dump all of it on one plate an expect you to eat it all at once.

So this book, while not removing what has come before, focuses much more closely. The dragons are out there, the huge magical take down of technology is still happening, the increase in magic and the gifted is all still there – but it’s a background to a story which is more local and lets us digest the world a bit more, what has changed and what these characters are without them disappearing to Hell or Edge or dealing with dragons or elves or demons or any other deluge of creatures.

We still have the mystery and a world changing – the Turning has still brought new magical beings and challenges and Lily’s entire job has vastly expanded to be part of the new FBI task force dealing with all the random magical chaos. But it’s much more digestible. For the first time in 3 books I feel I can catch my breath absorb this world without it pulling the rug out from under my feet and hitting me with some other massive world building overhaul.

I also have to say how much I lie how little of this world is known – characters are very willing to say “I don’t know”, which I like. We don’t know every aspect of our world – and their world has changed so much, how could everyone know how things are? Too often fictional worlds present everything as known and certain – rather than unknown and theorised

There’s also a return to my preferred protagonist – Lily and Rule as opposed to Cynna and Cullen. Lily, being a detective is much more focused and practical and just a lot more fun to me.

The story is a murder mystery, with Lily & co having to do some investigating and a lot of research in the face of the new possibilities that magic has brought. I love the contrast between sensible research and detective work and the wider world they have to work in that brings in so many more unknowns. Without needing to do all the recapping that clogged the last book it was also much better paced and I finished the book surprisingly quickly because of it.

And I like Lily, she is so practical in the face of the woo-woo. Brave without being reckless, intelligent and skilled without super-woo-woo. She’s sensible. She doesn’t take shit from people, but doesn’t pick fights and act hyper-aggressive as a way to “stand up for herself” as we often see. She’s confident and assured without being raging and out of control. She also has some nice personal conflicts with family, her relationship to Rule’s son and her uncomfortable reaction to and relationship with spirituality due to her family history (which was a nice additional bit of development). I like her a lot and always have. She’s just… so practical in a woo-woo setting.

 I like how we have the depiction of how she works with the local police forces. We often see this battle played out – but it was nice to see that despite objections, despite battles and personality clashes, ultimately most people were sensible and we didn’t get almost comic infighting which is so sadly common. There were no caricatures – even people who opposed Lily because of her age or race or gender were not caricatures of awful – they were people with prejudiced views that were terrible and needed correcting (which Lily did, awesomely and firmly) without being over the top caricatures of awful. I appreciate that – because it is so easy to demonise the prejudiced to the point where they only resemble the most extreme of people – but most prejudice we face isn’t like that. Most of it is the every day microaggressions and “normal” people with terrible views and behaviours.

Rule brought all the personal conflict and it worked well with the main storyline – both linking with it and making a nice point that their lives go on even when dramatic things are happening. I like that especially as it teaches Lily the importance of delegation – because she does get to have a life as well.

And I like Rule’s story with his son, the custody battle as well as the continuing drama between him and the Liedolf clan (historical enemies of his clan that he now finds himself ruling). I like how, again, the enemies are not clearcut terribad wrong – they’re just another clan of people that has been in opposition to Rule’s own (this applies to most of the characters in this book except, perhaps, for the unfortunate example of the mother of his son who is pretty over the top awful – but even she has an excellent redemption moment). There’s a lot of really good interactions between Rule, Lily and Rule’s son Toby. I want to applaud their parenting skills because they’re pretty damn awesome. And through them we get to see a lot of Lupi culture which is really rich and involved.

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Mortal Danger – World of the Lupi  

by Eileen Wilks

Release Date: Jul 1, 2013

Approximate Running Time: 8 Hours

Graphic Audio

Reviewed for Audiobook Reviewer

Former cop Lily Yu has her sister's wedding to attend, a missing magical staff to find, and now must deal with her grandmother's decision to return to the old country. Lily could turn to the man she's involved with for advice, but for all the passion that flares between them, she doesn't really know Rule Turner--she's just bound to him for life. Rule happens to be a werewolf, and Lily wonders just how far she can trust him.

My Thoughts

Another great listen….. I don’t want to give to much detail as I might give spoilers so I’m going to go with what I liked…..there was not really anything I did not like just some bits that creeped me out at times, like in the prologue where we meet Gan, the description of Xitil and his/her court….gah it was icky.  I guess one thing that did bug me was the secrecy if Lily is Rule’s “chosen” why the delay in explaining things.  I know that there is a larger story arc and world building but it bugged me.

What I liked – mostly at the beginning where we get to see more of Lily’s relationship with her family… and I just need to say her domineering cousin Freddie was such an ass….anyway the family dynamic was pretty interesting.   I also liked that we get to learn more about the werewolf culture and their society.  I also really liked Gan, she was very interesting.  Lily being split was also interesting weird but interesting.   Dragon’s are introduced in this one and end up making their way out of Hel/Dis and it will be interesting to see what role they will play in future books.  I also hope we get to learn more about Grandmother, such a secretive and interesting person

While I enjoyed this one, something about it just did not pull me in like the first one, not really sure what it is, I will continue to the next one and keep my fingers crossed that it pulls me in like the first book did.

While there were a few new additions to the story, the introduction of Cynna and the relationship between her and Cullen was fun to watch….two strong personalities clashing….can’t wait for more.

As usual, the narration was great, and I can’t say enough how much I love a full cast narration….it just makes the story so much more entertaining.  So if you have not yet started the series or this book….get the graphic audio and get swept up in the World of the Lupi.

Audiobook provided by Author/Publisher via www.audiobookreviewer.com for an honest reveiw.