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Blood Magic (World of the Lupi, Book 6) |  | Author: Eileen Wilks
Publisher: Berkley
Category: Book
List Price: $7.99
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Rating:  18 reviews
Sales Rank: 24768
Media: Paperback
Edition: Original
Pages: 368
Number Of Items: 1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.4
Dimensions (in): 6.8 x 4.3 x 1
ISBN: 0425233057
Dewey Decimal Number: 813.54
EAN: 9780425233054
ASIN: 0425233057
Publication Date: February 2, 2010
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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Product Description
A new World of Lupi novel from "a true master of her craft" (Eternal Night)
Lily Yu and Lupi prince Rule Turner have a bigger problem than their families not accepting their impending human/werewolf mixed marriage. A powerful ancient nemesis of Lily's grandmother has come to San Diego to turn the city into a feeding ground.
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| Customer Reviews:
Showing reviews 1-5 of 18
 Engrossing paranormal mystery February 4, 2010
Shannon C. (USA)
13 out of 16 found this review helpful
Lily Yu, a touch sensitive and FBI Agent in the magical crimes division, and her fiance Rule Turner, a prince of the werewolves, are dealing with family conflicts over their impending wedding. Lily's family would have preferred a Chinese husband, while Rule's werewolf clan would have preferred no marriage at all. While planning the wedding, they are also working on planning a baby shower for their friends Cynna and Cullen, who we've met in previous books. Cynna is a finder and former agent with Lily; she's now married to Cullen, a werewolf sorcerer, and training to be Rhej (ie, spiritual leader) of the Nokolai werewolf clan.
Lily is happy with the turnout at the baby party, however is worried because she sees someone suspicious who shouldn't be there. Just as she informs Benedict, head of Nokolai's security, cries ring out and Cullen is found gravely injured with a knife wound through his heart. Some sort of magic is preventing him from healing. He's rushed to the hospital, while Lily starts to interview suspects and work the case. Some sort of magic user tried to murder Cullen, since he was able to muddle witnesses' minds and left blood magic in Cullen's heart. When the sheriff shows up at the scene, Lily recognizes her old boyfriend Cody from five years ago. Lily takes the lead in the case, and he helps interview suspects.
Rule has gone to the hospital with Cynna and they are worried about Cullen. He pulls through, but they think another attempt might be made on his life and the evil magic is still there. Rule and Lily visit Sam, the large black dragon who saved them from Dis in an earlier book, to see if he has ideas how to remove the magic. Meanwhile, Lily is also concerned over her grandmother who has left home without warning. Lily is surprised to run into Li Qinn her grandmother's partner at Sam's lair. Apparently, her grandmother sent Li Qinn there for protection. Lily discovers some big surprises in her conversation with Sam, both about herself and the enemy that they are facing. A long ago enemy of her grandmother's has teamed up with a sorcerer. With many twists and turns, Lily, Rule, her Grandmother, Sam and even the Nokolai get involved in the battle against the enemy. The last 1/3 had some surprises that made the story interesting! I was on the edge of my seat!
Eileen Wilks does a great job at combining the paranormal with crime mystery/suspense. Her World of Lupi series is highly original, with likable characters and interesting storylines. I like the way she pulls in the social and family conflicts, as well as mixes magic with traditional crime solving. Overall, I really enjoyed the book. I knock back a star because it was a little slow at times, however it picked up and the last 1/3 was great. I also would have liked to see more interactions between Lily and Rule. I think Wilks' books would appeal to fans of urban fantasy and paranormal romance primarily, but also to fans of murder/crime mysteries.
This series needs to be read in order:
1: Tempting Danger
2: Mortal Danger
3: Blood Lines
4: Night Season
5: Mortal Sins
6: Blood Magic
If you are on the hunt for more good books featuring werewolves and other shapeshifters, check out my list of favorites...
http://www.amazon.com/gp/richpub/syltguides/fullview/R3RRBZ0PV9G1AI
(copy and paste into your browser window)
 Great as always March 8, 2010
Janna K. (USA)
7 out of 9 found this review helpful
I didn't expect to miss this series as much as I did, but once I started reading about Lily, Rule, Cynna and Cullen again, I couldn't stop smiling. It's rare for me to get so attached to characters, and for that I thank the author profusely.
I could never understand why this series is listed as Paranormal Romance, when in fact it's an Urban Fantasy at its best. I have nothing against PNR, but they usually have the plot centered on the couple's romantic development, while this series always felt more like a paranormal police procedural. Lilly Yu, being an FBI agent for the magical crimes division and touch sensitive, is usually called to the scenes of accidents that have peculiar or possibly magical origins. It appears there is an influx of those in San Diego, but Lily cannot find a reasonable explanation for these events. Then Cullen gets lethally wounded by a mysterious enemy, and while he is hanging on by a bare thread, Lily finds herself in a middle of an ancient battle between a being of supreme power and her own Grandmother. Can all these events be related? And how do you defeat a foe that is almost untouchable while you are constrained by precepts created by beings outside of human understanding? How do you save your loved ones along with the world, since if the enemy is allowed to exist, all would be lost.
The story is fast paced, with a few interesting twists to keep you turning pages. Lily is very conflicted in this book. Her upcoming marriage to Rule is bound to cause a lot of tension for both Rule's clan and her family, which she wants to avoid. Also she learns a bit more about the nature of her magic and her origin, and those revelations are tough to take, for they create unwanted chaos in her orderly life. I really enjoyed seeing the unflappable Lily losing it a few times, while Rule was portrayed as cool and collected as she ever was. And then there is Grandmother. I was overjoyed to learn more about her mysterious heritage and difficult life in China, and to see a much more of her tender side (even towards Lily's mother which was surprising).
Overall, this book truly worked for me. I wish more authors took the time to weave their plots and mold their characters so masterfully, without having to stuff their stories full of filler material. I am eagerly awaiting the next installment in this wonderful series.
 More like Forced Magic. February 13, 2010
A. Nod (Las Vegas, Nevada, USA)
6 out of 9 found this review helpful
Love and marriage, a mixed couple going against traditional values of Lupi and Chinese (not to mention human issues), cases to solve and crazy magic still getting stirred up by the Turning--FBI Special Agent Lilly Yu is no typical touch-sensitive, she's seen it all. But the new revelation of her true heritage, the strange goings on that is directly affecting her loved ones--from Cullen's mysterious attack at Clanhome during what should have been a festive baby shower for him and Cynna, to Lilly's own grandmother also acting very strangely then disappears, to relying on Sam the ancient black Dragon to help her--well, that just frustrates her to no end. And scares her witless.
Wilks has always had that ability of incorporating complicated threads in a plot--of moving from personal conflict to Lilly's job, human and Lupi politics and social mores to construction of this alternative world with some nice action and surprises while doing all the explaining and showing of the magicks AND giving us solid police procedural without over or under doing it--it's always been nearly seamless. She can do some really random, out of the box stuff, but it still makes logical sense, is explained fairly well and always clever in how she puts its together. Her skill to meld police procedural with the fantasy/supernatural has always been well done, and usually more interesting than Rule and Lilly sometimes. Even if I haven't always liked it the end product. Wilks is, by far, one of the few intelligent and skilled fantasy writers out there--and yeah, it says 'Romance', though her series clearly isn't. No doubt that she's a talented author in this expanding genre of urban/dark fantasy-police procedural/private investigator.
That said, I found most of of Blood Magic laborious, slow, meandering, and overworked. And Rule's and Lilly's 'big next step' relationship--marriage and all the problems that arise from it--was disjointed and unsatisfactory, not to mention the transparent and unnecessary digressions of past boyfriends and the jealousy ploy from an old flame of Lilly's she's working with. Throughout the series, there has always been this natural and organic progression to their romance/relationship, which rang more to a realistic concept of real-life relationships (which is really unusual in a 'romance' or 'fantasy' book). Here, it was like the publisher said--throw a wrench in their relationship. And the product, well, I can't tell if Wilks was all in or only partly gung ho--it felt very forced and awkward at times, and very obvious. The secondary plot, of this mysterious god-like being bent on attacking Grandmother Yu and her family, while intricate/complicated and well executed, just became Scene A to Scene B as Lilly tried to solve the case. Little action, all talk and very slow. The procedural part has always been the glue to this series and each book. Here, it just kept loosing footing, as well as my interest. A few parts, I thought, had finally fallen back to a natural rhythm and was interesting, only to become off key and frustrating so that the build up for the end and what surprises there were, just weren't.
Halfway through, I stopped reading it. I didn't entirely dislike what I was reading per se, but I didn't necessarily like what I was reading up to that point. While still an original and well-constructed world with characters written with good consistency and vertical growth, it was the pacing of the book, too much repetition, tediously slow and the overall 'feel' of it was very off to me. Wilks' ability to meld complicated threads side by side and within minor subplot was not smooth for the most part, at times choppy and distracting. Chapters of Lilly's grandmother's past and the sorcerer villain's POV, while trying to convey the emotional turmoil of these two side characters and give some background info, were mostly exegetical and uninteresting. The slow buildup of the god-like being's machinations and the mish-mash relationship woe made the action-heavy ending, hitting right in the center of Lilly's family, quite rushed with a collection of vignettes to intensify the action, and somewhat random action, but good and exciting (finally). It's just too bad it came so late in the game.
In terms of the series (and I don't include Book 4 as part of this series since it focuses only on Cynna and Cullen), I consider BM the weakest. I so wanted to like this one too. While it was well-plotted and written, and Wilks knows how to write and get me to read despite whatever reservations I may have, it just wasn't exactly making me turn the page at lightening speed, marveling or jaw dropping with surprise and giddiness, or forgoing food, water, sleep or basic hygiene. I'm not even sure I enjoyed reading it, even with the interesting ending, but it did pull me through to that end. Maybe my expectations were set far too high since she delivered so well in Book 3 & 5, I just expected more. Without a doubt, most will like it, do and see no flaws at all, but there's my two cents and then some. I like Wilks' writing, her attention to detail, consistency and actual thought, her story-telling ability and voice is truly unique, but whether I'll pick up Book 7, well, time will only tell.
Mysteries, Werewolves and Ancient Dragons April 21, 2010
reader (Knoxville, TN)
I absolutely love this series of books. They are well written and get your attention from the first page. The characters are well developed and their story lines fit into each book with seamless ease. The mystery portion of the stories are also well written and fit within the fantasty framework. I love the main character's grandmother who adds a bit of humor and her own mystery to the books. These books give lots of "fairy tale" characters a place to shine in an adult book; gnomes, dragons, demons and many more. I recommend you buy this book and make time to settle in and enjoy yourself. I don't think you'll stop with just one book in this series. All in all they are wonderful blend of humor, mystery and fantasy in one great book and series.
Best in the series so far. March 20, 2010
Debra Morey (Lima, Ohio USA)
Lily Yu is a touch sensitive and an FBI agent in the magical crimes division. She has a close knit family that includes a demanding but loving Mother and a very mysterious and quite imperious Grandmother. Lily has mate bonded with Rule Turner, a handsome, charming Lupi who must balance his sometimes conflicting roles as Lu Nuncio (heir apparent) to the Nokolai clan his Father rules and as Rho (ruler) of the Leidolf clan (former deadly enemies to Nokolai).
Lily and Rule plan to marry and many are unhappy about that. Lily's Mother would prefer a Chinese fiance. Many in Rule's clan would prefer no fiance at all - they don't think Lupi should marry. When Cullen, a Lupi sorcerer and Rule's friend and newly married to Lily's pregnant friend Cynna, is nearly assassinated at a Nokolai party, Lily and Rule wonder whether the assassin is voicing that unhappiness.
Unfortunately, there is much more involved. Targeting Cullen was merely one part of a plan that includes confusing the senses and driving many people around San Diego insane with fear and seems to target Lily's own family, especially her magnificent Grandmother and her Grandmother's friend Sam the Black Dragon.
This is the 6th book in the World of the Lupi series. This series is, overall, one of my favorites but it has been a bit uneven to me. Some books I've really liked, some were so-so. Some things happened (the return of the Dragons) that I really enjoyed and other things happened (Lily's soul) that I didn't like. This book, I think, is the best so far. The story moves along quickly. Several plot threads started in earlier books are coming along and together nicely (especially the thread about Lily's soul). We learn quite a bit about Lily's Grandmother's mysterious past and her relationship with Sam the Dragon. It was nice to see Cynna and Cullen again and we get some hints about their unborn baby. The main villain, the Chimei, has, in her eyes at least, a legitimate grudge against Grandmother Yu and the dragons. My one disappointment is the Chimei's sorcerous lover. He seemed too immature and impulsive to me. What about him drew the Chimei to him? Was it just his sorcery? Because he seems a weak link otherwise.
Overall, a great book in a good series.
Other books in the World of the Lupi series include:
1. Tempting Danger
2. Mortal Danger
3. Blood Lines
4. Night Season
5. Mortal Sins
6. Blood Magic - this book came out 2/2/2010
7. Blood Challenge - this book will come out @ 1/2011
Showing reviews 1-5 of 18
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