The World of the Lupi, Book 9
Synopsis: FBI agent Lily Yu is living at Nokolai Clanhome with her fiancé, lupi Rule Turner, when an intruder penetrates their territory, stealing the prototpye of a magical device the clan hopes will be worth a fortune–if a few bugs can be worked out . . . But the protoytpe can be dangerously erratic, discharging a bizarre form of mind magic—and it looks like the thief wants it for that very side effect. Worse, whoever stole the device didn’t learn about it by accident. There’s a Nokolai traitor in their midst. Lily and Rule have to find the traitor, the thief, and the prototype. One job proves easy when the thief calls them–and his identity rocks Rule’s world. As they race to recover their missing property, they find Robert Friar’s sticky footprints all over the place. Robert Friar–killer, madman, and acolyte of the Old One the lupi are at war with–an Old One whose power is almost as vast as her ambition to rock the entire world . . .
Review: I was curious about this series especially with the release of the first book in French. And it is true that several years ago someone had recommended me the series, but I finally never got into it. It was then the opportunity to discover how it really was. So of course I start with book 9 so I think I missed a lot of events, but I managed to follow the story well in the end.
Lily is a young woman full of doubts at the beginning of the book. She asks herself a lot of questions about the people she killed, although she did not really have a choice and it was the right thing to do. I must say that she expected to do that as an agent of the FBI, but she fears that it could become banal. Besides, while being the mate of an important Lupi, she is constantly followed by bodyguards, something which is especially disturbing, although she understands why. Rule, her soul mate is a very intriguing character. He is quite secret, keeps his feelings for himself most of the time and perfectly knows how to control himself. This is something that is quite difficult for Lily but she understands the need to stay in control of events and leaves him the space he needs. I loved seeing them both together, gradually discovering and realizing that each one is trying to protect the other as best as they can, although the result is not what they expect. They will thus team up to find a stolen device within their clan, an object that seems to give some people hallucinations. But this is not everything and this invention has more power than it seems. I was really curious to know who was the culprit. I must say that we witness a hunt through the pack to determine who was truly guilty. But then, the thief calls announcing that the object was stolen from him and he needs help. This is already a really weird thing to do, but what is even more is the identity of this person as we can not predict it in any cases. The story is far much larger than I would have thought at the start and I loved to meet so many creatures.
I quite enjoyed the book although I had the impression of being a little back from the story itself. But it may be because I have not started it from the beginning. However, I found the ideas of Eileen Wilks really interesting. The mode of operation of lupi is quite interesting and it is true that I would love to learn more about it. I also wonder what happened during the other volumes. I’ll have to try the other to know that. This is an intriguing discovery.
Mel
Quite a few people have said that this is a series to be reading. Very brave of you to start at book 9!! I might see if book one can be found anywhere…thanks!
Melliane
LOL I’m sometimes a little crazy but well it was ok.
Brandi Kosiner
Lily’s journey and relationship sound like they make the book great.
Brandi @ Blkosiner’s Book Blog
Wendy Darling
Lupi? Bizarre form of mind magic? Sounds intriguing. 😉 I like that we’re getting more Asian characters in urban fantasy, too. (I think she’s Asian, right, judging by her name?) Thanks for the review!
Wendy @ The Midnight Garden
Melliane
I think so, as it”s not the first one we don’t know a lot about her past.
Melissa (Books and Things)
YaY! I mean I would NEVER *cough* start a series that late… *cough*
Hm… must have a lie caught in my throat. 😉
So glad you jumped in. I am curious to see if you started from the beginning if you would enjoy it more. I might have to try it that way (don’t faint).
Melliane
Really? LOL, I know we’re bad!
wow I want to see it!
Blodeuedd
Book 9. Oh sigh, so many books before this one
Melissa (My World...in words and pages)
This is another series I want to get to…and you’re already at book 9…*sigh*
Aurian
Lol, as of yesterday, I have 4 of the books in this series, including book 1. So I will hope to start reading it somewhere this year. Thanks for the nice review Melliane, you have made me really curious.