It was nice to be back in the Lupi world after taking a long break to read other things. I love Lily and Rule, and the world expands in interesting ways with every book.
At the beginning, the plot felt too familiar, like I had been there before, except with a different character. I should know by now Wilks had some goodies up her sleeve, and things eventually took off in the wild ride these books typically become. I’m glad Li Lei is being developed more and more. You know something good is coming when Lily’s grandmother shows up. The flashbacks to her backstory were important, but I didn’t like being taken out of the main story. I don’t know if it would have packed the same emotional punch if that part of the story had been included in her explanation at the hospital, though. Probably not.
I’m glad the author didn’t dwell on Cody and Lily’s past or Rule’s jealousy-not-jealousy. Those types of storylines make me die inside, but I thought it got the right amount of attention—not much—amidst the larger conflict.
It’s always a pleasure to visit this world for a while. I’ll be back. ( )

I had a hard time getting into this book. It was slow, boring and just seemed to meander nowhere. It wasn't until the last 75 pages or so that things really started to come together. I did end up enjoying it, but feel this is the weakest in the series. ( )

Lily Yu and Rule Turner have a wedding to plan which is difficult because Lily’s mother would quite like her to find a nice Chinese boy and Rule’s family have deep seated religious taboos against marriage and monogamy

It’s not going to be easy

But this pales to insignificance when the newly magical world throws up another threat – one from Madame Yu’s (Lily’s terrifying grandmother) past – one that even the dragons cannot fight directly

This series has had an amazing journey. It started like many other Urban Fantasy stories – we had Lily and her werewolf lover who fell in love because of woo-woo and somewhere along the way they solved crimes. It was good – but not exactly top 10 material or super original

Then the series exploded in every direction, we had Dis and Hell and the Turning and dragons and magical monsters and dimensions and gnomes and elves and everything and it was huge – far far far far too huge. It was nearly impossible to keep up and it was just messed up and drowning and confused

But last book we got more stability, that huge, wide world focused down to something very personal and close to Lily and Rule, it was very personal and only somewhat touched on the wider world

And now we’ve finally got to an awesome place. Enough of that huge meal of a world has been developed while at the same time we’ve had enough focus on Lily and Rule to keep it, well, focused and developed – and it can all come together to form an awesome whole. A huge world, some fascinating characters, a focused, undistracted story and a vast amount of potential. It has arrived. And I love it

I love Lily’s character as it has developed – her need to know things. And not just know things but needing to verbalise it. Her desperate need for order and organising things and making everything line up and make sense. Which is quite stressful given how random and huge and chaotic the world. Her flailing around in her relationship and upcoming marriage with Rule is so classically her – because she knows she’s doing the right thing and the thing she wants to do but it almost falls apart because she can’t verbalise it!

On top of that we get her epic control issues in a world that is so challenging to control. She would be an extremely awesome character if it wasn’t for the shadow of her grandmother who is always the most awesome. And her awesomeness doesn’t rely on her super powers (though her power is useful) nor is she super destructive or dangerous – but nor does that make her a damsel who is sheltered and protected – she can still more than save her own.

Rule has a lot of werewolf politics going on and it works so well – we see how Lupi politics and his personal life interact in complex but elegant ways. I kind of love how he doesn’t despair or panic or be really sad about his – he just flawlessly (much to Lily’s frustration) navigates it excellently. And yes, the whole werewolf politics down to the implications of leftovers at the BBQ

Of course there’s also Madame Yu. In some ways I was worried that revealing more of her story would ruin the character, yes, I’m shallow, but I’m happy to have a completely shallow mystery of pure awesomeness. But instead we get to see her awesome history, have a lot of her power explored and developed – and she still be ridiculously awesome beyond all measure

Read More ( )

Great continuation with the storyline. Lily learns that her Grandmother had spent time as a dragon so she's not totally 'human'. This throws her a bit but she has other things to deal with. Some has tried to kill Cullen at the clans baby party and is using his own blood to try to help kill him - thus the 'blood magic'. Looking forward to the wedding and what comes next in this series! ( )

Another very enjoyable installment to the series by Eileen Wilks and GraphicAudio.net. As always, the voice acting is fantastic.

May I just say, I love it when Grandmother is part of the story! In Blood Magic, an enemy of grandmother’s from long ago is looking to get her revenge, which brings up all sorts of things from the past. We learn a little bit more about Grandmother and the dragon, Sam, and we learn something about the nature of Lily’s magic.

At the same time, Lily ends up reconnecting with a past lover over the current murder case, which makes Rule feel a little jealous, especially since Lily seems to be uneasy with the idea of marriage. Lily is searching her heart for a reason to marry Rule when she knows it will cause problems for him in the Lupi culture. I absolutely adore the reason she finally settles on, given to her by her mother:

“Marriage,” she said firmly, “and especially the ceremony which announces it, the wedding… That is how we say to the world, ‘These two are now a family, and with this joining our families are joined, too. And you had damned well better respect that.’” ( )