Night Season by Eileen Wilks (World of the Lupi #4)

Genres: Adult, Fantasy/Urban Fantasy, Romance
Smut-O-Meter: 8 out of 10
My Rating: 4 out of 5

_______________

Pregnancy has turned FBI Agent Cynna Weaver's whole life upside down. Lupus sorcerer Cullen Seabourne is thrilled to be a father, but what does Cynna know about kids? Her mother was a drunk and her father abandoned his family. Or so she's always believed...

As Cynna is trying to wrap her head around this problem, a new one pops up in the form of a delegation from another realm. They want to take Cynna and Cullen back with them- to meet her long-lost father and find a mysterious medallion. But when these two born cynics land in a world where magic is common-place and night never ends, their only way home lies in tracking down the missing medallion- one also sought by powerful beings who will do anything to claim it.

_______________

I read the first 3 books in this series fairly back to back. All in February. But I kept putting this one off, because it switched focus from Rule and Lily, to Cullen and Cynna. I thought it would feel very different from the first 3, but it didn't. We already knew Cullen and Cynna pretty well, and they were still dealing with the shifting magic, and a fair amount of lupus issues. It has its place in the this series. And I really grew to love them much more. I already really enjoyed Cullen's character, but Cynna has finally grown on me. I used to like her enough, but she seemed far too butch. But she had to face a lot of things in her life during this book, things that brought out her feminine side.

I also enjoyed the setting of Edge. Edge is another dimension that is ruled by gnomes. Cynna and Cullen, along with a few other familiar characters such as Ruben Brooks, Steve Timms, and Gan, go to Edge to help the Gnomes find a stolen medallion that regulates the seasons in Edge. It was a quest through a mystical land and it was a lot of fun, especially with Cullen and Gan around. They are the two funniest characters in the series.

The only thing that bothered me about this book was how Cullen and Cynna were planning to get married at the end. I love that they are getting married. But lupus are not supposed to be monogamous because of their low fertility. It is part of their culture. But if they can just as easily fall in love as humans, why is this the first time it has happened? During hundreds of years of history, would Cullen really be the first lupus to fall in love and be willing to give up his people's beliefs for a woman? It doesn't seem likely. And there weren't even any repercussions. If there had been that would explain why it hadn't happened before. There is no worse fate for a lupus than to be clanless. So threatening to kick a lupus out of his clan for getting married would explain it, but that is not the case. Well, maybe they will explain it in the next book.

I look forward to the rest of the series and I hope to see lots more of Cullen and Cynna. I must admit, I like Cullen better than Rule now. This was the best book in the series since #1.

Tempting Danger by Eileen Wilks (World of the Lupi #1)

Genres: Adult, Paranormal/Urban Fantasy, Romance
Smut-O-Meter: 8 out of 10
My Rating: 4 out of 5

_______________

Lily Yu is a San Diego police detective investigating a series of grisly murders that appear to be the work of a werewolf. To hunt down the killer, she must infiltrate the clans. Only one man can help her--a were named Rule Turner, a prince of the lupi, whose charismatic presence disturbs Lily. Rule has his own reasons for helping the investigation--reasons he doesn't want to share with Lily. Logic and honor demand she keep her distance, but the attraction between them is immediate and devastating-and beyond human reason. Now, in a race to fend off evil, Lily finds herself in uncharted territory, tested as never before, and at her back a man who she's not sure she can trust.

_______________

I am tempted to give this 5 stars, but the story wasn't 100%. The romance was though, and that is what I cant stop thinking about. So I will settle for 4 stars, and start by explaining how this differs from most werewolf books.

It seemed to be set in a modern day San Diego, but there was talk of wars with werewolves and sorcerers in the past 100 years, so I think it is an alternate history. Werewolves are common knowledge and the country is still in the process of trying to adjust laws to better define humans. In that respect it reminded me of True Blood. Werewolves are made through birth, not bites. When a werewolf has a son, he will also be a werewolf once he hits puberty. The females are not werewolves. They consider themselves a different species and live in clans with their own form of government, which the US government tolerates for the time being.

Lily Yu is a homicide detective, who meets Rule Turner, heir to the Nokolai clan, while investigating a murder that was committed by a werewolf. Lily has a type of psychic power that gives her the ability to sense magic. Werewolves were created with magic by a being that they call the Lady, and is sort of like their goddess. So, Lily can detect the type of magic on the body and knows it was a werewolf who did it. When Lily first meets Rule her mind goes blank and she is stunned, and I thought, "Uh oh, instalove?" But its not, its really not. It turns out, that sometimes their Lady decides to gift them with a Chosen, apparently pretty rare. Since the werewolves are a male dominated species, it is not surprising that they value virility. Rule is the youngest of 3 brothers, but he was made heir because he has a son.

So, a Chosen is like a mate, but it is merely a physical relationship. No feelings or love come with it. Just an intense sexual attraction. And I mean intense. And Lily is a straight laced cop, so she is like, "Am I going crazy?" She normally would never sleep with a guy she has only known for two days. But they are bonded for life, and have an almost constant need to be touching, and can't get far away from each other, a couple miles at most, without getting dizzy and weak. Their physical relationship is developing much faster than their emotional relationship, but they seem to be fond of each other, and I can of course see that in time they will fall in love. I really look forward to it. They do at this point have a strong need to protect each other as if they were an extension of themselves. At one point, when Rule is in danger, Lily goes sorta berserk and tackles the villain and starts bashing her head against the ground until she's dead. Kinda badass.

I didn't address the story at all in my review. There were some more murders, some betrayals and a frame job, and Lily doesn't know who to trust and has to find a way to prove Rule's innocence. In the end I didn't entirely understand the villain's plan or motives. The amount of information to understand their world was also a bit overwhelming, and I couldn't always follow it. But who cares! Read this for Rule and Lily!