Death Magic by Eileen Wilks

Death Magic
Eileen Wilks
Publisher: Berkley Pub Group, 2011
ISBN-9780425245125
Length-416 pages

Death Magic, by Eileen Wilks, is the eight novel in the World of the Lupi series. Lily Yu is a former San Diego homicide cop who now works for the FBI’s Magical Crimes Division. She’s a touch sensitive who is able to feel magic, but can’t work magic, nor can magic affect her.

She struggles on a daily basis with her new life with fiancé Rule Tanner who is the Rho of the Leidolf clan, as well as prince of the Nokolai clan. Her job as a law enforcement officer comes with perils as well as risks. She realizes that there are times that she needs to cross the line in order to stop her enemies from harming those she has come to love.

If you’ve read the previous book, Blood Challenge, you know that Lily is also carrying the Wythe Rho mantle because she is lady touched as Rule’s Chosen. They’ve yet to meet someone The Lady wants to pass it along to. The mantle is healing Lily’s arm from where she was shot but causing her other serious problems like her ability to see ghosts and her ever increasing migraines. It appears that the mantle is trying to change her.

Ruben Brooks, her MCD boss, reveals to Lily that he has secretly set up a Shadow Unit to fight back against her who shall not be named, aka the Great Bitch and her followers. Later, Brooks is set up and accused of killing a US senator who is a vocal member of Human’s First coalition and who hates werewolves and those like Lily who associate with them. For Brooks, a pre-cog, his entire life changes over the course of this book and you have to wonder in what direction Wilks is taking this series.

The war has started between the forces of the Great Bitch and the Lady. The Dragons, like Sam, have come out openly in support of Ruben, and the weres war. There are innocent casualties along the way because of the actions of the Human’s first leadership.

It’s still five months away from Rule and Lily’s wedding yet they both tend to keep secret’s away from the other. Rule, being Brooks second in command of the Shadow Unit, was kept away from Lily until she was forced into a corner by The Great Bitches allies and jailed for obstruction of justice. Lily still refuses to be coddled, or treated like a prisoner having body guards on her at all times of the day.

This series has appealed to me from the beginning because of the world building and the sub-characters like Cullen Seabourne, a Lupus and Sorcerer, as well as Cynna Weaver who went from being an FBI agent, to having the first female lupus baby in the history of the weres. Cullen is once again involved in the events of this book, while Cynna plays only a minor role not worth mentioning.

One of the questions that has still not been answered is who was responsible for poisoning Brooks and why? There are some suspects, and it appears as though Wilks has made them out to be patsy’s, but, I really think the conspiracy is much deeper than we’ve been told.

I also enjoyed Ruben’s wife Deborah who turns out to be an interesting character. Wilks also introduces the Brownies to the storyline as allies like the Dragons are to the Were’s.

In My Mailbox # 4

Welcome to another version of In My Mailbox.

This has been an interesting week especially since discovering Edelweiss and the fact that they approved me for some awesome books!

From Edelweiss:

  

Won in book giveaways! Thank you Jamie & Mariya!

  

Thank you to Jefferson Bass for this copy!

Thank you NetGalley.com!

Borrowed from Jacksonville Public Library.

 

 

  

So, does anyone still wonder how I read so many books last year?

I would love to see yours. Please feel free to link me to your In

My Mailbox, or make a commentary below!

Wicked Circle by Linda Robertson

*Synopsis/Storyline*

In this story, Persephone ends up having to deal with not only her mother Eris who has come back into her life after being gone for most of her life, but, problems facing Johnny and Menessos as well.

On the home front, Eris demands that Seph show more affection than she’s capable of. Think about it, her mother left her behind, and didn’t bother telling her where she went, or why she left in the first place. Then, on top of everything, she was responsible for the tattoos which Johnny has all over his body which contained his memories, and she has a teenaged son named Lance who wants nothing to do with Seph.

It has become apparent that Persephone must also help Menessos against accusations by Heldridge Ellington that he is under her control. VEIN (Vampire Executive International Network) decides to investigate using the Shabbubitum (3 vampire harpies) who have been hidden away and bound for their own good.

The Shabbubitum are able to dig deep and discover the hidden truth that Menessos is hiding from everyone, including his own coven which may lead to his downfall of leader of his own coven.

*The POV*

-Persephone Alcmedi, Lustrata of the Witches, is said to be the one to reunite the supernatural races together. Hecate is her goddess and her goddess has some awesome powers to help Seph out of troubling situations.

Seph has helped waerewolf Johnny Newman unlock his powers and become the Dom Lupe at the expense of being called an betrayer to her own race of witches who believe that she’s nothing more than a whore of Babylon with two men she can’t seem to make a choice between. They also believe that she’s under the control of the master vampire leader Menessos, which is far from the truth.

Seph is also part of a triumvirate with wolf king Johnny and Vamp leader Menessos after helping defeat the Fey.

-Johnny Newman, the Dom Lupe waerewolf, finally gets the approval to rise to the position of king after proving his worth over the previous books. Newman’s own background is a steeped in mystery. He lost 8 ½ years of his life after being attacked by a ware and changed and then tattooed by a mysterious person who has not yet been revealed.

Robertson explorers more of Newman’s past and what actually happened to him and what he left behind thanks to a surprise visitor. This was actually interesting to me. Of course, now that Johnny’s secret is out, there will be trouble ahead from those not fully happy with Johnny’s ascension to the top. Also, Seph and Johnny’s relationship has hit rock bottom after he attacked her while in his ware facade.

-Menessos is the first vampire with the abilities of a witch. Seph and he have a rocky history together over the first 4 books but it appears that the relationship has actually grown closer.

He was the one who made the Shabbubitum thousands of years ago and now they want revenge against him. Menessos started out as the bad guy who has found a place in Seph’s heart and life. His position as leader of his own coven comes crashing down after it is discovered that Seph bound him not once, but twice.

-One of the other points of view is from Kurt Miller who is an investigator for the Specialized Squadron for Tactical Investigations of Venocrime. Without spoiling anything, Johnny and Millers paths cross since they are both from Saranac Lake, New York where Johnny was bitten and changed.

Wicked Circle is not a standalone book. It’s the fifth book in the Persephone Alcmedi series by Linda Robertson. Unfortunately, it has one too many points of views for my taste. I don’t mind a few points of views, but when you end up with four, that’s too much and it kind of takes away from the overall storyline.

My tastes, of course, are subjective and I hope that nobody takes offense to my dislike for them. It’s also my profound dislike for 3-way love triangles that has caused my rating not to be any higher than it is.

There is an introduction of a character who Seph and others call the Creepy dude. I think his story was the most appealing and yes, scarier than hell. I’m still wondering who he is, and what sort of deal Menessos made with him to protect Seph. Plus, he continued to claim that he was there to help HER know her ultimate powers as well.

It will be interesting to see where this series goes from here now that Johnny is discovering more about his past, while Seph and Menessos discover how they truly feel about the other.

Feature & Follow Friday

Follow Friday is a meme hosted by Parajunkee and Allison Can Read, that allows you to meet new bloggers and make more followers.

Have you ever looked at book's cover and thought, This is going to horrible? But, was instead pleasantly surprised? Show us the cover and tell us about the book.

I've actually posted 3 covers of series that I follow. When I first started reading the series I laughed at the covers thinking the books would fail miserably.  Imagine my pleasant surprise when I continued to follow all three series. I could post a bunch more since I'm a voracious reader, but I shall save you from further pain and suffering.

I'm happy to hear yours as well. Please comment below!

50 Follower Giveaway

Welcome one and all to Gizmo’s Reviews first giveaway!
The winner will receive a $10 gift card from Amazon, or Book Depository and their choice of either:

If during this giveaway I reach the magical 100
followers mark, I will bump up my giveaway to $20 for either Amazon, or Book Despository, and your choice of either:

The Mortal Bone by Marjorie M Liu

The Mortal Bone is the fourth novel in the Hunter Kiss Series which features Maxine Kiss as a hunter from a long line of women that were created to fight demons and keep humanity safe.
She does so with the so called Reaper Kings Aaz, Zee, Dek, Mal, and Raw at her side, or should I say, attached to her skin like tattoos which make her immortal from Dawn until Dusk.

When the story picks up, Maxine and Grant are now married and have been away from Seattle for the past month on their honeymoon. Spending time in her Texas home where her mother died an awful death; Maxine receives a very strange package containing a crystal skull that is obviously not from earth.

Who would send her such a thing, and why? Facing the inevitable, Maxine and Grant return to Seattle where Rex receives a message in a bottle through the Labyrinth which contains a rose. The rose has supposedly been sent by her mother who asks Maxine to forgive her father for whom she’s never met.

Upon toughing the rose, Maxine and the Reaper kings are ripped apart from each other and Maxine finds herself near death. Thankfully she has Grant’s healing abilities and survives and is determined to find out why she was cut off from the Reaper kings.

One of my favorite moments of the book:
“Fear leads to anger, anger leads to hate”, I muttered.”
“Yoda from Star Wars?” Grant asks.
“Hate leads to suffering.” I met his gaze. “Yoda knows his shit, man.”

This is a book about revelations, end of storylines, as well as the revelation of who Maxine’s father really is and why he plays such an important role in the outcome of this book as well as the return of the boys to Maxine’s “prison.”

Grant, the only Lightbringer, becomes even more powerful over the course of the book. Grant has the ability to calm minds, cure addiction, and give hope to the hopeless. He can also, it seems, bind demons to his will which averts a major war and invasion.

The fact remains that I read this series because of Zee and the boys. Zee, as always, is the spokes demon for the group and yes, he does keep secrets from Maxine. The Reaper Kings were said to be devours of worlds, as well as protectors of Maxine’s line until they have a daughter of their own. I love the fact that they can pull items from nowhere, like teddy bears and beers, and down them without any thoughts to what they are doing.

For me, I felt a certain closure with this book especially since Maxine is now pregnant with her own daughter. Not sure if that is true or not, but the way the book is left off, you would need some serious designs on a new story loop for the series to continue.

Product Details
Paperback: 304 pages
Publisher: Ace (12-27-11)
Language: English
ISBN-13: 978-1937007188

Waiting On Wednesday

Waiting on Wednesday is a meme hosted by Jill over at Breaking the Spine, that features future books I'm highly anticipating for this year .

Riss Holloway has taken a leave of absence from her mortal job as Boston’s Chief Magical Investigator to focus on an unsettling friction brewing in the Sisterhood—only to be ushered into a tumultuous civil war drawing every other god and goddess into the chaos as well.

Title	Blackhearted Betrayal
Author	Kasey Mackenzie
Publisher	Berkley Pub Group, 2012
ISBN	1937007650, 9781937007652
Length	304 pages