REVIEW: Blood Challenge by Eileen Wilks

Gwen’s review of Blood Challenge (World of the Lupi, Book 7) by Eileen Wilks
Urban fantasy published by Berkley 4 Jan 11

I’ve been an Eileen Wilks fan for several years now. I’ve enjoyed everything of hers I’ve read and have eagerly anticipated her next novels. Her writing is always taut, interesting, and full of emotion. Blood Challenge keeps up its end of the bargain.

The thing I love about the World of the Lupi series is its believability. Part of that is this many books into the series, I feel like I’m visiting old friends and I’m nowhere near tired of reading about them. The rest of that feeling is a result of the depth of Wilks’s storytelling. She fully populates her world with good, bad, and all the in-between. The richness of detail and fullness of characters paints vivid pictures in my mind. I don’t so much “read” her books as I “fall into” them. Really a wonderful experience for a reader.

In this entry into Lily and Rule’s world, we find our intrepid protagonists embattled on many fronts – personal, professional, clan, and mystical. Most of which are traced back to the Lupi’s ultimate enemy. All of this action leads to some very tender scenes with the previous books’ couples. It also introduces us to a new couple: Benedict and Arjenie.

Yes, you read that right. Rule’s normally taciturn and lethal brother gets a woman. THAT, in itself, is reason enough to read this book. But add to it some marvelous action, really good storytelling, mixed with excellent romance, and you have a bang-up novel.

I missed reading scenes with Lily’s grandmother and dragon-friend, Sam, but that was all offset with a nicely multi-faceted tale that kept me busy.

I highly recommend this book to anyone who is a fan of the series. If you haven’t read any of the previous novels, you may be a bit at sea. Even I had to go back to previous books and reacquaint myself with some of the characters and what happened to them.

Even so, if you’re a fan of urban fantasy or of shapeshifter novels, you really shouldn’t miss this series. Start at the beginning – you won’t regret it.

Grade: A

Read more about this series by following its tag here.

Summary:

Lily Yu and Rule Turner’s engagement announcement is stirring up ugly passions in the Humans First camp. There’s hate mail. Death threats. Lily’s car is vandalized. But professionally, things are going smoothly . . . until a lupus in Tennessee goes on a killing spree.

Then Rule’s brother, Benedict, catches a lovely intruder–twice. The first time she’s sneaking around the home of the leader of Humans First. The second time, she sneaks into Nokolai Clanhome with a mysterious potion.

It may not be possible to deal with the rapidly escalating situation the way Lily always has: through the law. Especially when she’s pulled off the case due to an alleged conflict of interest. Lily’s loyalties will be stretched to the breaking point when she discovers that the deaths in Tennessee were only the opening skirmish in an all-out war.

Read an excerpt here.

Other books in this series: