A cliffhanger??!!!

Dang it. I had a whole line-up of books to read next, a plan, if you will. Now I find I must plunge right into the next Lupi book and ignore everything else.
Staying in this world a little longer is, of course, fine, but I’m so mad about the cliffhanger. I don’t think Wilks has ever done this in this series.
On the other hand, the number of things left to be resolved was so high, I didn’t know how she was going to pull it off in a satisfying way. So...fine, I guess? But I sure hope this type of ending doesn’t become a habit.
That rant done, I did like seeing Toby with the other kids in this one, and I’m intrigued about what will happen with his wolf. The rest of the book was an OK series entry—a lot of running around and obviously too many plots for one book.
At least the digital library had a copy of Dragon Blood available. Onward! ( )

Man, this series just keeps picking up the pace, but the story lines are so complicated that it's a bit tricky to keep track of what is going on. Note to future self, re-read this one before you read the next one, or you will probably not be able to follow it, and they are in the middle of a heck of a cliffhanger. Actually, probably re-reading mind magic and then this one would be good. This particular story arc seems to really start there.

Nonetheless, still like the characters and appreciate the nonstop action. ( )

84 points/100 (4.25 stars/5).
WARNING: CLIFF-HANGER

When the children are taken, it takes everyone to bring them back home again.

After a lot of backstory and a lot of setup, the book is around for about 60 pages before it ends. The book ends in the middle of the story. It really felt that when the book finally started, it was nearly over, and then it was over with a cliffhanger. Leaves me feeling incomplete and kind of annoyed.

I am also very tired with this plot type in this series. I'm so tired of characters getting kidnapped. This is the third book in a row dealing with kidnapping, and to my recollection the eighth book total (out of 13 so far, 62% of books) in this series. "Oh look, someone has been kidnapped again. Bet everyone gets saved with no problems, the bad guy is defeated or dealt a blow, and everything goes back to normal for them to get kidnapped again the next book!"

There really isn't much else to say about this book because so little happened in it. The world and characters have held story, but this plotline is getting annoying. I really hope the series ends soon because it is growing tiresome. Instead, Wilks appears to just be gearing up to add more books on in the series instead of ending it, unfortunately.
( )

Was rolling along and enjoying and then bam! The end of the book and things are left hanging, until the next book. Which you do get a preview of at the end, but dude! ( )

Sam, the great Black Dragon, is finally willing to release some secrets about the Sorcerer Tom Weng and the dragon’s shameful secret

When the missiles start landing

The nature of the dragonspawn become a less pressing problem as Sam is attacked, nuclear weapons start flying and Lupi children start disappearing

The war with the Enemy is finally coming.

Hmmmm… hmmmmm

Hmmmmm…

This is kind of what I’ve been doing and why I’ve just spent several several hours trying to start this review and then stopping because I’m not sure how to address this

There’s a lot I love here

I love that we’re back to that core battle – the battle against the enemy. We’re focused again on Lily and Rule. We’re involving the dragons and Lily’s friends and Cullen et al. It’s back to the main meta and the main plot

We continue to have the excellent world building – the wonderful development of things like the dragon’s culture and knowledge and world and unique biology. I love the excellent, detailed insight we got into even relatively minor players like the Gnomes – creating an impressive, involved culture and tradition and language system for being that have so little role but still get a full accounting and development.

We continue to have excellent commentary on politics and history and culture with some excellent moments like the politics of the FBI and law enforcement

All of it through the lens of Lilly who continues to be awesome and intelligent and insightful and so wonderfully competent.

We also have a lot of racial diversity. Lily is an Asian woman, the awesome Madame Yu is back in the picture. We have Black, Native American (including Benedict, a prominent character) and Latino characters in the police force, in the lupi packs, in every group that plays a role in the series. Racial diversity has always been more of a norm in this series than an exception – wherever we have a depiction of a large group of people there will be a racial cross section among them. And Lily with Gan, Cynna and her grandmother does not move in an all male setting or surrounding.

In terms of LGBTQ people… well if you know from previous books then we have some because we know Madame Yu is in a same-sex relationship – but it isn’t mentioned at all in this book, there are no other LGBTQ characters and some homophobia and transphobia included: including by Cullen ironically (or not) in a scene where he is calling out racism and anti-religious hatred. Well done for fighting bigotry – but by encouraging and supporting other bigotry? Yeah, thanks for that

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