Eileen Wilks’ Blood Lines concludes the trilogy started by Tempting Danger. Magic levels are rising dangerously and unpredictably, which is bad enough on its own, but someone is using the power spikes to summon demons to attack the lupi.
Besides liking the prior two books in the series, I was favorably inclined toward this book from the opening of Chapter One:
The National Symphony’s performance of Handel’s Messiah had started at eight thirty, so the choir was winding up the “Hallelujah Chorus” when the lead tenor turned into a wolf.
And for quite a while, the book lives up to that, moving briskly and with an engaging sense of heightened jeopardy.
Unfortunately the plot’s climax is a rickety contrivance that pushed me out of the story. I’m also not happy with the way the story treats Cynna, a major character introduced in the prior book. As she is one of the main characters of the next book (which appears to go off in a different direction, plot-wise), I’ll be looking for an acknowledgment of these problems. So, not as good as the prior books, but I won’t be ditching the series quite yet.