Ahh, so nice to get back to Lily and Rule! Their story took a few surprising directions this time, and the twist with the wraith was great. I love this author’s imagination. Dialogue got a little explainy at times, but the story built momentum like it always does, and I stayed up way past my bedtime to finish. ( )

Mortal Sins was excellent and this series just keeps getting better and better. I was happy that Lily and Rule were the main focus in this book. They are in North Carolina to get full custody of his son, when Rule finds some bodies in the woods. These bodies have a trace of death magic and Lily starts the investigation of what killed them and why. This story was suspenseful and kept me on the edge of my seat. I enjoyed every aspect of this book and I cannot wait to read the next one. ( )

It was great to get back to Lily and Rule's story. We learned more about the lupus world and had some good character development. Rule is in Halo to get official custody of his son, Toby. Rule finds the bodies of a family and Lily is drawn into the investigation of their deaths.

Lily's mate bond is taken from her and she learns that even without it Rule would still stay with her. That it wasn't just the bond that is keeping them together. She does get it back in the end. ( )

Lily Yu and her mate, Rule Turner are completing the legal procedure to get Rule full custody of his son. It’d be nice if the could do it interrupted- but the looming politics of the press attention for the “lupi prince” and the complication of Rule now carrying the magical Mantle of the Leidolf clan despite them being his ancestral enemies

Then people start dying – and in the post-Turning world with wild magic and long gone creatures now emerging, this is far from a simple murder. And unsimple murders are now Lily’s job as an FBI Agent for the Magical Crime’s unit. Mystical serial killers have to take precedence to even the most important of family dramas

This book was a blessed relief to me. In the last 3 book reviews I have been immensely frustrated by how this series has expanded immensely quickly without nearly enough time to develop it. We started jumping dimensions, suddenly there were more supernatural creatures than we could shake a stick at and I have no idea what was happening and why. I love a big rich world, I really do – but this was too much too soon. It was like sitting down to an epic 4 course meal full of all your favourite food – them having someone dump all of it on one plate an expect you to eat it all at once.

So this book, while not removing what has come before, focuses much more closely. The dragons are out there, the huge magical take down of technology is still happening, the increase in magic and the gifted is all still there – but it’s a background to a story which is more local and lets us digest the world a bit more, what has changed and what these characters are without them disappearing to Hell or Edge or dealing with dragons or elves or demons or any other deluge of creatures.

We still have the mystery and a world changing – the Turning has still brought new magical beings and challenges and Lily’s entire job has vastly expanded to be part of the new FBI task force dealing with all the random magical chaos. But it’s much more digestible. For the first time in 3 books I feel I can catch my breath absorb this world without it pulling the rug out from under my feet and hitting me with some other massive world building overhaul.

I also have to say how much I lie how little of this world is known – characters are very willing to say “I don’t know”, which I like. We don’t know every aspect of our world – and their world has changed so much, how could everyone know how things are? Too often fictional worlds present everything as known and certain – rather than unknown and theorised

There’s also a return to my preferred protagonist – Lily and Rule as opposed to Cynna and Cullen. Lily, being a detective is much more focused and practical and just a lot more fun to me.

The story is a murder mystery, with Lily & co having to do some investigating and a lot of research in the face of the new possibilities that magic has brought. I love the contrast between sensible research and detective work and the wider world they have to work in that brings in so many more unknowns. Without needing to do all the recapping that clogged the last book it was also much better paced and I finished the book surprisingly quickly because of it.

And I like Lily, she is so practical in the face of the woo-woo. Brave without being reckless, intelligent and skilled without super-woo-woo. She’s sensible. She doesn’t take shit from people, but doesn’t pick fights and act hyper-aggressive as a way to “stand up for herself” as we often see. She’s confident and assured without being raging and out of control. She also has some nice personal conflicts with family, her relationship to Rule’s son and her uncomfortable reaction to and relationship with spirituality due to her family history (which was a nice additional bit of development). I like her a lot and always have. She’s just… so practical in a woo-woo setting.

I like how we have the depiction of how she works with the local police forces. We often see this battle played out – but it was nice to see that despite objections, despite battles and personality clashes, ultimately most people were sensible and we didn’t get almost comic infighting which is so sadly common. There were no caricatures – even people who opposed Lily because of her age or race or gender were not caricatures of awful – they were people with prejudiced views that were terrible and needed correcting (which Lily did, awesomely and firmly) without being over the top caricatures of awful. I appreciate that – because it is so easy to demonise the prejudiced to the point where they only resemble the most extreme of people – but most prejudice we face isn’t like that. Most of it is the every day microaggressions and “normal” people with terrible views and behaviours.

Rule brought all the personal conflict and it worked well with the main storyline – both linking with it and making a nice point that their lives go on even when dramatic things are happening. I like that especially as it teaches Lily the importance of delegation – because she does get to have a life as well.

And I like Rule’s story with his son, the custody battle as well as the continuing drama between him and the Liedolf clan (historical enemies of his clan that he now finds himself ruling). I like how, again, the enemies are not clearcut terribad wrong – they’re just another clan of people that has been in opposition to Rule’s own (this applies to most of the characters in this book except, perhaps, for the unfortunate example of the mother of his son who is pretty over the top awful – but even she has an excellent redemption moment). There’s a lot of really good interactions between Rule, Lily and Rule’s son Toby. I want to applaud their parenting skills because they’re pretty damn awesome. And through them we get to see a lot of Lupi culture which is really rich and involved.

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Mortal Sins feels, to me, like a really good ghost story. It’s a great installment to the series.

With Rule and Lily firmly a couple, Cullen and Cynna married and pregnant, and Lily on personal leave, things seem to be going as well as our group can ever expect. But, of course, wherever they go, so does trouble.

In North Carolina, Lily and Rule get pulled into a ghost story that has some big implications for Rule in his dual-mantled state, so we get to learn a little more about the Leidolf clan and Rule’s position in it.

North Carolina is where Rule’s son, Toby, lives with his grandmother, Louise. Louise is ready to let Toby live with his father, but Toby’s mother has other ideas. It’s a real treat to meet Louise and see more of Toby. Toby has a part to play in the mystery, and it’s great to see him growing up and learning from his dad.

As always, the voice acting is amazing. I so identify these voices with these characters now that hearing the actors’ voices in a different series is a bit weird. Frequent audio listeners will tell you that consistency in voices is pretty important, especially in long-running series, and that hearing those voices elsewhere can take a little adjusting.

I’ve picked up the next book already and am eager to see what happens next. I’m really looking forward to the birth of Cynna’s baby and to seeing Toby become a regular character in the series.

Purchased. Review courtesy of onebooktwo.com | one book, two reviews. ( )