Title: Unbinding
Series: World of the Lupi Book #11
Author: Eileen Wilks
Genre: Paranormal/Urban Fantasy
Blurb: In the newest Novel of the Lupi, the human and elven worlds are both about to come under attack…After questing through the sidhe realms with her ex-hellhound lover, Nathan, Kai Tallman Michalski has finally returned home. But she knows Nathan will eventually be called back to serve his queen—and Kai will have to decide whether to enter her majesty’s service as well. Sure, the job comes with great bennies, but there’s one big downside: she would have to swear absolute fealty to the Queen of Winter.
For now, though, Kai is glad to be home, and glad that Nathan completed his mission for his queen with surprising ease. But what seemed to be a quick conclusion turns out to be anything but. The two of them helped thwart the sidhe god of chaos—and he is not happy about that. He’s got plans for them. Plans, too, for the sidhe who killed him some three millennia ago. Nor has he abandoned his plans for Earth, as they learn when chaos begins bursting out all over…
Thoughts: Unbinding is like a breath of fresh air to this floundering series….rather than relying solely Lily and Rule (who I have to say no longer really resemble the characters I feel in love with at the start of this series) and instead focus on new characters Kai and Nathan. This one is purported to be a “stand alone” title, and I do agree with that to a certain extent. Unbinding almost seems completely separate from the World of the Lupi series – it has a different feel to it and definitely shoves this series in a much needed change of direction. At the same time, we still see some of those characters from the Lupi World that make appearances – some of which play bigger roles than others. I feel like there is so much history though between the various other character and back stories that I’m not sure I would want to grab this one without reading prior books in the series.
That being said though, I love the new direction that this series is going in – starting with this book. The past few have seemed a little stale to me, and I felt like the characters that I feel so in love with in prior books are just…gone. They just slowly started disappearing. Sure, they appear in the stories, but the dynamics between them just isn’t the same and crucial character traits just seem to be almost non-existent. I think this book is exactly what this series needed – and I loved the characters of both Kai and Nathan. I do wish, however, that we had some more backstory on them. Kai and Nathan are already a couple, so we kind of miss out on the whole development of their romance and the emergence of their feelings for each other. I would have enjoyed getting a bit more of that, particularly when they warrant their own book…:) But, you know what? I’ll take it! I had almost given up on this series, and it is solely due to this one that I am still hanging in there. Still a fan of Eileen’s, but I needed something new from this series. And Unbinding gives us exactly that!
Rate: B+
