Novel Review: Silver Borne (Mercy Thompson, #5) by Patricia Briggs

Rating (Out of 5): ~4

Genre: Adult Supernatural Romance

Publisher: Penguin (Ace)

Publish Date: 2010

Spoilers?: No.

Buy it here: Amazon. Barnes and Noble. Book Depository. Powells.

Goodreads Synopsis:

Being a mechanic is hard work. Mercy Thompson, for instance, just spent the last couple of months trying to evade the murderous queen of the local vampire seethe. And now the leader of the werewolf pack, who's maybe-more-than-just-a-friend, has asked for her help. A book of fae secrets has come to light and they're all about to find out how implacable - and dangerous - the fae can be.

OK, so maybe her troubles have nothing to do with the job. But she sure could use a holiday...

Something Specific:

Quotes:

• "'He’s my hero.’ […] ‘That is the most romantic thing I’ve ever heard you say,’ Bran said. ‘Be careful, Adam, or you’ll turn her into a real girl.’ Adam looked at me. ‘I like her just the way she is, Bran.’” (Mass Market Paperback, pg. 93) Just awwww…

The Cover:

This is definitely one of the better covers. I still have a problem with the fact that the model doesn't look much like Mercy, mainly because of the clothes and the tattoos. But the background, and the book work with the contents of this book. And this cover is actually kind of pretty. Overall, a successful cover, in my opinion.

Review:

This series is so good. I only have two more books in it till I’m all caught up, so I’m trying to stretch out the reading time between books, which means that I haven’t gotten the next book yet, but I don’t think I’m going to be able to hold off for very long. I just want to read the next one so badly.

In this book, there were a lot of pack problems and dealings. Which were very good and needed. There was some very good stuff between Adam and Mercy, some of which was also needed. There was also some stuff cleared up with Samuel, which had been talked about and avoided up until now, when it was finally solved. We saw a good amount of Jesse, Adam’s daughter, as well as some stuff with Gabriel, who works for Mercy and is kind of going out with Jesse, and his family, which I am looking forward to finding out more about in the next book. Then there were some fairy problems, which was concluded well, although there will probably continue to be vampire and fairy problems in future books. Bran showed up again, as he always seems to. We also heard from Charles, which was interesting.

A good amount of stuff happened in this book, as it always does. It was all good and interesting, and now I really want to read the next book. Adam and Mercy are getting farther in their relationship, and I’m looking forward to what’s going to happen with them in the next book, although I know there will be other problems. 

This is probably one of my favorite series at this point. I’m really loving it.

Novel Review: Bone Crossed (Mercy Thompson, #4) by Patricia Briggs

Rating (Out of 5): ~4+

Genre: Adult Supernatural/Paranormal Romance

Publisher: Penguin (Ace)

Publish Date: 2009

Spoilers?: Somewhat Minor/Nothing Major.

Buy it here: Amazon. Barnes and Noble. Book Depository. Powells.

Goodreads Synopsis:

New in the #1 "New York Times" bestselling urban fantasy series.
In a world where "witches, vampires, werewolves, and shape-shifters live beside ordinary people" ("Booklist"), it takes a very unusual woman to call it home. By day, Mercy Thompson is a car mechanic in Eastern Washington. By night, she explores her preternatural side. As a shape-shifter with some unusual talents, Mercy's found herself maintaining a tenuous harmony between the human and the not-so- human on more than one occasion. This time she may get more than she bargained for.

Something Specific:

Quotes:

• "'Fear is a good thing,' he said at last. 'It teaches you not to make the same mistake twice. YOu counter it with knowledge. What are you afraid of?'" (Mass Market Paperback, pg. 99) Oh, Bran, always coming in with your knowledge.

Review:

I love this series. I love this series rather a lot. It’s just so good. It’s been a while since I read the last book, probably a month or two, and now I’ve gotten right back into it. As in, as soon as I finish this review, I will be starting book five, since I have it already. And I’m so excited. (I’m also very excited to read the second book in the Alpha and Omega series, but I don’t have that one yet.)

After what happened to Mercy in the last volume, she’s still having a hard time getting through things, particularly when it comes to Adam, but she’s getting better. Also, Adam and her are officially together now, which is just awesome. I like Adam, a lot, and I’m liking their interactions even more. I know that Briggs doesn’t really do very romantic scenes, but I’ve also noticed that there isn’t really a whole lot of swoon between them. I mean, we get the insight into Mercy’s head, but I’ve found that the reader is (at least, I am) kept at a bit of a distance. There’s still some, though. And I’m still looking forward to more.

Quite a bit happened with the vampires in this book. I don’t mind Stefan, but I don’t like Marsilia. At all. I’m honestly quite ready for her to go away, officially, and was hoping that’s what would happen in this book. It didn’t. Maybe (hopefully?) it’ll happen in the future.

Also, quite a bit happened with how Mercy can see ghosts, and we got a few hints as to her Walker abilities. That whole thing is interesting to me, and I hope we get to find out more, or that more of her abilities are used, in the next books.

Something else happened with a different vampire in this book, and it was quite interesting. I also quite liked the way that Mercy took care of most of it herself. She can handle herself in difficult situations, and I like that. She’s smart, can be calm, and she’s pretty good at handling things when they need handling. Which I really like. More heroines (and heroes) should be like that.

We met a person from Mercy’s past, a girl she went to college with, and I was a bit surprised by what happened with her. I particularly liked her son, though, this sweet, deaf ten-year-old. And I liked what happened between the woman’s son and husband. I doubt we’re going to see any more of them, but I would like to. Maybe we’ll get a glimpse or something in the next book. One can hope, anyway.

Oh, Bran also showed up in this book. Very briefly, but still. I rather like him. His appearances are usually important, short, but leave some sort of impact. I just like him, I suppose, and find his relationship with Mercy (and Samuel) nice.

I don’t want to talk too in-depth about what happened in this book, and I don’t think I have much else to say. I’m really looking forward to the next book, and seeing more of Mercy and Adam together, and possibly Mercy and Jesse getting closer, and just general character-relationship development. And now, I get to start that book.

The Cover:

  I really don't like these covers. Some of them are better than others, and this isn't one of them. I guess the art isn't bad, but that's not the problem I have with them. I understand the mechanic aspect, and that fits. But the rest doesn't. My biggest problem is that the woman on the cover always has a scanty top on--showing her stomach and a good amount of breasts, when Mercy doesn't dress like that, I don't believe. She doesn't really care how she looks, and I've always thought that she's usually pretty covered up. Then the model is posed kind of weirdly. And she always has so many tattoos, when I'm pretty sure Mercy only has the one, the paw print. Also, the model has blue hair---what for?

It just doesn't seem to represent the series very well, in my opinion. For instance, if Mercy wore scantily clad clothing, or even if there was sex and the romance had a big part, then the outfits wouldn't bother me so much. But it isn't. The romance is a rather small part of each book. And the tattoos are just unneeded.

Novel Review: Cry Wolf (Alpha and Omega, #1) by Patricia Briggs

Genre: Adult Fantasy/Paranormal Romance

Rating (Out of 5): ~4 (maybe 4.5)

Publisher: Penguin (Ace)

Spoilers?: No/Very Minor

Buy it here: Amazon.

Goodreads Synopsis:

Anna never knew werewolves existed, until the night she survived a violent attack... and became one herself. After three years at the bottom of the pack, she'd learned to keep her head down and never, ever trust dominant males. Then Charles Cornick, the enforcer—and son—of the leader of the North American werewolves, came into her life.

Charles insists that not only is Anna his mate, but she is also a rare and valued Omega wolf. And it is Anna's inner strength and calming presence that will prove invaluable as she and Charles go on the hunt in search of a rogue werewolf—a creature bound in magic so dark that it could threaten all of the pack.

Something Specific:

Quotes:

•  "Listening to your instincts, his father liked to say, was not the same thing as being blindly obedient to them." (Mass Market Paperback, pg. 249) I just liked this quote, really.

Review:

I ended up picking this book up because, (1) my local bookstore had this book and On The Prowl in (which has the beginning story to this series), and (2) the bookstore didn’t have the next Mercy book in. Oddly enough, I’d had my eye on this series before I even thought of reading the Mercy books, but couldn’t seem to find On The Prowl, and somehow ended up with the first Mercy book instead. I wasn’t even sure if I was going to read this one soon, but started the first short story and liked it, and so continued onto this one immediately.

When I started this one, I hadn’t realized that it was about Sam’s brother, and that it would be based in the place that Bran lives. I was pleasantly surprised by this, especially to see all the ways that this story intertwines with Mercy’s.

I was also surprised by how much I enjoyed the two main characters, Anna and Charles. Anna is the omega, which I didn’t know what meant until I started this. An omega is someone who is kind of left out of the hierarchy in a pack. They have an alpha, and they’re part of the pack, but they don’t have to succumb to commands, and they tend to calm the people around them very easily, and can help with unruly and/or hurt werewolves. It’s awesome, really. One of my favorite parts to this was how easily Anna is able to stand up for herself, to anyone, and how she grows into being able to do that.

I love reading about characters that have been abused in some way, and Anna has definitely been abused, and I like seeing the ways in which she grows from that. She’s having a bit of a hard time, but she’s dealing really well, and she’s growing and not letting anyone push her back down, which is great. I was surprised by it, but I really like Anna, and am really looking forward to seeing how she continues to grow in the next book.

Next: Charles. He’s the, um, ‘enforcer’ of the pack? He takes care of unruly werewolves; he’s the one that has to go and kill them, or deal with the messy situations, when there is no more avoiding it. And I really like Charles. He’s strong, and protective, and sweet to Anna.

I love the relationship between Anna and Charles. Now, I’m a big sucker for romance, and I definitely like that their romance started right from the beginning, given that their wolves decided they wanted each other (also, how it didn't feel, or act, like insta-love). And how Anna and Charles have to deal with that, and accept each other after the fact their wolves want to mate. I like their dynamic, too, and seeing how they’re growing used to each other, getting to know each other more. I also liked seeing Anna stick up for herself, not let Charles be the big dominant man (not that he's particularly possessive or pushy in a jerk way). (I also liked, in the anthology story, how she told him that she doesn't like sex, and the anticipation that gave me toward some nice sex and how he's prove her wrong -- I believe there was one sex scene in this story, kind of skipped over, although I'm not surprised.)

There was a big case in this book, and we got to see Sam and Bran, including Bran worrying over Charles and Charles worrying about Bran, and there was a very-not-nice death. At the end of the book, the official mating happened, and Anna got to see her family after two/three years, which I would have liked to actually have seen instead of gotten a recap in the last chapter.

I like how quickly these books go, even if there are some slow parts. I would like more romance, but I know that’s not a big part of what Briggs’ tends to write. The writing was a bit different in this book as opposed to the Mercy series: this book was written in multiple points-of-view third-person. So, aside from being in Anna’s head, we also get to be in Charles’, and Brans’, and maybe some other people… I like multiple points-of-view, so I did enjoy this.

I really liked this book; surprisingly so, and I am really looking forward to reading the next one. It's actually rivaling with how much I like the Mercy series, and I'm not sure which one's winning, because I'm wary to say it's this one. I think the main reason is the relationship between Anna and Charles, and just Anna herself; I just really liked them.

Novel Review: Iron Kissed (Mercy Thompson, #3) by Patricia Briggs

Genre: Adult Fantasy/Supernatural (Light-Romance)

Rating (Out of 5): ~4-4.5

Publisher: Penguin (Ace)

Spoilers?: Minor.

Buy it here: Amazon.

Goodreads Synopsis:

I could smell her fear, and it satisfied something deep inside me that had been writhing under her cool, superior gaze. I curled my upper lip so she could get a good look at my sharp teeth. I might only weigh thirty or so pounds in my coyote shape, but I was a predator...

Mechanic Mercy Thompson can shift her shape - but not her loyalty. When her former boss and mentor is arrested for murder and left to rot behind bars by his own kind, it's up to Mercy to clear his name, whether he wants her to or not.

Mercy's loyalty is under pressure from other directions, too. Werewolves are not known for their patience, and if Mercy can't decide between the two she cares for, Sam and Adam may make the choice for her...

Something Specific:

 Quotes:

• "If there was one thing I'd learned over the past few interesting months, it was that when things started to get dangerous, it was important to have people who knew as much as you did. That way, when I stupidly got myself killed--someone would have  starting place to look for my murderer." (Paperback, pg. 141) I liked this thought. It's something Mercy has followed since, I think, the beginning of the series, and it's something that more characters should do.
• "...but he was one of those 'everything in its place and a place for everything' kind of people." (Paperback, pg. 109) I just liked the sound of that.
• "'You need to choose,' he told me intently. 'Adam or Samuel or neither. But you can't keep them dangling.'" (Paperback, pg. 4) I liked that he mentioned the choice of neither, because that thought is often left out. It's not really mentioned later, and it's obviously not a choice for her, because we all know who she really wants, but the thought is usually not even brought up, let alone chosen. 

Review: 

I really enjoy this series. I like every book, always want to start the next one immediately after finishing each book.

This book… this one was a bit of a surprise, in how bad the contents were to the characters. Something very dark and horrible happened in this book.

I don’t want to spoil it, but it was bad, and rather unexpected. I like Mercy, and I feel really bad for her, and am really interested in finding out what’s going to happen to her next. How badly this is going to scar her in the long term. It definitely scarred her in the short term.

While I do understand how horrible what happened was, and I do understand how badly it affected Mercy and the people around her, I feel like the actual events didn’t affect me, as the reader, as much as they could have. And I think part of that is because of how little description there was of the actual events. I think Mercy was trying not to pay too much attention to it, and she was trying to distance herself from it, but I think it distanced the reader and the effect on me because of it. Also, later on, when she was trying to hide and was listening to the conversations the people around her were having, it just didn’t seem like I was inside her head and feeling the pain she was feeling, but instead that I was getting an overhead view of it all. And I just… I wanted to feel more emotion than that.

Even saying that, I did really like this book, and I was interested in what was happening to her, and really want to read the next book.

Aside from the big event, some stuff did happen between Mercy and her two boys. Things between her and Sam come to a conclusion, which I was a little surprised by but did like, and so things with her and Adam are able to fully start. I liked the moments between her and him in this book, and am looking forward to seeing what develops between them in the next book. As well as seeing her and his daughter, Jesse, get closer. Also, how the other wolves will react around her, if they react differently.

There was also some fae business, and a problem with her friend/fellow mechanic Zee, and a problem with Jesse, and we got some insight into who Ben is, some of it entwined with the Big Problem, which was interesting, but wasn't as big of a problem or as attention getting as the Big Problem.

I’m just generally looking forward to the next book.