'Storm Cursed' Mercy Thompson, #11 by Patricia Briggs

From the BLURB: 

My name is Mercedes Athena Thompson Hauptman, and I am a car mechanic. And a coyote shapeshifter . . . And the mate of the Alpha of the Columbia Basin werewolf pack. 

Even so, none of that would have gotten me into trouble if, a few months ago, I hadn't stood upon a bridge and taken responsibility for the safety of the citizens who lived in our territory. It seemed like the thing to do at the time. It should have only involved hunting down killer goblins, zombie goats and an occasional troll. Instead, our home was viewed as neutral ground, a place where humans would feel safe to come and treat with the fae. 

The reality is that nothing and no one is safe. As generals and politicians face off with the Gray Lords of the fae, a storm is coming and her name is Death. 

But we are pack, and we have given our word. We will die to keep it.

'Storm Cursed' is the eleventh (!!!!) book in Patricia Brigg's 'Mercy Thompson' series. 

Following on from 'Silence Fallen', 'Storm Cursed' is all about Mercy and the pack readjusting to a new world order in which Fae are public and deadly; but a coven of witches coming to town and wreaking havoc provides a sinister distraction for the entire Tri Cities area ... 

I really liked this storyline, straight off the bat. I hate, hate, HATE the Fae stuff and I was glad to see Briggs largely put that gangly, cumbersome back-story aside and focused on introducing a one-off "big bad" in the form of this witch coven. I especially liked this "episodic" supernatural quandary for Mercy and the gang, because it pulled in the vampires too - and everyone's favourite Stefan actually makes a satisfactory appearance! 

Yes, this instalment still feels like "filler" (as have the last four or so Mercy books of late) and Briggs is clearly still beholden to somehow making the Fae stuff work as the next story-arc even though it's dull, silly, and I still don't feel like I know any of the players or particularly care about them. 

But 'Storm Cursed' gave good pack interactions (though many of our fave werewolf regulars are missing, and the timeline slightly threw me - Mercy at one point has a chat with one of the pack about how she's still adjusting to Christy not being Adam's wife and I thought ... HOLD UP, haven't Adam and Mercy been married for an AGE by now?!) 

So, yes - this is a "filler" book but it's a largely enjoyable one ... even as I'm becoming increasingly worried about how much this series feels like its spinning its wheels. 

I'm having an increasingly mercurial relationship with Mercy Thompson. We're 11 books in now, which is around the time that I bailed out of Laurell K. Hamilton's 'Anita Blake: Vampire Hunter' and J.R. Ward's 'Black Dagger Brotherhood' series - which like Mercy, are all in the paranormal/urban fantasy realms. And the reason I left those two series (which are still ongoing) was becoming the same issue I found myself having with Briggs' Mercy .... namely; that the series had no end in sight (Briggs has also basically said she'll keep writing them as long as they keep selling and the publisher keeps asking for more) and it's a noticeable drop-off from where the series started out with tight storytelling, characterisation and a general sense of goal-posts being set up, and eventually reached. 

The main issue with Mercy is her romance with alpha werewolf Adam Hauptman was SUCH a huge part of the early books, and since their marriage it feels like they (and readers) are in stasis. I always state that I don't believe babies make for Happily Ever After, and that's the case here too - I don't feel the need for Mercy to be barefoot and pregnant for her story to take on gravitas and meaning - but each new instalment has them with fewer and fewer interactions (indeed, book #10 was literally all about Mercy being kidnapped and Adam working to save her - they were separated for the entire book) and it's what I miss most about those early books, was their general banter, heat and *togetherness*. 

I will say that this eleventh book does a much better job of giving us Adam and Mercy's marriage and more daily interactions - but I still feel like Briggs hasn't quite got back the *intimacy* of Adam and Mercy, or their heat. 

I keep coming back to this series for the relationships - and largely the relationship of Mercy and Adam - but it hasn't been clicking for me for about four books now, and I'm getting worried.

4/5

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'Burn Bright' Alpha and Omega #5 by Patricia Briggs

Received from the Publisher 

From the BLURB:

Mated werewolves Charles Cornick and Anna Latham face a threat like no other - one that lurks too close to home . . .

They are the wild and the broken. The werewolves too damaged to live safely among their own kind. For their own good, they have been exiled to the outskirts of Aspen Creek, Montana. Close enough to the Marrok's pack to have its support; far enough away to not cause any harm.

With their Alpha out of the country, Charles and Anna are on call when an SOS comes in from the fae mate of one such wildling. Heading into the mountainous wilderness, they interrupt the abduction of the wolf - but can't stop blood from being shed. Now Charles and Anna must use their skills - his as enforcer, hers as peacemaker - to track down the attackers, reopening a painful chapter in the past that springs from the darkest magic of the witchborn...

‘Burn Bright’ is the fifth instalment in Patricia Brigg’s urban fantasy series ‘Alpha & Omega’, a spin-off to her ‘Mercy Thompson’ series.

I thoroughly enjoyed this latest book in Charles and Anna’s story, and I’m so glad because I haven’t been on the greatest reading streak with Patricia Briggs lately ... I was pretty “meh” on the last ‘Alpha & Omega’ book from 2015, ‘Dead Heat’ and thoroughly unimpressed with Mercy’s from last year, ‘Silence Fallen’. But Briggs is one of my favourite authors, and this is one of the few urban fantasy series that I’ve loyally stuck with, when others have fallen by the wayside – so I always feel a little discombobulated when I’m dissatisfied with my once-every-two-years dose.

‘Burn Bright’ follows on from the events of ‘Silence Fallen’ – when Mercy was kidnapped, and werewolf Marrok Bran left his Aspen Creek home to help with her rescue mission. When ‘Burn Bright’ begins, Charles has been left in charge of his Da’s pack for a month, acting as pack leader – and it’s all going relatively smoothly, until he receives word that some of the pack’s wildling werewolves are in trouble in the Montana mountains, seemingly being hunted by a covert operation for purposes unknown …

All of Patricia Brigg’s books are whodunits, that’s a given. But I find myself tending to favour those that stick close to home – both in the ‘Alpha & Omega’ series, and ‘Mercy Thompson’. So I was really happy that ‘Burn Bright’ takes place entirely in Aspen Creek, and reveals more than any other instalment about Bran’s werewolf pack and operations. I just tend to find that Briggs is less likely to go off on unnecessary tangents, introducing superfluous secondary characters and settings we have no connection to (as indeed, I thought she did in ‘Dead Heat’ with a trip to Arizona). ‘Burn Bright’ is brilliant twofold, not only because it’s firmly grounded in Aspen Creek and works to pull readers into the Marrok’s ordering of his werewolf pack – but also because the entire ‘whodunit’ mystery is centred in that pack, and builds upon the relationships with many established secondary characters … like Bran’s mate Leah, and the Moor, Asil.

The mystery in ‘Burn Bright’ is such a good one, and I was buoyed to see a hint of potential to build a bigger bad-guy arc around it in coming books. If that is the case, I certainly have more faith that this could give readers the layers and subterfuge lacking from the fae/Greylords build-up across both series in recent years …

So the plot in ‘Burn Bright’ worked for me, in a way that the last couple of Briggs books hadn’t been. This one felt very tightly plotted, and like it was serving a wider series purpose overall.

The character-building in this instalment though, was sometimes a tantalising mix of too much, and not enough.

For one thing, with Bran not around in this book – it gave Charles and Anna a chance to talk out some things about the Marrok that certainly Anna probably wouldn’t have felt comfortable airing, had he been closer to the pack bonds. In particular, Anna drops some bombshells regarding her observances of Bran and his feelings towards Mercy, which … BLEW MY FREAKIN’ MIND, and then blew it again when Charles conceded her point and agreed with her. This was … I was shook, people. I had never thought of Bran and Mercy in that context (no, not even after the reveal in ‘Silence Fallen’, which now also takes on new meaning – not to mention a certain conversation that Adam and Mercy had early on in the series, about Adam doing the Marrok’s bidding in watching over her) so this was just a whole lot of revelations coming thick and fast and then just left to sit, simmering on readers minds, probably until the next ‘Mercy Thompson’ book most likely (March 2019, for anyone who is counting down).

These revelations also made me yearn, more than ever, for Bran to get his own spin-off. But I think Briggs has repeatedly nixed that idea, citing that he’s just too commanding a presence and would overwhelm any book. But still – Briggs threw these big character reveals about him out there, and now I kinda want her to pick them up and run with them.

But ‘Burn Bright’ also stumbles somewhat with continuing to advance Charles and Anna’s relationship, and in highlighting how loving one another is changing them, for the better. Charles briefly mentions Anna’s restlessness at not knowing what to do with her life. Seeing as werewolves are very hard to kill and can live immortal (or – more likely with all that could try and kill them – at least hundreds of years) it helps if a person can figure out what they’d like to do with all that time on their hands. Charles mentions Anna half-heartedly looking into finishing her music studies, and Bran offering to help them look into adoption … this particular aspect is key, since past books have given readers Anna’s interiority and desire for children (possibly even in defiance of Charles, similar to how his own mother sacrificed herself to have him). I totally accept Charles’ assessment that Anna isn’t the sort of person to feel restless and think that a child will solve all her problems of self – but I still feel like that aspect of Charles and Anna’s relationship (foreshadowed really, by the story of Charles’s mother) will have to come around again, and ‘Burn Bright’ might have been the book to continue laying that groundwork …

But, honestly, these are minor quibbles about Anna and Charles and their relationship. Overall, ‘Burn Bright’ is one of the best Briggs instalments in recent memory. Tantalising character tid-bits are dropped, secondary characters advance in my estimation and a whodunit to sink your teeth into make this a stellar instalment.

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5/5

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'Silence Fallen' Mercy Thompson #10 by Patricia Briggs

Received via NetGalley 

From the BLURB:

Attacked and abducted in her home territory, Mercy finds herself in the clutches of the most powerful vampire in the world, taken as a weapon to use against alpha werewolf Adam and the ruler of the Tri-Cities vampires. In coyote form, Mercy escapes only to find herself without money, without clothing, and alone in the heart of Europe...

Unable to contact Adam and the rest of the pack, Mercy has allies to find and enemies to fight, and she needs to figure out which is which. Ancient powers stir, and Mercy must be her agile best to avoid causing a war between vampires and werewolves, and between werewolves and werewolves. And in the heart of the ancient city of Prague, old ghosts rise...

‘Silence Fallen’ is the tenth book in Patricia Briggs’s ‘Mercy Thompson’ urban fantasy series, and it follows directly on from ‘Fire Touched’.

Right. So. Remember in my ‘Fire Touched’ review when I said that book felt like it was closing the door on further storylines on the Fae and Graylords, and Briggs would gift reader a rejuvenated story-arc to follow and a new trajectory for Mercy & Co.? Yep. I was wrong – or at least, ‘Silence Fallen’ is not the book to kick that rejuvenation off … rather it reads like the book before that book. Which is a nice way of saying; “filler.”

I’m sorry, I hate not liking a Mercy Thompson book – but this tenth instalment feels like a firm 2/5 me, which is a decided disappointment. And I don’t think it being a filler-book will actually be a huge surprise to many people, because it’s right there in the blurb … that this is a book in which Mercy is kidnapped, separated from Adam and the pack who are then working to get her back. So, 98% of the book has Adam and Mercy separated – and anyone who has persevered with a long-running series (from Stephanie Plumto Night Huntress and Vampire Academy) will know that a storyline like this which manufactures a separation for the (now) established HEA, is absolutely a filler-story – trying to recapture some of the tension that the will-they-or-won’t-they romance once helped fill.

‘Silence Fallen’ is also not a very goodfiller-story … it momentarily drags readers back into a complicated supernatural political network that I think many fans breathed a sigh of relief when they thought it was over and done with in ‘Fire Touched’. We’re dragged into European vampire and werewolf politicking, and there’s so much backstory, asides, and long paragraphs of info-dumping that takes us out of any immediate action we may have wanted to revel in. And it’s all for nought – because it’s pretty clear by story’s end that none of what we just read is going to really impact the Columbia Basin Pack once Mercy is home safe. Basically – this entire book and any of its ramifications can be kept in Europe, and not affect a single thing back home for Mercy and Adam. Which is another polite way of saying … you could skip this one, if you really wanted to.

And I say that, even as fan-favourite Stefan steps back on the scene for this vampire-heavy plot. Unfortunately he’s under-used and underwhelming, and I get the sense that Briggs was holding back from teasing fans with anything too Mercy/Stefan big, because that would leave an indelible mark on the series universe, and that’s not what this book is about.

The only thing that’s stopping me from giving this book an even lower score is the a light-bulb *wink-wink* reveal at the end, which is very cute and a bit of a delight … even as it’s also a cop-out, and is not establishing anything new in a certain relationship dynamic. It’s previously-trodden ground, not furthering any characterisations, but I still enjoyed it and I’m probably just grasping at straws for one of my fave series.

Honestly, after reading ‘Silence Fallen’ I’m mostly wondering where we go from here, and if Patricia Briggs really has any appetite to keep telling Mercy’s story…?

It’s interesting to note that ‘Silence’ is on Brigg’s new timeline of book-releases – where once we had a 2 or so year wait for Mercy, and an ‘Alpha & Omega’ release in-between, we’re now getting one Mercy book a year … and a longer wait for ‘Alpha & Omega’ (the last book for Charles and Anna released in 2015, the next instalment is coming 2018).

For me, personally, I think Briggs may be in a bit of a conundrum … I think lots of fans would like to see Mercy and Adam expand their family. And I’d be fine with that – whatever – but I know in past books Adam’s made clear that he doesn’t want more kids, and I don’t think Mercy feels like a baby would make her life “complete” in any way (and her step-daughter Jess is her daughter, they’re already a family). Anna from ‘Alpha & Omega’ meanwhile, has been teasing that possibility for a while now … and there are higher-stakes involved for her as a werewolf, and given what happened to Charles’s mother to make him the only born werewolf – that story is more intriguing to me, and all those possibilities.

But where does Mercy go from here, if the next chapter in her series isn’t revolving around becoming a mother, as many fans predict it will be? (which – to be clear – I reject the notion that a female protagonist will only “advance” and have a seemingly “happy life” in her own story, if she becomes a mother. Just – no.)


And I feel this even more after reading her 'Frequently Asked Questions' page - because Briggs has addressed some big questions, with infuriatingly non-committal answers. To the topic of 'how many more Mercy and Alpha & Omega books will there be?' The answer is: "Patty has said that as long as she's having fun writing them, can keep them fresh and exciting, and they're selling well, she'll continue to write them indefinitely!" That scares me ... as someone who has had to give up on Anita Blake and the Blackdagger Brotherhood books for that very reason. As to; 'Will Mercy/Anna have babies?' her answer is; "They would have to play it safe and avoid adventures, which - face it - is boring!" Ok. Fair enough. And finally; 'When will Leah/Christy die a horrible and painful death?' - to which the response is; "These are ladies we just love to hate! If they were gone, we'd have to find another character to hate on, and that would be very frustrating, so it's just easier to keep them around, don't you think?" ... that's sucky to me that she even addressed this, because it means she's nixing any idea of ever writing a Bran book for one, and is basically saying that these contingents of Bran and Adam's packs are just going to be forever stagnant. Sigh. 

I need to remember that it’s been hinted at in a few books now (and also in ‘Silence Fallen’) that a lot of Mercy being in sticky situations may come down to Coyote wanting her to be there … to act as a conduit for Coyote … like she has a “higher-purpose”, so to speak. That could be interesting. But I think letting Mercy act on behalf of Coyote, while also juggling being happy and content in a pack-family is more interesting and I hope Briggs explores those conflicts in future, instead of giving us this isolationist Mercy story, that ultimately has little impact on her life or the series' universe.

2/5

_________________

P.S. – I read this book (and wrote my review) in November 2016, before announcement of the tragic and sudden death of Mike Briggs … and it did give me a pang of guilt and further disappointment that I didn’t love ‘Silence Fallen’ more. But this is just one book, and I'm only one reader, and I’ll always be a fan - regardless of a bump in the bookish road. Also as a fan, I’ll always be patient and understanding of whatever decision an author makes with regards to the continuation of their series, especially when personal circumstances such as these may be informing that future.

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'Fire Touched' Mercy Thompson #9 By Patricia Briggs

From the BLURB:

Tensions between the fae and humans are coming to a head. And when coyote shapeshifter Mercy and her Alpha werewolf mate, Adam, are called upon to stop a rampaging troll, they find themselves with something that could be used to make the fae back down and forestall out-and-out war: a human child stolen long ago by the fae.

Defying the most powerful werewolf in the country, the humans, and the fae, Mercy, Adam, and their pack choose to protect the boy no matter what the cost. But who will protect them from a boy who is fire touched?

‘Fire Touched’ is the ninth book in Patricia Briggs phenomenal ‘Mercy Thompson’ urban fantasy series.

It’s not long after the events of ‘Night Broken’, and Mercy’s death’s-door experience, when ‘Fire Touched’ kicks off with a troll on a Tri-Cities bridge. The troll is the latest tactical move by the Gray Lords fae leaders, who are testing human resistance and werewolf involvement when their territory is breached. Adam, Mercy and the pack do indeed intervene, and find themselves agreeing to harbour a fae fugitive in the process – a young fire touched 10-year-old boy called Aiden who was kidnapped as a child many decades ago and taken to Underhill, where he mysteriously developed fae powers.

The whole book is about Adam and Mercy taking on the Gray Lords and potentially causing ramifications for werewolves everywhere – they’ve mostly been content to sit on the sidelines and not pick fights with the fae, but lines are being drawn in the sands in Tri Cities about what territory and pack truly means, and the humans who are also encompassed in pack protection.

Fae have always been in the ‘Mercy Thompson’ series – right from book one. Mercy’s VW mentor was Zee (powerful fae Siebold Adelbertsmiter), and his son Tad was like a big brother to Mercy. And nobody will soon forget the devastating impact that fae magic had on Mercy in ‘Iron Kissed’. But in recent books of both ‘Mercy Thompson’ and ‘Alpha & Omega’, the fae storyline grew more political and grand-scale with more descriptions of the Gray Lords and worldwide ramifications when the fae revealed themselves to the humans. Around this bigger arc, I haven’t so much enjoyed the fae – especially when it was revealed that Samuel’s mate was a random fae we’d never heard of before (Ariana), that’s around the time when the more complex storyline for them felt like convenient filler for loose ends.

However, I did enjoy ‘Fire Touched’ because it actually feels like Briggs was finishing up the fae and Gray Lords stuff … or, at least, pulling back on it a bit. There are just a lot of questions answered in this book, and a feeling of satisfactorily putting aside this larger arc and setting Adam and Mercy off on something fresher.

Actually, this whole book feels like Mercy’s going through a lot of contemplations and accepting how much her life has changed in recent years; particularly her switch from a lone coyote to a pack wolf,

Adam was mine, and I was his. I chafed a little at all the belonging I’d been doing lately: belonging to Adam, to Jesse, to the pack, and having them belong to me in return. Oddly, the responsibilities of taking care of them didn’t bother me at all, only being taken care of brought out my claustrophobic reactions. I had spent most of my life being independent, and it took an effort to have to answer to other people, no matter how much I loved them. Loved him.

This feeling of reflection and acceptance, and the plugging of Gray Lords plot points, feels like ‘Fire Touched’ is gearing the series up for a new arc … I don’t know what it could be, but I did love that in this book Adam also finally settles Mercy’s position as his mate in the pack and the two of them feel stronger than ever;

Adam tried to downplay it with a military haircut and clothes that were subtly wrong color – I’d just figured that one out – but he was beautiful. Like magazine-model beautiful. I didn’t always see it anymore, the inside being more interesting than the outside package, but with his eyes sparkling and his dimple flashing …
 

There’s a sense of stability to Mercy’s life now, which begs for maybe a little shake-up in the family department … maybe in the sense of expanding Mercy and Adam’s family? I don’t know. I just loved that ‘Fire Touched’ felt like the end of a storyline I was ready to see the back of, and a stabilising of Mercy’s family and pack life has me excited to see what the next stage in this series will be.

4/5

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