Title: River Marked
Author: Patricia Briggs
Series: Mercedes Thompson #6, Mercy-verse #17
Rating Out of 5: 5 (I will read this again and again and again)
My Bookshelves: Paranormal fantasy, Strong women, Werewolves
Pace: Medium
Format: Novel
Publisher: Ace fantasy
Year: 2011
5th sentence, 74th page: Figuring out why he’d been mad should have been a lot easier.

Welcome to Patricia Briggs’s world, a place where “witches, vampires, werewolves, and shapeshifters live beside ordinary people”. It takes a very unusual woman to call it home – and there’s no one quite like Mercy.

Getting to the altar wasn’t easy for coyote shifter Mercy Thompson and Alpha werewolf Adam Hauptman. And yet Mercy clings to the hope that their Columbia River honeymoon will be drama-free.

She couldn’t be more wrong.

Being a different breed of shapeshifter – a walker – Mercy can see ghosts, but the spirit of her long-gone father has never visited her. Until now. An evil is stirring in the depths of the Columbia River – and innocent people are dying. As other walkers make their presence knwon to Mercy, she must reconnect with her heritage to exorcise the world of the legend known as the river devil…

In the past Mercedes Thompson books, Mercy’s Native American heritage doesn’t seem that integral. It serves to keep her apart from everyone else, creates her unique powers, but generally it isn’t touched upon. Until River Marked that is. Finally, some of Mercy’s heritage and cultural background begin to come to light. Not being American, I’m not sure how true to the actual experiences of Native Americans Mercy’s are, but I enjoyed the journey nonetheless.

I liked that Coyote plays a big part in this story, as does the Native American devil that is about to bring about the destruction of the world. They play well into what (little) I know of Native American culture and just further build upon the world that Briggs has painstakingly created. It layers the idea of immigration and European-based fae onto the natural magical beings of the Americas. I loved how this story took a completely new turn into the world of Mercy, but also helped to build it further along the same lines. I could only wish to be as adept at such beautiful and complex world building.

Adam and Mercy finally seem to be gaining their “happily ever after”. Yet, as with this entire series (and, really, every good series), that isn’t the case. Mercy’s ability to love and do the right thing, at great cost shine through, as does Adam’s love for her. Although I’ve enjoyed the courtship of these two throughout the rest of the series, it really isn’t until this book that I actually get their relationship. Their support and love for one another, coupled with the respect that they have for each others’ personalities shines like nothing else throughout this story.

And, although I loved visiting the Native American heritage of Mercy, it is the love between Adam and Mercy that shines through most vividly.

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Title: Silver Borne
Author: Patricia Briggs
Series: Mercedes Thompson #5, Mercy-verse #15
Rating Out of 5: 5 (I will read this again and again and again)
My Bookshelves: Paranormal fantasy, Strong women, Werewolves
Pace: Medium
Format: Novel
Publisher: Ace fantasy
Year: 2010
5th sentence, 74th page: Sam wagged his tail, and the police officer straightened up, his face going impersonal and professional.

#1 New York Times bestselling author Patricia Briggs brings the extraordinary world of Mercy Thompson to life so vividly that “readers will believe in shapeshifters, fae, and vampires.”

When Mercy Thompson, mechanic and shapeshifter, attempts to return a powerful fae book she previously borrowed in an act of desperation, she finds the bookstore locked up and closed down.

It seems the book contains secrets – and the fae will do just about anything to keep it out of the wrong hands. And if that doesn’t take enough of Mercy’s attention, her friend Samuel is struggling with his wolf side – leaving Mercy to cover for him lest his own father declare Samuel’s life forfeit.

All in all, Mercy has had better days. And if she isn’t careful, she may not have many more…

More of the fae come out to play in Silver Borne, and while Bone Crossed made the vampires look more scary, Silver Borne manages to highlight just how scary the fae can truly be. It helps that it is in this storyline that Mercy fears what she is up against, it makes it that much easier for the readers to feel the same way.

Mercy’s romantic entanglement with Sam is officially at an end, but her new journey with Adam is just beginning. And both situations leave a trail of confusion and trials in their past. Although Sam doesn’t feel that way about Mercy anymore, there is still something missing in his life, which leads to him being completely out of control throughout the majority of this story. There is a sense of his loss, not necessarily in being non-romantic with Mercy, but not having anyone to be in love with, for lack of a better term. The loneliness he feels as Mercy moves onto the next stage of her life leads to some very interesting complications, but there is also something saddeningly familiar about it. Contrastingly, Mercy and Adam seem to be about to start a great new adventure together… if somebody else wasn’t so keen to mess around with it. And that in and of itself leads to far reaching consequences that neither of them could have predicted.

For those people who haven’t had a chance to read the novella Silver, it provides a great backstory into this novel. Not only Ari, one of the fae who is introduced along the way, but also into the history of Sam (and his loneliness) and the thing which Mercy is being forced to protect. Although it isn’t necessary to understand what is happening (I hadn’t read it when I first read Silver Borne), it does make the story, particularly the last challenge a little more understandable. After all, it takes an entire novella to tell the tale that is only briefly introduced and explained in a few paragraphs…

Image source: Goodreads

Title: Bone Crossed
Author: Patricia Briggs
Series: Mercedes Thompson #4, Mercy-verse #13
Rating Out of 5: 5 (I will read this again and again and again)
My Bookshelves: Paranormal fantasy, Strong women, Werewolves
Pace: Medium
Format: Novel
Publisher: Ace fantasy
Year: 2009
5th sentence, 74th page: Still, as Warren had said, it is a good thing to know your enemies.

Welcome to Patricia Briggs’s world, a place where “witches, vampires, werewolves, and shapeshifters live beside ordinary people. It takes a very unusual woman to call it home – and there’s no one quite like Mercy Thompson.

As a shapeshifter with some unique talents, ace car mechanic Mercy has had to maintain a tenuous harmony between the human and the not so human within the Tri-Cities of Eastern Washington on more than one occassion. But this time she may be in over her head.

Marsilia, the local Vampire Queen, has learned that Mercty crossed her by slaying a member of her clan. Now she’s out for blood. But since Mercy is protected from the vampire’s direct reprisal by the werewolf pack – and her close relationship with its sexy Alpha – it’s not Mercy’s blood which Marsilia is after…

It’s her friends’.

Although the activities in Iron Kissed were kind of horrifying, it was nice to end on the note that it did. With Mercy making her choice, and starting her life with Adam. The last scene is the very beginning of their courtship, and I remember when I first read Iron Kissed, I actually double checked to make sure that my book wasn’t missing a page. Which is just where Bone Crossed picks up… Mercy and Adam figuring out their completely new relationship. Although, to be fair, very, very, very little of this story is about that… mostly it’s about the fall out from Mercy’s actions in  Blood Bound, with just enough romance and emotional connections to make it heart warming and beautiful.

Bone Crossed also introduces a part of Mercy’s past (not to mention her mother) that hadn’t previously been seen. The return of an old nemesis (of sorts), and promise of a clean getaway from Marsilia’s revenge are, as predicted, dramatic. Mercy is forced to literally jump from the frying pan into the fire. And, although you just know that that is what’s happening, the way in which Briggs goes about it is still surprising. The amount of trouble that Mercy finds herself in, and the quarter from which it comes is spine tingling and enjoyable.

Werewolf politics are thoroughly investigated in the first few books of this series. Even the motivations of the fae are delved into a little, but, it’s only in Bone Crossed that the far reaches of vampire politics begin to be explored. There is something about vampires that is not only more terrifying, but also far more convoluted than anything the werewolves or fae have managed to concoct thus far…. Although, that might just be until the next book….

Image source: SF Reviews