Review of Fire Touched by Patricia Briggs

 

Review of “Fire Touched” A Mercy Thompson novel by Patricia Briggs

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The ninth book in this series starts to suffer from the weight of the world that Briggs has built. This book revolves around the politics between the Fae and the wolves and vampires that live in the city. The Fae were the focus of books three and five and have had small presences in other books. “Fire Touched” focuses on the politics of the Fae and their home world of Underhill.

The book opens with a troll attack on a bridge, and Mercy and the wolves try to help save civilians. I found this opening to be too drawn out and boring, but it’s the catalyst for a war brewing with the Grey Lords, a council of leaders of Fae kind. Mercy’s old fae friend, Z brings her a young-looking boy that has escaped from Underhill. The boy, Aiden, was a human that looks like a twelve-year-old but has spent centuries in Underhill and developed fire powers.

The Grey Lords want Aiden to be turned over to them, to study why and how he has Fae powers, as well as how he survived and escaped Underhill. The Fae races were cut off from Underhill years ago and long to return. Mercy and Adam help protect Aiden from the Grey Lords, in the mix they met up with a vampire Mercy met in another book, who is traveling with an old Fae woman. The groups met up with the Grey Lords, who state that if Mercy can retrieve an artifact from Underhill, they will give a truce to stay out of the cities.

Mercy and Adam with the guide of Aiden navigate their way through Underhill to retrieve the artifact. Aiden has to face off with Underhill itself, and they trade an unborn life (a chicken egg) in order to be granted permission to leave. The group makes it back and everything works out between the Grey Lords. There is also a small subplot with Babayaga, who gives Mercy advice about dealing with the Fae, like bringing an egg with her. Then it’s revealed that the Babayaga is actually behind a multi-level marketing essential oils company, using real magic in the products.

While there are a few good moments, such as the ending in Underhill, most this book is dull and redundant. This book suffers from too many new characters making it hard to keep track of who is who. None of the Grey Lords make any impression, except the one we met last book. I do like the new older fae woman that just wants to sleep with her vampire protector, but that plot doesn’t really go anywhere. The main plot of Fae politics is also hard to follow because the conflict is thin, and it slows the pacing of the book. I found myself slogging through this one. I kept putting it off and putting it off. It just didn’t capture my interest. It’s not the worst story in the series, the plot is fair but for me it might be the most boring book in the series so far.

I liked getting to see more of Underhill and learning about some of the history of the Fae. I don’t think it was really ever explained how Aiden got fire powers, but it doesn’t have to, I guess. Here's hoping that the next book is better, because I really do like the characters and the urban fantasy world the Patricia Briggs has built.

 

Review of Night Broken by Patricia Briggs

 

Review of “Night Broken” A Mercy Thompson novel by Patricia Briggs

The 8th book in the series manages to find fresh new ideas without losing track of the stories that came before. This book touches on storylines that were introduced in the previous books without losing focus of the main plot line and even ties them together. After hating the fifth book, I was nervous returning to the series. But I loved book 6, really liked the first half of book seven, and book 8 has been really enjoyable to read. This book introduces new characters, new supernatural threats and makes it feel natural to the stories already told with these characters.

In previous books we’ve heard mention of Adam’s ex-wife Christy, but this book finally lets us see Mercy and Christy go head-to-head for Adams affection. In the 6th book, we met a version of Mercy’s father in Coyote, and he returns in this book along with a new half-brother named Gary Laughingdog. Gary is also a coyote shapeshifter, like Mercy, but he also has powers of premonitions that looks like seizures. This book also gives some more character development to Honey, who at the end of the last book lost her husband. Honey has been a side-side character since the second or third book, a member of Adams wolf pack. Mercy and Honey never really liked each other, but with the presence of Christy and the loss of her husband, Honey and Mercy bond a bit. Honey even catches the eye of Gary, because like Mercy he can see the ghost of her dead husband. As a reader, it’s nice to get to know more of the wolf pack members.

One of the things that I like about this book, is that the narrative stays focused on the main storyline. Christy comes into town because she has a dangerous stalker that turns out to be an ancient God from the Canary Islands. Mercy and the pack need to find this man and figure out how to defeat a lava God. The only side plot is the fairy Grey Lord confronts Mercy, demanding the return of the walking stick artifact. At first this plot seems a bit weird, but it ties in with the main storyline, because Mercy gave the walking stick to Coyote, and she meets Gary to find Coyote. At the end Coyote helps them defeat the lava god. And the walking stick returns to Mercy. It was an interesting way to introduce the son of the creator of the fae walking stick, since he’s a grey Lord, while staying connected to the plot.

We also meet a couple that breed dogs and help Mercy to find the villain because he has a rare dog breed. They’re a cute couple but sadly at the end of the book the man gets turned into lava dog that the villain uses to attack Mercy and the pack. While a permanent change to poor Joel, there is hope that he can shift back to human form.

As a woman, I kind of enjoyed the bickering and struggle of Adam’s attention between Mercy and Christy. Mercy seems a bit petty and childish, but deservingly so based on Christy’s annoying behavior. I enjoy the relationship drama and love that Adam never once thinks about leaving Mercy for Christy, and she knows it. It finally shows some trust in their relationship. Christy is a fun character; you sort of hate her for coming in to be a homewrecker, but you also have sympathy for her. The lava god stalker named Juan Flores or his true name of Goyota, was an interesting villain with cool powers and demon dogs, but never gets any characterization. His main motive is that he believes Christy is the reincarnation of his true love, wife from centuries ago. Juan Flores proves to be a formidable threat, but ultimately is kind of lame in terms of characterization.

Other than the villain, the only other flaw is that this book sort of shoehorns in the vampire ongoing drama. The last book ended, needlessly, with the vampires fighting and this book sort of continues it. It’s only a few brief scenes, but that makes it feel even more useless. The vampire Wolf, calls Mercy up to meet him at his house, and he plays coy with her and Adam, almost trying to seduce them into a threesome, when Stefan shows up. Wolf then poaches Stefan about joining Marsilia, Mistress of the vampires. The information about Goyota lava god, could have been obtained without needing to involve the vampires, something I feel the author thinks she’s obligated to add in each book. We had two books early on that focuses on the vampires, we can leave them alone for one book, or do something big with Stefan again, but having him pop in for a scene or two feels obligatory and gratuitous.

Overall, I really enjoyed this book, I’d probably rank it towards the top of the series so far. I’m hoping that the books continue to stay good, and we never get a repeat of the wandering narrative that was book 5. Night Broken is a solid entry and provides new characters to use going forward. I hope Gary Laughingdog comes back. The book had more comedy and investigation than action, which I enjoyed. Goyota is a powerful and scary villain, so the comedy is a good way to keep the tone balanced. I love exploring new supernatural beings and creatures. I love when the books expand the world, and we learn more information about the fae and the rules of supernatural beings and Mercy’s father Coyote. Hopefully, the series will continue to expand, these books are at their best when Mercy is interacting with characters that we enjoy.

Review of Frost Burned by Patricia Briggs

            A review of “Frost Burned” A Mercy Thompson novel by Patricia Briggs

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After loving the last book, I was hoping the seventh book in the series would also be good. This book is a bit of a mixed mag for me, but I will look back on it as one of the better books so far in the series. “Frost Burned” starts out with action and has a good flow for the first half of the book. Mercy gets into a car accident, the pack wolves get kidnapped, Mercy must get her boyfriend’s daughter to safety, while Ben the werewolf is struggling with silver poisoning. Then Mercy, Ben and Stefan the vampire go to Kyle’s house, who was being held hostage. Kyle was the lover of a pack wolf named Warren, and friends with Mercy. Stefan takes out the bad guys and then we get introduced to a new wolf called The Moor, who is legendary. Then Mercy gets attacked by assassins and hit with some fae magic while trying to rescue Adam's daughter and her boyfriend’s family.

After all that chaos, the book finally slows down, but becomes more about long drawn-out explanations and exposition. It really hits the brakes. This is also the first book that deviates from Mercy’s point of view, where we get Adam’s perspective of events, probably to avoid more exposition. But it was interesting, being out of Mercy’s P.O.V. For a while. Last the quarter of the book, takes a strange turn. The vampire mistress, Marsillia, calls Mercy to help her fight against a big bad vampire that we briefly met in a previous book. It’s mentioned that this vampire hired the mercenaries that kidnapped the werewolves, but that doesn’t explain the mercenaries plan about having Adam kill a senator. So, the ending gets a bit sloppy. Of course, Mercy and her friends defeat this new “big bad” vampire and she remains on good terms with Marsillia.

I really enjoyed this book for the first half, the action was great, and the pacing flew by. The motivation of the mercenaries capturing the pack didn’t make a ton of sense, especially trying to tie it in at the end with the vampire. The villains were lame, but the concept was cool. I like seeing Mercy team up with Ben and Stefan for a bit. We resolve a side story that started in book five with Jesse’s boyfriend Gabriel feuding with his mother. There was a bit more of the fae magic, with Z’s son Tad joining the mix in this book. I loved including these side characters, because these books are at their best when the characters are interacting with each other.

One of the things that bothered me, is there is no Samuel and instead we find out that he and the fae woman that he met at the end of book five are now living together. It just feels like a rushed story line, that reminds me why I really didn’t like the fifth book. Mercy and her now husband Adam are separated for the first half of this book creating an interesting dynamic. We also get a few mentions of Mercy’s sort of real father the Coyote, who helps her with magic to save Adam. The book slows down a lot when Mercy and Adam reunite and the whole mercenary plot is conveniently wrapped up with a nice little bow, before Mercy must face off with the “big bad” vampire. The new character called the Moor, is interesting and I hope we learn more about his history and relationship with Bran the leader of all werewolves in America.

This book suffers from a few of the same issues that most of the other books do. Adam and Mercy’s relationship wasn’t great in this book, he comes off as way too possessive of her, and she of him. They resolve their issues by having lots of sex at inappropriate times. Which is supposed to show us they are so in love, they can’t keep their hands off each other, but these are grown adults. It’s sort of implied that their animal counterparts’ basic instincts take over, but it plays as more of a possessive quality, than “I’m so in love”. I really enjoyed the fast-paced action in the first half of the book and getting more time with side characters, but the second half slows down and loses my interest. Also, the surprise ending of inserting the character Frost – whom the book is titled after – feels like an after thoughts; and raises more questions than it answers.

Overall, I still really enjoyed this book, and it had some really good moments out of the series. If the book had stopped halfway through, this would be a top tier novel of the series, unfortunately it went on to bore me. This is not the best in the series but it’s also not the worst. So far for me, it ranks right in the middle. Let’s see if the series gets better.