Review of Storm Cursed by Patricia Briggs

 Review of Storm Cursed by Patricia Briggs

After being disappointed by the last two books, they had their moment, I was pleasantly surprised to find that I really enjoyed Storm Cursed. This book opens with Mercy and a couple of wolves going to a farmer’s barn to take care of a pesky goblin. Larry the Goblin King from the last book returns here, to help. I like the addition of exploring the goblins and other fae. Mercy then encounters zombie goats, and that’s when the plot really kicks in. This book focuses on witches and black magic. The witch Elisaveta that works for the pack is the focus, after her family is killed when a rival coven blows into town. Mercy and her husband (pack Alpha) Adam discover that Elizaveta has been using black magic, something that is prohibited amongst Adam’s pack.

This book also picks up on the plot that was established in Frost Burned, concerning the vampire Frost, and the plot to assassinate a senator. It ties the witches and the Frost plot all together. It was a good conclusion to a plot that was lazily dealt with in another book. The witches we meet here are scary and pose a real threat to Mercy and her team, which adds more weight and urgency to the situation. The witches turn creatures into zombies and even had a dragon. Yes, a dragon has finally appeared in this urban fantasy series.

One of the things that I really enjoyed about this book is that it is a return to form for the Mercy Thompson series. Mercy is working in her automotive garage with Z and his son Tad. We hangout at the fae bar with Uncle Mike, we explore a new type of supernatural thing (witches), we get Stefan the vampire and we get more of the vampire named Wolf. It feels like a Mercy Thompson story in a way that the last two books didn’t.

This book also brings back Mercy’s sort of father, Coyote, and her brother makes a cameo, just to remind you, these characters are still around. Coyote is a fun character and I always enjoy learning more about him and explaining Mercy’s powers to her. A few books ago, there was a new wolf to join the pack named Sherwood. He was a background pack character that had a mysterious past. Well, this book tells you exactly who Sherwood is, and that he was captured an enslaved by a coven in the past, thus his expertise is required for the current situation. This book does a great job balancing the threat with the witches and checking in with beloved characters that we’ve missed.

Overall, I really enjoyed this movie, it might even be my third favorite in the series, behind “River Marked”. I loved having witches as the villain, they were scary, and the ending was tragic, killing off a character that I liked. The stakes of this story were high, and I loved catching up with old characters. The pacing never dragged making it an easy read. Hopefully the next book will also be a good one.

Review of Silence Fallen by Patricia Briggs

 

Review of "Silence Fallen" by Patricia Briggs

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This book picks up a few months after the events of the last book, and immediately goes into the story plot. Mercy is kidnapped and taken to Italy, and then escapes to Prague, all without her mate Adam knowing what happened or where she is. The whole book takes places in Europe which is nice to have a change of setting for the characters. Mercy eventually is able to get a message out, and Adam flies to Italy with a group of people; two being vampires (Stefan and Marsilia), a witch, goblins and werewolves. They meet with Marsillia’s old lover, the vampire Master of Milan, Jakob Bonarata. Mercy seeks refuge with a wolf pack in Prague but gets caught up with other vampires, ghosts and a golem. Eventually Adam rescues her without creating trouble with Bonarata, who was the one that kidnapped her in the first place.

While I do like the change of location, and exploring the supernatural creatures in Europe, I found the overall story a bit boring at times. This book, unlike previous ones, changes perspective from Mercy to Adam, which I found it a bit jarring at times. Although it was nice to see how things were unfolding from Adam’s side of the mission. Adam can sometimes be a hot head leader, so it was interesting to see him remain reserved around Bonarata and concede to Marsilia’s advice when dealing with the Master of Milan.

Unfortunately, this book suffers from too many characters. Not only do we get some returning characters but we also get introduced to a ton of new characters all of which have a small presence. The new major players are Bonarata, and Lebore the alpha wolf of the pack in Prague. Lebore has history with Bran, Mercy’s surrogate father figure and head of the wolves in America. So, I’m curious if we will get more of that story or not. This book also does some connecting the dots with previous books, tying up lose ends.

We also get our first character that is a goblin, named Larry. While this book is mostly vampire centric, it does a good job of introducing goblins and golems are supernatural/fae beings. The one thing I have always loved about these books is the world that Briggs has created. It’s an urban fantasy that isn’t super dark in tone but rather feels like a real world that we could live in.

Ultimately, this was a mixed book for me. I wasn’t drawn into it and found myself getting bored with the plot during the last third of the book. The final conflict was disappointing, and I don’t like it when the author brings something in at the end that had nothing to do with the major plot of the story. Unlike the last book, “Silence Fallen” did a better job handling the politics between the various supernatural and fae races, while introducing new characters and ideas. The change of setting was fun and getting a glimpse into how other vampire seethes and wolf pack are run was interesting.

This series is at it’s best when the characters are interacting and responding to each other. I really enjoyed Adam having to spend time with Marsilia and Stefan, plus we get more of Elizaveta the witch, and Larry the Goblin king was a fun addition to the group. The book also has a recurring Matt Smith is the Doctor, joke that I appreciate being a fan of the show Doctor Who. While the side trip to Europe was a nice change of scenery, I look forward to getting back to the Tri-Cities location, and a more standard Mercy Thompson story next novel.