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.