Fan-Lit: Review of Smoke Bitten by Patricia Briggs

Review of Smoke Bitten by Patricia Briggs

After really enjoying the last book, I was hopeful that “Smoke Bitten” would be another solid entry into the series. I think this book starts off good, but sort of loses its way as it goes. The ending was a bit rushed and anticlimactic. The main story revolves around a fae creature that gets loose from Underhill, the original land of the fae, and bites people in order to take control of their bodies and do their bidding. The book opens up with a scene at Mercy’s old house right next to Adam’s pack house, which was nice to see. It’s starts off as a murder mystery and on the hunt for a smoke biting rabbit. There’s also a subplot with Adam dealing with a curse on his wolf, and it feels rather strung out and annoying, rather than Adam actually dealing with the repercussions of the ending of the last book. Mercy figures out a way to help Adam, even when the story goes to some dark places.

While I like the mystery of the smoke beast and how it connects to the fae and Underhill, I feel like there’s not enough scenes with the actual smoke beast to make the ending satisfying. There’s also another subplot involving rogue wolves trying to take over the pack. They take over the middle part of the book, and barely factor into the smoke beast plot. There’s a female wolf that is apparently very deadly, and she’s disposed of too easily at the end.

This book also deals more with some of the pack members, picking up on stuff that was established in other books. Unfortunately the vampire Stefan gets benched this book, but they do mention the scary vampire named Wolf that has decided to stalk Mercy. Wolf even temporarily takes away the powers of the fire touched child Aidan, that Mercy and Adam has adopted as a son for public appearances.

We do get a few scenes with Z, Mercy’s mentor, and his college aged son Tad, working in the garage with Mercy, which is always fun. Adam’s daughter Jessie even hangs out with Tad because her friend has a crush on him, and because Tad is a powerful fae that can protect her. At the beginning of the book, Jessie mom, Christy starts some drama, causing some people to turn briefly on Mercy, over that fact that Jessie is going to go to a local college rather than the universities she got accepted into. It’s a small plot, but one that adds some levity throughout the book.

So, overall I enjoyed this book, but I think some problems with the Adam’s wolf storyline and the vagueness of the smoke beast, weigh it down. I always love these books for the interactions between Mercy and the characters, and it was nice to return to fae focused plot. This book reminds me of book seven "Frost Burned", where I really like the first half, then the second half slows down and everything is resolved too neatly with vague explanations for how it all fits together.

There is a new book in the series coming out in 2022, titled “Soul Taken”. As soon as I can I will read that book and do a review. There is a Mercy Thompson spin-off series called “Alpha and Omega” based on Charles the son of Bran Cornick, the Leader of the wolves, and surrogate father to Mercy, and Charles' mate Anna. So, I’ll do reviews of those books as I read them. There is also a collection of short stories about Mercy Thompson that I might try to read as I read Alpha and Omega, but I will be taking some time off from this world, in order to read some other kinds of books and more short stories for the Halloween season.

Thanks for reading these reviews, let me know what you thoughts are in the comments section. If you like werewolf stories you can read mine on Wattpad "The Lunar Spirit".

https://www.wattpad.com/story/306771957-the-lunar-spirit