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(Hardcover)
New in the #1 New York Times bestselling urban fantasy series.
In a world where "witches, vampires, werewolves, and shape-shifters live beside ordinary people" (Booklist), it takes a very unusual woman to call it home. By day, Mercy Thompson is a car mechanic in Eastern Washington. By night, she explores her preternatural side. As a shape-shifter with some unusual talents, Mercy's found herself maintaining a tenuous harmony between the human and the not-so- human on more than one occasion. This time she may get more than she bargained for.
Briggs makes a well-deserved move into hardcover with the rousing fourth adventure for kick-ass were-coyote auto mechanic Mercedes Thompson. Healing in body and spirit after the events of 2008's Iron Kissed, Mercy is preparing to marry alpha werewolf Adam Hauptman when an old friend asks her to help fend off a nasty ghost. It's a good time for Mercy to leave Portland, Ore.: vampire queen Marsilia is after her and her vampire friend Stefan for successfully hunting down a monster that should have killed them. Mercy leaves Adam to negotiate peace with Marsilia and heads to Spokane, Wash., to investigate the ghost, an unexpectedly complicated task. Though action supersedes characterization, the preternatural culture of vampire seethes and wolf pack politics is deeply intriguing. Briggs provides plenty of detail about Mercy's complex world without boring info-dumps, satisfying both new and longtime readers. (Feb.)
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September 13, 2009: I cannot get enough Mercy stories!
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September 12, 2009: The Mercy Thompson series was my first real foray into "urban fantasy." I was a little worried, as the urban fantasy genre can be utterly terrible, but as Patricia Briggs's proves here, it can be absolutely wonderful if done right.
One of my pet peeves in the urban fantasy genre is the standard "overly sexy, sort of gooey female heroine," if that makes any sense. Whatever the bad version of heroine is, it isn't Mercy. She's normal (aside from being a walker), with just the right amount of humor, strength, and capability. She's not your vapid, stupidly self-sacrificing, "oh please come save me, powerful immortal boyfriend!" (*cough BELLA cough*), but she has an awareness of her limits as a coyote in a world of vampires, werewolves, and fae and accepts the occasional rescue if necessary. If Twilight had characters like Mercy and Adam and Sam, it would have been a good book.The romance is perfect, too. I know people expect this series to be paranormal romance books, and they are but it's very subtle. It takes until books three and four before things really start to develop. A little tame for those looking specifically for romance, but I appreciated the natural course of Mercy's romance... romances. It was the hinting that made the reading worthwhile. Incremental revelation is what literature and life are all about.In addition, Briggs deals with some very serious topics in a very real way. Mercy reacts and heals like a normal person after the events in book three (again, kudos to Briggs for having a heroine in a tough spot who deals with her tormentor herself without waiting for aid from the bf and pack).I read all four of these books at once. Thank goodness for the Kindle for iPhone. I couldn't download them fast enough. Briggs has done a great job with this series. I was delighted to hear that there are more coming, and very sad that I'll have to wait a year to read the next one.In the meantime, I am lovin' the K S Michaels series.I Also Recommend: Untamed (House of Night Series #4), Tempting Danger, Mortal Danger, Blood Lines, Night Season.