Patricia Briggs 'Bone Crossed'

This is book four in the much touted Mercy Thompson series. Mercy is a coyote shape shifter, her boss was a fae metalworker (who sold her his auto repair garage), she was raised by werewolves, her neighbor is the Alpha for the local werewolf pack and her favorite customer is a vampire.

I'm not sure I can objectively review this book. I've been well and truly sucked into the Mercy Thompson fan club so telling you that the fourth installment in her story is really, really good, probably won't mean a lot. I can say that the plot clips along as usual and Mercy continues to be a ridiculously decent person. I do wonder when she is going to go into full system shut down with all the trouble she keeps digging up, but then I don't want the stories to end any time soon, so....

If by some chance you haven't read any of the Mercy Thompson books, and you like fantasy at all, even remotely, pick up Moon Called. You won't be disappointed.

Spoiler Alert: I like Stephen and thought Mercy was a bit hard on him with the killing innocents thing, but why are all these boys still pining for her as she and Adam solidify things?? And was Amber just a little too convenient of a character?

Fantasy Novel 2009: 4.5 of 5 animated corpses.

Patricia Briggs 'Cry Wolf'

You may have noticed I'm quite into Patricia Briggs lately. A good friend just gave me Robin McKinley's book Chalice and the two authors remind me of each other. Not in the writing style, but in the power of the characters and storylines.

Cry Wolf is probably my least favorite Patricia Briggs book so far. I suppose any book that is related to the Mercy Thompson books but doesn't have her in it, is going to be a difficult sell. Mercy's (relatively) complicated world doesn't draw me, she does.

Anyway, Anna is an Omega wolf. She's been abused by her pack leader in Chicago and when the marrok finds out about it, the alpha of her pack is killed and she's taken back to Montana for safe keeping. Charles, the marrok's son and his enforcer, recognizes her as his mate....

I was annoyed that being an Omega is not explained, and I didn't really buy the fact that no one explained it completely to Anna, much less to me. Way too much of the book's plot relied on the fact that Anna and Charles are very taciturn. Okay, there's taciturn, and then there's taciturn.

I like Patricia Briggs, she writes a good story, I just didn't love either of these characters. There was a lot that could have been avoided if a few of the characters had talked to each other at all, so the plot didn't ring as true to me as it might have otherwise.

Fantasy Werewolf Fiction 2008: 2.5 out of 5 immortal Spanish witches.

Patricia Briggs 'Moon Called'

I read my first Patricia Briggs book this year and really dug it, and I'd seen a lot of fans of the Mercy Thompson books so I picked up this one, the first in the series. I don't know that I liked it as much as 'Steal The Dragon' which was all about the female protagonist, I barely remember the love interest in that one. Mercy is surrounded by men who love her. Older characters who are looking out for her, younger characters who have crushes on her and then the characters who outright vie for her affections, although she gives them little encouragement.

Mercy as a character is terrific, she's stubborn, smart but willing to act impulsively for things she thinks are right and worth some risk. She also thinks she knows the limits of her abilities (a smart/likable trait) but keeps finding that they might be wider than she thought (a lovely trait in a fantasy character).

There's the female teenage sidekick type character who needs to be rescued, a very convoluted bad guy plot, and a bunch of werewolves running around. I will knock the book for the overly convoluted bad guy plot, but I personally didn't mind too much as I was more interested in the character development and the world building. I have to guess that the author was as well.

The only other defect, although that's a strong word, was the number of males vieing for Mercy's affections. I mentioned I don't even remember the love interest in Stealing the Dragon, that's because that book was only marginally about love. This book spends a lot of time obliquely fixed on Mercy's possible male match-up's and while that tension drew me through a lot of the book, it's not resolved at the end. I knew this wasn't a romance novel, so I didn't feel cheated by the lack of resolution, but if it ain't a romance novel, maybe I can complain a little about the focus on (in this werewolf world) mates.

That being said, I love P. Brigg's female characters. They're tough, but use their smarts, not their brawn to get out of the trouble that their soft hearts get them into. I would highly recommend this book to lovers of urban fantasy/women protagonist fiction. This is a good one, and I'm looking forward to the rest of the series.

Patricia Briggs 'Steal The Dragon'

One of my pet peeves, there are many, is when titles of books are inserted into the book awkwardly. Not only did I enjoy this book thoroughly, but the title is very cleverly taken from the story. I won't categorize this book as a romance, although there is a romantic relationship that develops, mostly because there is no sex. I know there is an entire section of romance that does not include coitus but those aren't the books I typically read or review.

Rialla is a former Daran slave who escaped to the mercenary nation of Siamin, where she is now a horse trainer. She is recruited to return to Daran posing as a slave again to help protect a Daranian lord who wants to end slavery in Daran, a dangerous endeavor.

I particularly liked how, while she has been trained as a mercenary (everyone is in Siamin) as a horse trainer, she is realistically less skilled in combat than some of her companions and more skilled in outwitting her enemies. The plot unfolds quickly and well. If you really enjoy fight scenes, these may not be riveting, but I liked the way they were more about smarts than gore. The characters are not completely stock and genuinely different from each other, not something you always see in genre fiction. And finally the world creation is terrific. I was completely sucked in and enjoyed the ride.

SF/Fantasy Girl Power 1995: 4.5 of 5 sylvan mages.