Review: River Marked by Patricia Briggs

River Marked

by Patricia Briggs

(Mercy Thompson #6)

Car mechanic Mercy Thompson has always known there was something different about her, and not just the way she can make a VW engine sit up and beg. Mercy is a shapeshifter, a talent she inherited from her long-gone father. She's never known any others of her kind. Until now.
An evil is stirring in the depths of the Columbia River-one that her father's people may know something about. And to have any hope of surviving, Mercy and her mate, the Alpha werewolf Adam, will need their help...

River Marked has different feel to it than the previous Mercy Thompson books. In this installment you get to see more of the relationship between Mercy and Adam as well as get a peek into Mercy's heritage.

The book starts off a few weeks after Silver Borne ended. Mercy is living with Adam in his house. We haven't seen Stefan since the devastating events of Bone Crossed. So while Adam is out of town on business Mercy decides to check in on Stefan and bring him as her date Warren and Kyle's for their weekly bad movie date. Mercy is shocked at the condition that Stefan and is household is in. With the help of Warren and another one of the pack's wolves, Ben, they work on getting Stefan back to his old stuff.

As Mercy and Adam's wedding date gets closer and Mercy's mom is driving her crazy with the planning. Mercy asks Adam if they can elope. After he agrees, Mercy gets a surprise and finds herself at a surprise wedding that Adam's daughter Jesse and Mercy's mom put together at the last minute. After the wedding Adam takes Mercy on a surprise honeymoon.
But it's no regular honeymoon. After all this is Mercy we're talking about. Mercy doesn't have to go looking for trouble it just finds her. And what's a Mercy book without a good mystery and danger?

After a few days of honeymoon bliss (and in my opinion, tons of missed opportunities for the readers to get some smoking scenes from Adam and Mercy, shame on your Ms. Briggs) the mystery part of the books begins and we are introduced to some new characters and get some background on Mercy's father.
So to skip over the main plot of the book so not to give away any spoilers there is danger, bloodshed, death, and a few broken bones. But in the end the big bad is brought down by none other than Mercy our loveable Volkswagen mechanic.

I found this installation in the series to be a little slow at times but if you are a Mercy fan you will enjoy this book.