Showing posts with label Alpha and Omega Series. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Alpha and Omega Series. Show all posts

Monday, December 3, 2012

Review: Fair Game by Patricia Briggs



Fair Game: Alpha and Omega | [Patricia Briggs]Fair Game
by Patricia Briggs
Alpha & Omega #3
Holter Graham (Narrator)
Published March 6th 2012 by Penguin Audiobooks

They say opposites attract. And in the case of werewolves Anna Latham and Charles Cornick, they mate. The son-and enforcer-of the leader of the North American werewolves, Charles is a dominant alpha. While Anna, an omega, has the rare ability to calm others of her kind.

Now that the werewolves have revealed themselves to humans, they can't afford any bad publicity. Infractions that could have been overlooked in the past must now be punished, and the strain of doing his father's dirty work is taking a toll on Charles.

Nevertheless, Charles and Anna are sent to Boston, when the FBI requests the pack's help on a local serial killer case. They quickly realize that not only the last two victims were werewolves-all of them were. Someone is targeting their kind. And now Anna and Charles have put themselves right in the killer's sights...



REVIEW:

Best book in the series so far!

Fair Game had a little bit different feel that the last two books since the POV included someone that was not Anna or Charles. The book actually starts out in the POV of a little girl that we later see as the grown FBI agent that Anna and Charles is partnered with to solve a serial killer case.

There has been some time between the ending of Hunting Ground and Fair Game. Briggs doesn’t come out and give us an exact time frame but it’s at least around a year, maybe even more. Anna makes reference to it being several months since Charles has touched her and the evens with the werewolves coming out to the public are parallel to the timing in the ending River Marked, in the Mercy Thompson series.

After the coming out of the werewolves Bran has been focusing on keeping all the packs under a tight leash so as not to scare the humans. This means Charles’ job as his enforcer has picked up and Charles has become somewhat depressed at all the killing his has to do. He is haunted by the ghosts of the wolves he has killed and is keeping Anna away to keep her safe from them and not wanting her to see him as a monster.

Because of the depression that Charles is in, Anna goes to Bran for help. She tries to talk sense into the old wolf but he knows what’s best for the good of all the wolves and tells her to grow up. But Anna finds the means to finally get through to Bran and he sends her and Charles to Boston to help out with a serial killer case that might have some supe connections.

Helping with the case gives Charles and brother wolf the hunt they need but without being the “monster” that Charles is starting to feel like.

Through out Fair Game Charles and Anna work on the case and on their broken bond and when it’s over the case is solved and the bond is on it’s way to getting stronger.

Even thought the couple has been together since almost the first time they meet, Briggs makes them work for their HEA. Both are damaged in their own way but they are tough and loyal and truly love each other. Yeah the story is about fictional creatures like werewolves but if you put that aside, you can see the truth in their relationship. It’s hard to be married and love someone but it’s worth the everyday fight to keep it together when it’s real.

I so want to spoil you about the ending, it was really good. But let me just say that there is an event that takes place that has changed Briggs’ worlds. It will not doubt show up in Mercy’s books too. It’s that big! Can’t wait to see what both series bring in the future.












Thursday, March 22, 2012

URBAN FANTASY REVIEW: Cry Wolf by Patricia Briggs


 

Cry Wolf (Alpha & Omega, #1)
Cry Wolf
by Patricia Briggs
Narrated by Holter Graham
Series: Alpha and Omega, Book 1
Published July 29th 2008 by Ace
RATING:★★★

This series is set in the same world as the Mercy Thompson Series, but on a slightly earlier time line. It begins with a novella titled Alpha and Omega published in the On the Prowl anthology. The decision to continue the story was made after the anthology had already been published, which has caused some confusion, since "book 1" is a actually a continuation of the short story. The series has plenty of action, but there's more emphasis on the romantic attraction between the hero and heroine. On a romance-readers scale, this series is sweet rather than steamy.

REVIEW:


On the ProwlI highly recommend reading the novella Alpha and Omega before reading Cry Wolf. You will get a better feel for Anna's character and why hers and Charles' relationship is a little strained. And since the novella really reads like the first couple of chapters of Cry Wolf this review is going to be over both.

I'm a fan of Briggs's Mercy Thompson Series, so I decided to give the Alpha and Omega series a try. The timeline in both series over lap and I meet a few of the characters in A&O while reading MT.

In Alpha and Omega, after Anna's forced change into a werewolf three years ago she is living an abused life with her current pack in Chicago. She can no longer stay silence to the acts that are taking place in the pack and contacts Bran, the North American leader of the werewolf nation. Bran sends his son Charles to see what is going on. Charles meets Anna and recognizes her as an Omega wolf and his mate. Charles helps out with the pack problem in Chicago and with the help of his father they get Anna agree to return to their home in Montana. That's where Cry Wolf picks up.

Once in Montana, Anna is still dealing emotional pain from her life with the Chicago pack. She and Charles wolves are attracted to one another but the human sides are taking it much slower. Anna was kept ignorant of many werewolf ways in her last pack so she is learning as she goes. Charles has never really had a love life so he is new to the mating idea as well.

The two go into the deep woods of Montana in order to help solve the case of a rouge werewolf that has  killed at least once and attacked others. Charles would rather leave Anna behind to protect her but Bran tells Charles to take her with him so that they can have some alone time to get to know each other and he believes that Anna's effects of being an Omega could help bring the rouge in with a fight.

Once the pair gets into the case of the rouge they are meet with more than they bargained for. Their is a dark witch in the woods and she has plans for revenge on one of Charles' pack mates. After some life and death moments the two comes out a stronger mated pair. But I positive that we will still some of Anna's past abuse get between the two in the next book, Hunting Ground.

I really enjoyed this Mercy spin off story and I look forward to reading the next book. And I do mean READING the next book. I checked out the audio book from the library to give me something to listen to in the car and at work. I didn't really care for the narration by Holter Graham. He never really changed his voice for the different characters. It made it a little hard at times to know who was speaking. I think if I had read Cry Wolf I would have given it another star since I really enjoyed reading Alpha and Omega.




Cry Wolf is available at:

I downloaded my audio copy from my local library.