Audio Review: Frost Burned by Patricia Briggs

Frost Burned 

by Patricia Briggs 

(Mercy Thompson #7)
Narrated by Lorelei King

Mercy Thompson’s life has undergone a seismic change. Becoming the mate of Adam Hauptman—the charismatic Alpha of the local werewolf pack—has made her a stepmother to his daughter Jesse, a relationship that brings moments of blissful normalcy to Mercy’s life. But on the edges of humanity, what passes for a minor mishap on an ordinary day can turn into so much more…

After an accident in bumper-to-bumper traffic, Mercy and Jesse can’t reach Adam—or anyone else in the pack for that matter. They’ve all been abducted.

Through their mating bond, all Mercy knows is that Adam is angry and in pain. With the werewolves fighting a political battle to gain acceptance from the public, Mercy fears Adam’s disappearance may be related—and that he and the pack are in serious danger. Outclassed and on her own, Mercy may be forced to seek assistance from any ally she can get, no matter how unlikely

The Heroine: Mercy Thompson is a skinwalker (coyote shifter) that grew up within a wolf pack. She's the town mechanic and she can see ghosts. Mercy is not really the alpha type herione. She can't go one book without getting bloody and bruised but she can take care of herself. She is much like her coyote form, wiley and resourceful where she lacks the werewolf strength. It also helps that her skinwalker magic is different than wolf magic in the way that she cannot be controled by vampires and other plus for her is that fae objects of power seem to like her.

The Alpha: Adam Hauptman is the alpha of the local werewolf pack and Mercy's mate and husband. I like that Adam is the type of alpha that knows to give his woman a little space to do her own thing. He knows that Mercy is an independent woman and even after they mated he still lets her be who she is, within reason.


The Plot: I was wondering if we would see more about the events that took place at the end of Fair Game, the campanion series. But we didn't and I was little disappointment by that. But we did get to see some fae and vampire action this time around when Mercy has to reach out for help when Adam and the pack is kidnapped. We get to see more of Mercy and Adam connecting through their mate bond and I really enjoyed seeing some scenes through Adam's POV. All in all I enjoyed Frost Burned a little more than the last book, River Market becuase it moved at a faster pace.


The Series:  Mercy Thompson is one of the best examples of a well written urban fantasy series with lovable characters reader really care about. Patirica Briggs keeps me entertained book after book. If I had to find something to complaint about, it would be the lack of smexy scenes in the series. Yes it's Urban Fantasy but even some UF has sexy times and sex scenes. Briggs glosses over them which most of the time doesn't bother me but I would like to get at least one hot scene with Mercy and Adam. I'll just have to get my smut fix from other books. I'm every excited that we will not have another 2 year wait for the next book in the series, Night Broken is schedule to release in 204, at least according to Goodreads. 

The Narration: I received an arc from Ace but I'm so behind on my reading backlist so when I saw that my library had Frost Burned on audio I jumped at checking out so I could get the book finished faster.

I've read all the other books in the series so I wasn't sure what to expect starting the audio since the narrator was Lorelei King. I love King's work on Darynda Jones' Charley Davidson series but I never would have pictured her as Mercy's voice. I guess because I consider Mercy's world a little darker and Mercy more serious. But after listening to King bring Mercy to life I'm viewing Mercy in a different light. I think with King's narration I picked up on more of the snark and humor that I didn't pick up in earlier books by reading them. 

Other books in the series:

        

Review: Hunting Ground by Patricia Briggs

Hunting Ground

by Patricia Briggs

#2 in the Alpha & Omega series

Published August 25th 2009 by Penguin Audiobooks

Mated to werewolf Charles Cornick, the son—and enforcer—of the leader of the North American werewolves, Anna Latham now knows how dangerous being a werewolf is, especially when a werewolf who opposes Charles and his father is struck down. Charles’s reputation makes him the prime suspect, and the penalty for the crime is execution. Now Anna and Charles must combine their talents to hunt down the real killer—or Charles will take the fall.

Ok. In the review of Cry Wolf I stated that I would READ the rest of the series because of my dislike for the narrator. Well….I listened to Hunting Game on audio because it was only 8 hours and I knew I could get it done in one day at work. And this time around the narrator didn’t bother me as much. I guess I got use to his voice as the characters. And I have Fair Game on audio since they offered it during a sale at audible.com and it was cheaper that the book. YES I’m cheap.

I really enjoy Briggs writing, world and characters. I like seeing that Anna and Charles are getting more comfortable with each other in each book. Charles is not a touchy feely guy. He doesn’t use words, not that he’s not smart but he choosing to show his feelings with actions. Anna is still recovering from her time with her old pack before she and Charles meet. She very much needs the words that Charles finds hard to use but he is learning how to be more vocal with Anna. She is learning how to be more physical with Charles. Touching him more and not just in a sexual way. Wolves live for touching their mates and pack members. They are both slowly teaching each other how to over come their weaknesses.

If you’ve read Brigg’s Mercy Thompson series then you know there are other supes than the werewolves and in this installment we get to see vampires and fae. Charles and Anna go in his father’s place to a big werewolf summit in Seattle where there are attacks on some of wolves and mates by vampires that seem to be hired by a wolf.

As the mystery unfolds; we really get to see Anna shine. She is starting to show how an Omega can be just as ass kick as an Alpha but in a different way.

After I finish writing this review, I’m jumping right into the audio of Fair Game. If you are a fan of werewolves you should give this series a try.

URBAN FANTASY REVIEW: Cry Wolf by Patricia Briggs

 

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:


I 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:

Amazon | Barnes & Noble 

I downloaded my audio copy from my local library.

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.