Friday, March 14, 2014

Review: Night Broken

Night Broken (Mercy Thompson - Book 8) by Patricia Briggs

Publication Date: 03/11/2014
Publisher: Penguin Group
Imprint: Ace Books
Genre: Urban Fantasy
Pages: 352
ISBN-10: 042525674X
ISBN-13: 978-0425256749

(Received for an honest review from Ace Books)

Purchase: Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Book Depository, Indiebound

Patricia Briggs on the WEB: website, twitter, facebook, goodreads

Books in the series

Click on the links for my review of previous books in the series.

Mercedes Thompson

1. Moon Called 
2. Blood Bound 
3. Iron Kissed 
4. Bone Crossed 
5. Silver Borne 
6. River Marked 
7. Frost Burned 
8. Night Broken 



Coverart: Click the Image for a larger, clearer view of the covers in this series.




Excerpt from, Night Broken, courtesy of the author's website.

Synopsis:

 #1 New York Times bestselling author Patricia Briggs’s Mercy Thompson series has been hailed as “one of the best” (Fiction Vixen). Now, Mercy must deal with an unwanted guest—one that brings a threat unlike anything she’s ever known.
 
An unexpected phone call heralds a new challenge for Mercy. Her mate Adam’s ex-wife is in trouble, on the run from a stalker. Adam isn’t the kind of man to turn away a person in need—and Mercy knows it. But with Christy holed up in Adam’s house, Mercy can’t shake the feeling that something about the situation isn’t right.
 
Soon, her suspicions are confirmed when she learns that Christy has the farthest thing from good intentions. She wants Adam back and she’s willing to do whatever it takes to make it happen, including turning Adam’s pack against Mercy.
 
Mercy isn’t about to step down without a fight, but there’s a more dangerous threat circling. Christy’s stalker is more than a bad man—in fact, he may not be human at all. As the bodies start piling up, Mercy must put her personal troubles aside to face a creature with the power to tear her whole world apart.


Thoughts:

Night Broken is the eighth installment in the Mercy Thompson series by Patricia Briggs. Briggs is another one of those authors that knows what it takes to keep a series fresh and original. This is book eight in a series that is still going strong. Each book moves the series forward and incorporates new and interesting characters while exploring the myths of many different cultures. With Mercy Thompson you have a little bit of everything, shapeshifters of all kinds, werewolves, vampires and fae and many creatures most urban fantasy fans haven't even heard of. Briggs continues to amaze with every new addition to the series. A great urban fantasy read!

What I liked:

One of the many reasons I love this series is Mercy Thompson herself. What an amazing character that Patricia Briggs has created. Mercy is tough as nails and when she loves she loves hard. Now that she and Adam are settling in to married life, you would think things would settle down a little bit, but not in Mercy Thompson's world. I love the fact that no matter what happens Mercy takes it all in stride and does her best to fix everything. She is one badass mechanic and coyote shifter. I just love her as a character. We get to see her softer side from time to time and that's nice as well. But nobody walks on this chick including the alpha's ex-wife.

The main theme of this particular book is the fact that Adams's ex-wife Christy is being stalked by a very bad man. He is a real killer and her life is actually in danger, but she has ulterior motives in seeking the packs protection. She plays on Mercy's good intentions and worms her way back into Adams life, knowing all along she has a plan to get him back. Christy was a real piece of work. One of the qualities that I think shows Briggs is a good author, is the fact that she can make you strongly dislike characters. If she can bring out that kind of emotion from the reader, she knows what she's doing. And I really disliked this woman. LOL! Christy gets her just rewards in the end though, and it was oh so satisfying.

It was kind of disturbing to see Mercy treated like an outsider again by the pack. She is the alpha's choice and I felt like they should have respected that. It is their duty as members of the pack to have her back and I really felt like they didn't here. But I think that was all in the plan. Briggs is up to something with this and I'm interested to see where she's going. Christy's big plan was to turn the pack against Mercy and it was way too easy for her to start doing that. But Mercy showed that she was the bigger person. The pack may not have had her best interests at heart, but she always has their's in mind. 

The relationship between Mercy and Adam really shines in this book. Urban Fantasy books don't usually have a lot of romance as a rule and this series is really no different, but it has it's moments and this book showed that. Mercy and Adam stood together, they had each other's backs and they were determined to make it work. Adam's love for Mercy was so obvious that it was quite beautiful and her fierce love for him was truly amazing to read about. I just love them together. I'm glad that's direction Briggs took them. A great couple!

What I didn't like:

The pack disloyalty was my only grip with this one. It's such a wonderful series, with so many wonderful characters who are part of the pack and outside the pack. I just wanted them to be bigger than that. To see what Christy was up to and to hold Mercy up as their Alpha female. I hope it's a plot device, if not I'm a little disappointed in them.

Bottom Line:

This is another fantastic book in the Mercy Thompson series. Patricia Briggs just keeps getting better and better. If you are an urban fantasy fan and haven't found this series yet, you need to try it. It's truly amazing!

Night Broken is available NOW from your favorite bookseller.

I'm giving this one 5 out of 5 apples from my book bag!




About the Author:


Patricia Briggs is the author of the New York Times bestselling Mercy Thompson urban fantasy series. She lives in Washington state with her husband, children, and a small herd of horses.


Giveaway Details:

Badass Book Reviews is giving away a hardcover copy of Night Broken by Patricia Briggs but you only have a couple of days to enter so make sure you head over there today.

No comments: