Patricia Briggs (1) (1965–)

Sometimes, books are a form of magic. They cast a spell that goes beyond playing a movie in the theatre of your imagination and shapes your mood without your conscious consent.

The combination of Patricia Briggs' writing and Lorelei King's narration cast that kind of spell on me. How else do I account for the feeling of gentle calm that suffused me when I was reading a book in which people get cut apart by a scythe, abducted, tortured and maimed, the two main characters are constantly under show more threat of death, perhaps even from within their own household and are being stalked by an enemy who exalts in causing pain and who has unleashed an ancient and powerful weapon that feeds upon it?

This should have been a scary thriller. All the elements are there: threatening monsters, secrets and deception, fights with blades and guns and dark, dangerous magic. But those are just the lyrics. It's the music that casts the calming spell. Mercy's relationship with Adam determines the key of the song. It's fundamental to how she sees the world. She lives a life in which she and Adam are constantly at risk. Her ability to live in the here and now, to lose herself in the depths of the commitment that they have to each other, is what lets her face fatal threats with a fatalistic calm that contains no despair.

The surprise is that the music Mercy is making is a melody best suited to a love song. She and Adam are the Happy Ever After some romance novels aspire to. The only difference is that it's a violent Happy Every After that could be ended by a fatal attack at any time.

That said, Mercy is impulsive and can never resist standing between others and those who want to harm them. She causes chaos and she relishes doing so. It's as if she suddenly adds a jazz riff or a hard-hitting rap chorus to the love song.

I enjoyed the book in the way that I'd enjoy a song from a favourite artist that is instantly recognisable as hers and reminds me of all the songs of hers that I've loved but which I know doesn't stand out as one of the songs she'll be remembered for.

If you're looking for an intense Urban Fantasy thriller, 'Soul Taken' isn't it. It's a cosy Happy Ever After romance with regular interludes of violence and mayhem. I found it very calming to step inside the bubble that Mercy and Adam have created for themselves but I'm sure it won't be to everyone's taste.

'Soul Taken' does have some solid strengths as an Urban Fantasy. Patricia Briggs is talented at building intricate magic systems and making them feel tangible. The Mercy Thompson series has a large ensemble cast and 'Soul Taken' develops a number of them by sharing more of their backstories and or by putting them through significant trauma.

What's missing is any real sense of urgency. This was always a puzzle Mercy had to solve. It would always depend on unearthing truths, calling upon allies and facing death when needed. It never felt time urgent and I never doubted that Mercy would prevail.

One piece that didn't work for me was the involvement of the Goblin King. His arrival was timely and dramatic. His involvement was essential. Then, as we reached the denouement, he just wasn't there anymore. That felt clumsy to me.

The only times when real excitement rather than stoic survival was in the air was at the points where 'Soul Taken' crossed over with the 'Alpha and Omega' storyline. I'd really like to know why Samuel needs Charles' help and why he doesn't want to tell Mercy what's going on but I'm sure that will be another book.

I suspect that, without Laurelei King's narration and the benefit of the distinct voices she has created for the characters, I might not have fallen under the spell of this book but her voice was enough to bring me inside Mercy's world and to make it a restful place to be. show less

This was another excellent addition to the Alpha and Omega series. Charles and Anna travel to Arizona which allows Charles to see an old friend and buy Anna an Arabian horse for her 26th birthday. For once, they are not traveling on Bran's business which makes Charles the executioner who eliminates werewolves who are out of control and a danger to werewolves everywhere.

Things go sideways immediately after their arrival. First of all, Charles's old friend Joseph Sani is dying of lung cancer. show more Even though Charles is willing to turn Joseph to a werewolf and Joseph's father who is the head of the Arizona pack is putting pressure on him to make his son a werewolf, Joseph is adamant about not becoming a werewolf. Charles needs to deal with his grief at the idea of losing one of his few friends.

Second, Joseph's daughter-in-law Chelsea has been placed under a geas to kill her children and then kill herself. Because Chelsea is witchborn, she is able to resist the geas but only by injuring herself with the knife she was supposed to use to murder her children. She is injured so badly that Charles offers her - through her husband Cage - the option of becoming a werewolf which he takes for her.

Third, Charles and Anna need to find the fae who placed the geas and who has been hunting and killing children for hundreds of years in the Phoenix area. They have the help of the FBI in the person of their friend Leslie Fisher who was reassigned to Arizona to be near the fae reservation there after her previous case in Boston. They also have the help of two CNTRP agents who are actually useful.

As they investigate, the fae is still on the hunt for Joseph's five-year-old granddaughter Mackie and Charles and Anna will do anything to keep her safe. The hunt for the fae known as the Doll Collector brings up a lot of issues for Charles and lets Anna know why he has been so reluctant to have children with her.

This was a powerful story. I loved the relationship between Charles and Anna. The emotional intensity of Charles dealing with the grief at the up-coming death of his friend Joseph was strong and brought me to tears more than once as I listened to this story. I loved the message that love is what matters even if the end result is loss and grief and sorrow. show less

The fourth Mercy Thompson books starts right after the trauma of "Iron Kissed" and then kicks it up a notch by literally dropping a tortured, ravenous vampire into Mercy's arms.

What follows is clever, dual plot novel, focused on vampires and ghosts, that moves the whole series forward.

I was impressed at Patricia Briggs' ability to continue to be inventive in how she shapes the supernatural world. "Bone Crossed" gives me a kind of vampire I've never encountered before. It also succeeds at show more mixing werewolves, fae, vampires and ghosts in a way that feels credible and doesn't leave me feeling I need a field guide to supernatural beings to understand what's going on.

The main strength of the series is the strong focus on character-driven narrative, not just Mercy's character but for the secondary characters as well. Even the rather unpleasant leader of the local vampires gains some depth in this book. Everyone is granted some complexity that helps make them real.

I also admire the way humour, especially banter, is used to leaven the dark themes of the book without undermining or denying them.

What keeps things fantasy fretwork grounded is the willingness to take a realistic approach to the emotional impact of events. Patricia Briggs acknowledges that, even when you're a kiss-ass heroine coyote mechanic raised by wolves, the aftermath of rape is months of panic attacks that leave you vomiting and curling up into a ball.

She also allowed Mercy to make a choice between the two men who want her. I'm glad we avoided the Stephani Plumb Purgatory of never being allowed to choose one man because unresolved sexual tension sells. I also think she chose the right guy, so I'm smiling (who knew I'd care?). show less

Patricia Briggs is one of my very favorite authors because she makes the little things about being a werewolf/supernatural FUNNY. Like being trapped in the kitchen while your daughter's friend's mom tries to sell you catalog products and the pack laughs at you from upstairs, or the police not knowing which scary creatures are the bad guys. I absolutely love her writing and hope this series never ends.

Like so many of Briggs' books, in "Fire Touched" she manages to connect little things at the show more beginning with plot points later at the end, so readers who pay attention are rewarded with those awesome ah-ha moments. Here the opening chapter or two has several of those. One of the great scenes with a friend of Jesse's mom is on the one hand comical, but also makes a great touchstone for Mercy and Adam the rest of the book.

They jump right into action and the central conflict of the book is opened up with a threat to the tri-cities area. This book deals heavily with the Fae, and one thing I'm continually impressed with is how Briggs fleshes out minor characters I had only a passing interest in before. She really made so much more out of the Fae in this one, and I found myself really fascinated with Zee and Tad in particular. Tad, especially, has been only a very minor character in the first few books, has become a slightly more important character in the last few. He's just cool, becomes more interesting every time we see him, and I'd like to see more of him around. We find out about someone who is "fire touched" much as Tad and Zee are "iron kissed" and that person becomes a key player as the book progresses.

We also get to see Bran and a bit of Charles as well as some vampire friends and of course the werewolf pack. I always love it when Briggs spends some time showing us how the pack works things out, whether it's through little memories Mercy has of growing up in Montana, or showing them having a pissing contest in the house. The group dynamic and how the secondary characters, who are some of the most beloved in the series, play off each other is what makes this series great, and there was plenty of that here. But this one is definitely mostly about the Fae, and the majority of the story stays there, something the narrative doesn't suffer for. It will be interesting as the stories continue to unfold how things will work out as politics become more complex for Mercy and all her friends. 5/5 stars. show less