I entered April so hopeful about the amount of books I was going to read and listen to.
I leave April very humbled.
I simply have not been in the mood. Is it because I’ve been absolutely binging the Mercy Thompson series? Maybe. I also tried to listen to at least 10 different audiobooks and nothing grabbed my attention. I listened to a lot of podcasts, had Taylor Swift’s new album on repeat, and started Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince (Jacob had bought this audiobook for me when I went to Prague in 2016 so I could listen to it on the plane).
I’ve also had completely booked weekends throughout April (and it’s not going to slow down in May!), which has been so fun but so exhausting.
April also brought the death of one of my high school English Teachers. He was one of the people who influenced me and helped to develop my love for reading and writing. He was a man who treated his students with the same respect he showed adults – something I had never seen before. He made all of us feel like we were worth something. Writing more will absolutely make me cry, so I will move on. At his service, I was lucky enough to sit next to my other high school English Teacher, who was so delighted to find out that I became an English Major (as if there were any other path for a bookworm journalist like me). Seeing his absolute excitement was such a cool moment.
Now… onto the books.
Frost Burned (Mercy Thompson #7) by Patricia Briggs
My Rating: 4/5
What’s it about: While Mercy takes Jesse Black Friday shopping, she has what she thinks is a panic attack… Instead, it turns out that the entire pack gets abducted by extremists who want Adam to attack a politician – two birds, one stone. The politician is gone and the world is afraid of werewolves. It’s up to Mercy (with the help of Ben – who was able to escape abduction and Stephen) to save her pack.
My Review: In this novel, we get to see a little into Adam’s POV while he’s held prisoner (and when he makes his escape – thanks to Mercy). I’m a fan of anytime a woman gets to show off how badass she is and save a bunch of tough guys and Mercy doesn’t splendidly. I loved exploring the mate bond that Mercy has with Adam. Again, Briggs creates her fantasy world but sticks to her own rules – sure, the mate bond can explain a lot but it never gets to the point of “okay, this is too far fetched”. Mercy can suck the poisonous silver out of Adam so that he can have the strength to save his pack. There is one incredibly sad death in this story that affected me more than I thought it would… But since Briggs has made it this far without traumatizing me via a death, I guess I’ll take it in book 7.
Night Broken (Mercy Thompson #8) by Patricia Briggs
My Rating: 4/5
What’s it about: Adam’s ex-wife (and Jesse’s mom) comes to Adam and the pack for help after a stalker has started making her life a living hell. But Christy isn’t just there for help, she’s also there to win Adam back. Now Mercy has an ex-wife AND a monster stalker to deal with.
My Review: Oof. I’ll be honest. While I did enjoy this book (as much as I’ve been enjoying all of them), it made my blood boil. Christy is a terrible person – a thing that every single person knows because they knew how broken Adam was after she left. But evvvvvvveryone just allows her back into their life and acts like she’s a saint. So. LET’S TALK ABOUT LOYALTY. I’m a Scorpio. Anyone who has big feelings against Scorpios, are all untrustworthy people. If you hate Scorpios, it’s because you fucked one of us over and you got what you deserved. I am loyal to my people. So when the trope of “The Chosen One has everyone turn on them in order to complete their Hero’s Journey”, I have to stop and take some real deep breaths. And angry text my fellow Scorpios. Think about Harry Potter in Goblet of Fire when Ron turns against him because he thinks that Harry put his name in the goblet without telling him and for some reason, everyone sides with Ron?? OR in Season 3 of Buffy (Dead Man’s Party) when Buffy comes home after running away (CAUSE SHE HAD TO KILL THE LOVE HER LIFE), everyone is really pissed at her and instead of being like “Yo are you okay?”, everyone is like “DID YOU KNOW YOU HURT MY FEELINGS?!” And lets not forget the Season 7 episode (Empty Places) where everyone turns on Buffy and then Dawn kicks her out of her own house??? Excuse me, I need to take another deep breath.
This pack is supposed to be about loyalty and putting the pack first but every single one of them (except Warren and Ben), completely turn on Mercy and just let Christy (the woman who broke Adam’s heart – THEIR ALPHA) walk all over them and not a single person defends her (INCLUDING ADAM). I’d leave Adam immediately. If you are not defending me against my enemies, you are my enemy 🙂
I’m sure more happened in the book but honestly, I cannot remember other than a bunch of dogs are murdered so this book just left me angry. I think Briggs must be a cat person.
Fire Touched (Mercy Thompson #9) by Patricia Briggs
My Rating: 4/5
What’s it about: Since the Fae have escaped to their own world, there’s been some tension between the ones who wanted to go and the ones who wanted to control the world. Tad and Zee have escaped and the Gray Lords sent a troll after them… who was sidetracked by wanting to kill people. After killing the troll, we meet Adian, a man who looks like a young boy because he was trapped in Underhill. When he was prisoner, he gained magical power over fire. Adam and Mercy decide to keep Adian safe until they can figure out what to do with him, which turns out to be a harder promise to keep than they thought.
My Review: The best part about this book? Adam FINALLY put his foot down about how some of his pack members were treating Mercy. While I am on Mercy’s side – don’t force people to be nice to me – I do understand that this is more business than personal. Adam needed to put down the rules, which included getting rid of the smack talk that permeated the pack. It was slowly disintegrating them, which can be incredibly dangerous. All in all, this book was a little bit of a let down. I didn’t love Adian’s character, I was over hearing about Christy, and I don’t feel like Mercy got to really be a badass. This book felt like another side quest in the series but I wanted more of the main arc. After I finished, I decided to take a bit of a break. Maybe I’ll see if I can listen to 10 on audiobook!
How did your April go? Did you read some good books?
Writes with Wolves 