Title: River Marked (Mercy Thompson #6)
Title: Patricia Briggs
Rating: 4/5 Fae Otters
Spoilers: Essentially spoiler free

Synopsis: 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…

Woohoo!  A moment in a bookreaders life that only comes a few times a year. A release from one of my top five favorite authors!!! I was actually on vacation when this was released and was tempted to just buy a copy in the states, but I ended up waiting until I got home. I tend to be a bit of a sap that way, I don’t want to start books by my favorites too early because the sooner I start, the sooner it’s over.

Anyways… I found this book to be a little different than most in the series and while still fantastic was probably the least addictive in the series so far. That being said, I still read the whole thing in less than a day and still really did love it. There is a lot of Adam in this book, and I lovvveee Adam. Patricia Briggs is one of the few authors who redeemed themselves from a frustrating love triangle by having the MC actually pick the right guy. I was so sure Mercy was going to go for Samuel and was so, so thrilled when she didn’t. So the fact that this book was mostly focused on that one relationship (plus the actual badness going on around them) was something I am pretty okay with. I just missed everyone else.

Anyways, like all of the Mercy books the plot here manages to seem so real despite the fact that it involves mystical creatures, lots of shape shifting and other not so down to earth plot devices. The characters are what makes this series so wonderful. I just love these people, and that’s still the case here. But I did find the pace of this book was a little slower than usual. There was still a big bad to take down but because a lot of the characters involved were new to the series the stakes just never seemed as high.

On it’s own I think this book is great but not fantastic. But once you consider it in the context of the entire series as a whole I think it is (or at least will be once we get another book) perfect. It was nice to have some insight into Mercy’s relationship with Adam and some nice moments. Plus there was some great character growth. But I did miss the rest of the characters as well as the wolf pack dynamic. This series will be one of my favorites for a very, very long time.