Monday, April 14, 2014

Patricia Briggs - Night Broken

An unexpected phone call heralds a new challenge for Mercy. Her mate Adam's ex-wife is in trouble, on the run from her new boyfriend. Adam won't turn away a person in need, but with Christy holed up in Adam's house, Mercy can't shake the feeling that something isn't right.
Soon, Mercy learns that Christy has the farthest thing from good intentions. She wants Adam back and will anything to get him, including turning Adam's pack against Mercy.
On top of this, there's an even more dangerous threat circling. Christy's ex is more than a bad man - in fact, he may not be human at all. As the bodies pile up, Mercy must put her personal troubles aside to face a creature with the power to tear her world apart.


Comment: Another installment in the wonderful Mercy Thompson series by Patricia Briggs. this is the most recent story and once again we saw a cast full of interesting characters and their adventures, all connected to Mercy, the mechanic mated to the alpha of the local pack.

In this new book, Mercy sees herself and the pack in the middle of the problems following Adam's human ex-wife, Christy. She is running from an abusive man and asks for help to the pack and Adam. Apparently only Mercy and Jesse are apprehensive because they know how Christy can play the victim and manipulate the others to her advantage. Indeed, Christy does what she can do make Mercy look weak, unwanted and unsuitable. But Mercy isn't vindicative and helps those who need, including annoying Christy. But did Christy tell the whole truth about who she's running from?

As usual, it was such a pleasure to read a book set in Mercy's world. I like worlds where see how a pack works, how their members interact and how their bonds are set. Of course, this pack in particular isn't always nice to Mercy and it's getting boring the number of books this situation has been dragging, like many other readers have said, it's more than time for the pack to accept and help Mercy.

But despite agreeing that Mercy's position in the pack should be recognized already, in this book we see Mercy suffering attacks and having to fight, over an over until she ends up being hurt with severity once more. I can understand the notion of how a UF heroine must deal with many challenges and difficulties, it's part of who they are and the story they belong to. But Mercy not only has to prove herself over and over, she ends up really hurt more than we can count and not always is her value and her help and her efforts, and her struggle and her strength appreciated! I had hopes this book would show a better liked Mercy but it didn't happened. She keeps fighting to earn her respect but it's taking too long to reach, I think.

As far as the plot goes, I was very interested in the pack dynamics now that Christy returned and although we see some pack members seeing Mercy as a strong person to be o their side, many still can't accept her fully. Christy's presence only intensified that situation but I have to say it was good when a scene here and there showed Mercy as the strongest and more adequate to Adam, even more so if one thinks about the love between them, I hoped to see more Adam and Mercy...hopefully the next one has more of them.
In this book the enemy is unexpected, a surprise which means ms Briggs' imagination never ends. It provided quite the surprises at the end and I do hope it's subjects we see develop further along in the series.

Like I said, I hoped to see more Adam and Mercy. Their bond and relationship is one of the strongest elements in the series and I love to see them interact. Now that they have established their love for each other I live for demonstrations of that and even the small scenes with them together are fantastic. Many things happen because or in reaction to their relationship, which means they aren't an island, they have to be together and act united to deal with many things, from the toughest decisions to the most simple things, but they are getting stronger the more time wee see them. I really want to see their relationship elevated, perhaps with more personal issues to discuss, meaning more problems, just new things to face..dare I hopefully say, a baby? My wish...lol
In the novel we also see other characters intervene, namely the vampires and we learn new things...I wonder where the author aims to go with this or if it's only for the sake of the page number...something tells me it's not that simple. Let's wait and see.

In the end, I was happy enough with the book even tough I expected Mercy to have a easier time in this new adventure. When will she ease up in her fights? I liked the end, I liked some of the decisions taken and I was happy to see Adam and Mercy are IT for each other...so cute and comforting.
Grade: 8/10

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