Patricia Briggs - Frost Burned

Mercy Thompson’s life has undergone a seismic change. Becoming the mate of Adam Hauptman -- the charismatic Alpha of the local werewolf pack -- has made her a stepmother to his daughter Jesse, a relationship that brings moments of blissful normalcy to Mercy’s life. But on the edges of humanity, what passes for a minor mishap on an ordinary day can turn into so much more...
After an accident in bumper-to-bumper traffic, Mercy and Jesse can’t reach Adam -- or anyone else in the pack for that matter. They’ve all been abducted.
Through their mating bond, all Mercy knows is that Adam is angry and in pain. With the werewolves fighting a political battle to gain acceptance from the public, Mercy fears Adam’s disappearance may be related -- and that he and the pack are in serious danger. Outclassed and on her own, Mercy may be forced to seek assistance from any ally she can get, no matter how unlikely .

Comment: This is the latest book in the Mercy Thompson series..or should I say Mercy Hauptmann now? 

How happy this detail makes you have no idea...

So, in this new adventure, the pack has been kidnapped supposedly by military men, except for Mercy, Jesse and Ben. When Mercy knows this, she goes to a safe place because after meeting Ben they realize some of the kidnappers are waiting in expected places to get them as well. Nevertheless, Mercy knows the more important thing for her to do it so protect the weaker elements of the pack, so after making sure Jesse is protected, she and Ben go to Kyle's house because Warren was kidnapped there and Kyle might be in danger. Then Asil shows up to help, a wolf from Bran's pack. Then there's Stefan helping too, but in the end it's Mercy's skills and desire to help her pack that motivate her the most to be the key player in a game no one was actually sure what the purpose was.

Once more, I loved a book in this series. Even when it's weaker than what I wanted, it's still pretty good and just the comfort of reading something about characters you care about can be a positive thing, even when the book itself it's less than perfect.

My favorite thing in these books is how the author has built a wonderful structure of how a pack works. I love all the interactions between the members, I like to know the hierarchy, what it means the small details and inner rules and how it all works in the overall idea. This means I'm quite happy with the role of the pack here and how important it was for Mercy to help a group of people that are coming to mean a lot to her since she mated Adam.

The story has the usual trademark of the author of following Mercy in the first person narrator but she wrote two chapters through Adam's POV, in the third person. I thought is was refreshing and wonderful to have Adam's thoughts there and to see what he was thinking. It was great. Plus, his relationship with Mercy is getting stronger by the day and I loved seeing them together. They're linked much more strongly than what we might think.

One of the best things in this book was how some elements of the pack see Kyle as one of their own because despite Warren being third rank, many wolves pretended he wasn0t gay but now we see how subtle it is the recognition that Warren is cared for by some of the others, and Kyle too. 

So many things happen, and we also have an inkling from the other series by the author in the Mercy Thompson Hauptmann universe, especially in the figure of Asil as he makes an appearance here. I'm getting very, extremely curious about what's going on there and I might buy those books soon.

In the end, a great book, another special adventure with Mercy. She really is lucky in her attempts to save the day...but the fact she embraced happiness is such a great part of things...a really enjoyable read through and through.