River Marked
Book 6 of the Mercy Thompson Series
by Patricia Briggs
Published: March 2011
Genre: Urban Fantasy
Pages: 326 (Hardcover)
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Rating: ★★★☆☆ (3 Stars)
Summary
Coyote shifter Mercy Thompson knows that life with her mate, the Alpha werewolf Adam, will never be boring, but even their wedding doesn’t go as planned. Nevertheless, a ten-day honeymoon camping on the banks of the Columbia River, alone, just the two of them, should make up for it. But the trip–is courtesy of the fae. And nothing from the fae comes without strings attached…
Being a different breed of shapeshifter–a walker–Mercey can see ghosts, but the spirit of her long-gone father has never visited her. Until now. An evil is stirring in the depths of the Columbia River–and innocent people are dying. As other walkers make their presence known to Mercy, she must reconnect with her heritage to exorcise the world of the legend known as the river devil…
The Good
I truly love the Mercy Thompson Series. Patricia Briggs writes wonderful books full of magic, amazing characters, and one of the best protagonists.
The first one-third of this book really pulled me in. We get Mercy confronting Stefan (vampire) about his self-inflicted seclusion. We finally see Mercy and Adam (werewolf) marry in the most hilarious of ways. You have to love their friends and family for without them the series would not be the same.
Then, of course, the newlywed’s honeymoon goes awry. There was some very creepy and freaky scenes in this book. I was actually biting my nails, a nervous wreck, waiting to see what happens.
I loved that we finally get more insight on Mercy’s heritage and father. I really look forward to seeing her history reveal ever so slowly.
It was really nice to have a book focus a little more on Adam and Mercy as a couple. We all love Adam, and them together is truly adorable. Mercy needs him and his family, I think. It will help develop her into an even more appealing character.
The Bad
This book had a different feel from the others. I think the biggest problem is that this should have been a short story. I was bored half the time. So much could have been cut out and the story would have had a better pace.
The plot was slightly weak. There were a lot of lull moments that made me want to skip pages. Too many new characters made me lose interest.
I thought I would love this book because it had a lot of Adam and Mercy together. But Briggs really didn’t capitalize on this at all. We only got snippets of them together and the rest was a lot of history and Native American folklore and legends.
The Snuggly
No sex scenes, just the precursors to the actual act.
Overall
I would recommend this book for people who have already read the series as a whole. This book does have vital information in it that will help the series move along. I enjoyed about half the book but felt a lot could have been cut out. But as a stand alone book, it lacks appeal. However, I know a lot of people who loved this book and totally disagree with me. So let your gut persuade you on this one.
