Misery Lark, the only daughter of the most powerful Vampyre councilman of the Southwest, is an outcast—again. Her days of living in anonymity among the Humans are over: she has been called upon to uphold a historic peacekeeping alliance between the Vampyres and their mortal enemies, the Weres, and she sees little choice but to surrender herself in the exchange—again…
It‘s been a while since I picked up some typical UF with vampires and werewolves. With a marriage of convenience between two of them, an enemy-to-lovers plot and a conspiracy.
The first half of the story is a lot of set-up, introducing the world and focusing mostly on vampire and werewolf politics (they don’t get along) and less on any romance. But eventually it turns into PNR with a generous helping of graphic sex.
The conspiracy is nicely done. So is the backstory of of the female main character, who goes by the truly silly first name of Misery. These are the least scary werewolves and vampires ever, by the way. Pretty shallow.
I did not guess the bad guy — I am probably the only person on this planet that didn’t, but I wasn’t terribly invested in the story — and the last revelation in the epilogue was nicely done. I guess there will be another book in this world. Not sure I will get it though, this was a little too simple. 🐺🧛♂️🐺½
PS: No, there really isn‘t a lot of agency. I wish.
After sneaking out against her mother’s wishes, Artie Irvin spots a massive wolf in the nearby woods. Then, she sees it shift into her mom. Thrilled to find she comes from a line of werewolves, Artie asks her mom to share everything– Including the story of Artie’s father.
To help Artie figure out her wolflike abilities, her mom recruits some old family friends. Artie thrives in her new community, even if she can’t shift at will yet. But as she learns more about werewolves and her parents’ past. she’ll discover that wolves aren’t the scariest thing in the woods– vampires are.
from the book blurb
Got this spontaneously as part of Libby‘s #biglibraryread. I am glad I decided to join this Libby read, although Middle Grade normally really isn‘t my jam.
Superficially this is a coming of age story of a young werewolf and her transformation. Quite a different take on vampires and how they multiply.
But ultimately this is a story about family, belonging and community… I really liked this. Great emotions, reading this made me happy!
Nice artwork as well. The landscapes and the wolves were not terribly elaborate, but the people were portrayed very well. Especially Artie was a highlight, alone and with her mum and others. There is a lot of heart in this.
Kate and Curran don‘t get a lot of rest in their new home after their last outing. Someone is looking for help against an evil, magical presence in the woods and Kate can‘t say no. 200 pages of the usual mayhem, blood and slaughter follow.
Struggling a bit with the alternating POVs from Kate to Curran, but it‘s actually nice to see the same scenes through different eyes.
Fun! It was hard to put down, but I had to sleep eventually. Looking forward to the next one!
Dear Ilona Andrews, I don‘t need books about anybody else in this world, just keep doing Kate… thanks!
A bit problematic in terms of consent. If you can‘t say no, you can‘t consent, even if you seem to be ok with the situation. And there is a(nother) rape scene as well, not graphic, but not in the off either. I didn‘t remember that. Why are there so many rape scenes in UF? Not a fan.
Disregarding that part, I had fun re-reading this, although I didn‘t remember Kitty as quite so abused and powerless. The mystery wasn‘t spectacular or breath taking, but nice enough. This is mostly set-up for the series, so it‘s all good.
Will I continue re-reading the series? Probably not, but never say never…
From 2008:
Very good start to a the series! Kitty gets herself into trouble, when she starts counselling fellow shapeshifters and assorted vampires on her midnight radio show. Shows you – stay out of things or you get into lots of trouble! Light mystery with werewolves, good fun!
Other stories I read by Vaughn: (titles are linked to my reviews)
Discord’s Apple — this is a paperback on my TBR pile. It‘s been there for a while. Fantasy. „Hidden behind the basement door is a secret and magical storeroom, a place where wondrous treasures from myth and legend are kept safe until they are needed again.“
If you look, there are quite a few other short stories by Vaughn kicking about…
Oh, this was so pretty. Feel good story, some drama, some action, some love, a witch and some werewolves. Lots of dialogue and inner monologue that made me feel good. What a joy to read. What a great take on werewolves and found family. Ok, yes, also some violence, cruelty, blood, murder…. It is a story with werewolves after all. And some really bad guys.
“And it was true. I was not cursed with an overabundance of brains.“
The plot was almost irrelevant, it was the relationships and the development that Ox went through that made the book for me. Such a lovable character…
The book has a nice amount of my type of humour. Definitely for mature readers though, there is plenty of swearing and some graphic sex.
I was not a massive fan of adult Joe or the romance between Ox and adult Joe. It was not bad, but for me it was the only weak part of the book. Still 5 stars though, because I had a stupid grin on my face the whole time I read this. I had a hard time putting this down for any length of time.
“Mom! Mom. You have to smell him! It’s like… like… I don’t even know what it’s like! I was walking in the woods to scope out our territory so I could be like Dad and then it was like… whoa. And then he was all standing there and he didn’t see me at first because I’m getting so good at hunting. I was all like rawr and grr but then I smelled it again and it was him and it was all kaboom! I don’t even know! I don’t even know! You gotta smell him and then tell me why it’s all candy canes and pinecones and epic and awesome.”
Mercy #13. Straight forward, fairly simple plot, nice lack of annoying drama. Took me three days to get past the first 10%, but then I was hooked and could not put it down anymore. So although it was plain and simple and without big surprises, I give it 5 stars for sheer entertainment value.
Mercy and Adam are center stage, with a fair amount of Zee, Tad, Jesse, Warren, a bit of Sherwood, Tilly and various vampires. And the Walking Stick! Not telling you who the bad guys are…
There is a merciful lack of Christy and no marital drama. Which I had expected after the last book, but wasn‘t sad to miss. It‘s nice to see people with a functioning relationship, including the pack—mostly…
I wonder how many more books it will take Briggs to wrap up the overarching narrative with Bonarata. That guy really needs to be permanently dead.
This is not a typical werewolf story. If you are looking for Urban Fantasy, this is definitely not it. It is a story by an indigenous Canadian writer, based on traditional folkore about the Rogarou (from the French word for werewolf, loup-garou) and then some. And a very real topic concerning indigenous people in Canada today.
I was a little lukewarm about this throughout, but the last third of the novel made up for it. That part was excellent and I couldn‘t put it down anymore. The changing points of view made for an exciting read and the ending and epilogue gave it a great and suspenseful finish.
Things I looked up during my read — from here on there are spoilers:
Towards the end of the novel there is a quote from a poem:
I have measured out my life with coffee spoons; I know the voices dying with a dying fall Beneath the music from a farther room. So how should I presume?
Joan‘s last name, Beausoliel: is that a anglicized version of „beau soleil“, aka beautiful sun?
Joan of Arcand = Joan of Arc… as in: she is supposed to deliver her region and people from the invading mining companies, etc.?
Joan‘s red coat — a hint at Litte Red Riding Hood? Considering some events in this book, it feels like a re-telling of that fairytale, at least in parts. Intermingled with that Rogarou folkore.
“What big teeth you have,” said Little Red Riding Hood her voice quivering slightly. “The better to eat you with, my dear,” roared the wolf…“
From the fairytale
Bottomline: Lukewarm start for me. Some good characters. Some light skipping of paragraphs. Picking up of steam and suspense with a great last part and finale.
The Mercy Thompson series by Patricia Briggs is one of the very few Urban Fantasy series that I still follow. I used to read almost nothing but UF for the best part of a decade, until the genre was so oversaturated with new, mediocre stuff that I lost the taste for it.
Last year, when another book in the spin-off series Alpha & Omega came out, I re-read both series in chronological order, which took quite a while. It was fun and an excellent reminder of some foggy details and hotly debated points of the fandom.
In June 2022 another installment of the series will be published, Soul Taken (Mercy Thompson, #13). Counting the spin-off series, that brings us to book 19 in this universe, ignoring a bunch of short stories, comics, etc. Book #12 of the main series dealt with some marriage problems between our titular hero and her mate, that hopefully will get resolved in the new book.
I liked that book, but this is another series where I am starting to wonder if it‘s perhaps time to wrap things up for good. Definitely still getting the new one in June though! Pre-ordered!
Welcome to #6degrees. On the first Saturday of every month, a book is chosen as a starting point and linked to six other books to form a chain. Readers and bloggers are invited to join in by creating their own ‘chain’ leading from the selected book. I am using this meme to work on my backlog, aka reviews that I haven‘t yet posted to my blog here. How the meme works and how you can join is explained here. The initial blog post about this month‘s choice is here.
Which, yet again, I haven‘t read. I know Carrie Fisher as Princess Leia, as probably most people do. I don‘t know, how much of an autobiography this book is, but nonetheless I will mention another book by an author…
I read this at some point in the ’90s. I don’t recall any details, just a general sense of having read something pleasant and somewhat entertaining, befitting of the biography of a true, English gentleman. I would have loved to mention an autobiographical book by Dirk Bogarde next. It was about his time in the Royal Airforce (I think?) during WWII, but sadly I don‘t remember the name and couldn‘t find it, when I looked now. I don‘t want to mention Michael Caine again, although it is a very funny book. However, I posted about it already in another meme. So… Moon? Moon!
My favourite book of Ilona Andrews‘ Edge books. I loved the crazy family, the rathole and the Mire. In my mind I kept punting through a darker and pissed-off version of the Everglades. Great setting, good plot, suspenseful, good snark. The sword on the cover of this book leads me to…
For a few years Wilbur Smith was my guilty pleasure and I enjoyed his books tremendously. This one here is the second book in the family saga of the Courtneys of South Africa. I liked the first one a lot. When I picked up Power of the Sword, I possibly had outgrown my interest in Wilbur Smith. One Smith leads me to another Smith…
None of my lists would be complete without a comic / graphic novel. The story did not do much for me. The heroine ran around shooting and otherwise killing a lot of baddies and in the process got the good guys killed as well. She got told off for it, ignores that completely and killed some more. Rinse and repeat. Gore, blood, not much plot. Not much character development either. I tried the TV adaptation and didn‘t like it much either. Homecoming is the title of another tie-in comic…
I am a huge fan of the series, so I had to give this a try. Not a lot of world building. I doubt I would have understood what was going on or who they all were and related to each other, if I hadn‘t know the books. Mercy looks different in every chapter. Her face changes, her body shape changes. Sometimes she is muscular, sometimes she looks like Barbie with runner‘s legs. Big boobs, small boobs, pointy chin, square chin, malnourished looking, at times badly proportioned. Very odd. The other humans or werewolves weren‘t terribly well done either. I suppose it‘s silly to expect them all to be anatomically correct, but sometimes the drawings looked a bit too amateurish for my taste. Bottom line, don‘t bother. I will certainly not get another of these comics. Apparently they have also done comics for Laurell K Hamilton, so those are out as well. Talking about Hamilton, I posted about a fair few Anita Blake books, but never about…
The usual humour and an interesting storyline (this is early-ish Hamilton!), although not quite a gritty as Anita Blake. Up until the point, until the heroine goes home. From the onwards it just seemed to be Merry Gentry considering who looks the most stunning, what their clothes look like and how good they might be in bed. Probably sounds familiar for readers of Laurell K. Hamilton.
Top Ten Tuesday was created by The Broke and the Bookish in June of 2010 and was moved to That Artsy Reader Girl in January of 2018. It was born of a love of lists, a love of books, and a desire to bring bookish friends together.
Thisweek‘s topic: book quotes that fit a particular theme! I guess my theme will be amusing quotes! Here we go:
“Dogs make sense. They understand hierarchy and the need to cooperate. They come when you call them. A cat though—a cat will take your number and get back to you. Maybe. If he’s in a good mood.”
Read in 2012. The first book was only just interesting enough for me to want to get the next one. Nothing special. But this one grabbed me. I really liked it. Interesting plot, good world building, introduction of some new characters that I really liked and want to see more of. The varying points of view added a nice layer to the various existing characters as well. Very good.
“Some people are like Slinkies. They aren’t really good for anything, but they still bring a smile to my face when I push them down a flight of stairs.”
Still one of my favourite UF series. Just re-read the lot last year.
“I can’t wait till I have grandchildren. When I was younger, I had to walk to the rim of a crater. Uphill! In an EVA suit! On Mars, ya little shit! Ya hear me? Mars!”
I could easily do this whole TTT with quotes from The Martian. I love this book. My cheeks are hurting just from reading over all of the quotes I marked…
“I gave him a smile. I was aiming for sweet, but he turned a shade paler and scooted a bit farther from me. Note to self: work more on sweet and less on psycho-killer.”
The story is a mystery, a conspiracy, an adventure and a fight against evil. There is smuggling, thievery, but sadly no pirates. And sadly, it wasn‘t a complete hit for me.
“So you killed him with what now?” “I tried that Dr. Phil book at first”…”And I finished it off with the toilet seat. Just so you know, you left it up again. That drives me crazy.”
Another good SF series, if you want to read something classic. My steam only lasted a few books in though. As a teenager I probably would have loved this to pieces.
“He was an American, so it seemed only fair to shoot him.”
Mark Gatiss isn‘t only great as screenwriter or the occasional supporting actor…
“Once the telephone had been invented, it was only a matter of time before the police got in on the new technology and, first in Glasgow and then in London, the police box was born. Here a police officer in need of assistance could find a telephone link to Scotland Yard, a dry space to do “paperwork” and, in certain extreme cases, a life of adventure through space and time.”
Another endless supply of funny quotes is the Rivers of London series. And excellent UF. I highly recommend the audiobooks, they elevate the series by a few more pegs.
I could keep going, but that‘s 10 quotes! That was very entertaining, actually….
Cathy's Reading Bonanza 