Review: Bone Crossed by Patricia Briggs

Title: Bone Crossed
Author: Bone Crossed
Series: Mercy Thompson, Book 4 (Mercy Thompson World, Book 7)
Genre: Urban Fantasy
Release Date: 3 February 2009

In a world where "witches, vampires, werewolves, and shape-shifters live beside ordinary people" ("Booklist"), it takes a very unusual woman to call it home. By day, Mercy Thompson is a car mechanic in Eastern Washington. By night, she explores her preternatural side. As a shape-shifter with some unusual talents, Mercy's found herself maintaining a tenuous harmony between the human and the not-so- human on more than one occasion. This time she may get more than she bargained for.

Mercy's barely a week out from the tragic events that happened at the end of Iron Kissed when Stefan pops in at her feet, a blackened husk, whispering "She knows."

With vampires stalking her steps and pressing vague attacks on the werewolves in her life, Mercy decides to take a trip to help a friend with a ghost. Of course, it just couldn't be that simple and Mercy finds herself in a much scarier predicament.

Not quite as good as Blood Bound and Iron Kissed, but still a pretty solid read. The "mystery" story-line wasn't as appealing to me, but there's so much development with the characters (Mercy and Adam in particular, with quite a bit from Stefan) that I can't help but enjoy this every time. It's kind of funny that this is probably my least favorite book and it still doesn't get anything under 4 stars.

For me the story-line in this one sort of meandered. It was a little rough and didn't flow as naturally as I'm used to from Patricia Briggs. This could have been completely by design as Mercy's just out from some damn serious events that happened in Iron Kissed, and her reactions are a little off and unpredictable. The slight jagged edge to the story progress could be a direct comparison to Mercy's own progress emotionally. The more I think about it, the more I believe that's true, but it just didn't work as well for me. It left me feeling a little less engaged.

I didn't particularly like the 'big bad' in this book either. He was less a character than a caricature. Or maybe that's because it felt like when the fight scene finally did happen, it was over so quickly. That's not to say I wanted Mercy to get into a drawn out thing with him, I just found it a little hard to believe that it resolved as quickly as it did considering the power of the one she was going up against.

I feel like I'm talking a lot about the bad, and I don't mean to, I'm just trying to explain what didn't work quite as well as the previous books. This book's draw, for me, is all about the characters I've come to love. Mercy, Adam, Samuel, Stefan...They have completely ensnared me and keep me reading every single time.

Grade: A-

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