Burn Bright

Burn Bright (2018) Patricia Briggs

This is the fifth book in the Alpha & Omega series.

Bran has not yet returned from helping to rescue Mercy from the vampires in Europe–he claimed he wanted to visit Samuel in Africa–leaving Charles in charge on Bran’s pack and the wildlings–the older werewolves and those on the edge of losing control or who don’t fit into the regular pack structure. (Such as Kara, the young girl who was turned after an attack.)

When a wildling is kidnapped, Anna and Charles go to check on the pair, and things quickly spiral out of control.

Interestingly, we get Anna and Charles discussing Bran and his feelings for Mercy.

“Bran’s not funny about her,” he told Anna, feeling uncomfortable. “He thinks of her as his daughter, and he doesn’t have any other daughters still alive. There’s nothing strange about it.”

“Or so everyone is much happier believing,” agreed Anna blandly. “Including Bran. We’ll leave it at that. So the musical evenings were a thing between Bran and Mercy?”

“Not like that,” Charles said, feeling defensive because Anna put her finger right on something that he’d been ignoring for a long time. He took a deep breath. “All right. All right. You might have a point about Da and Mercy.”

I’m not sure if that explains the last Mercy book or not. But it does make their relationship more complicated than it already was.

I’m not quite sure how I feel about this whole story right now. I’ll have to think about it–perhaps have a better idea after I re-read it in a year or so.

One of the things that Anna and Charles spend a lot of time doing is driving on rural roads. Most of those descriptions I appreciated.

It took Anna the better part of an hour to drive twenty miles.

Since she had become Charles’s mate, most of the time she felt as though she belonged here, in the wilds of Montana. Then she’d take a drive with Charles in the mountains and be forcibly reminded that she’d been raised in a city.

True, some of Chicago was a wilderness in its own right, but even in the bad areas, roads could be relied upon to be paved, wide enough to get at least one car through, and she’d been able to trust that there wouldn’t be a freaking tree growing up in the middle of the road, hidden by a sharp bend. If she hadn’t been wearing her seat belt for that one, she might have gone through the windshield.

The first part is totally true. I’ve driven many many roads like that.

The last part, however? On roads like that you are almost never going fast enough to go through the windshield.

There are, however, lots of things I quite liked.

“It is all right to mourn Hester. She is worth the weight of your sorrow.”

“The second bunch were damaged a little more severely,” Charles said.

“Double-zap,” said Tag.

“That is not a technical term, I hope,” murmured Asil.

“Only the most technically advanced people can use ‘double-zap’ correctly,” Anna told Asil sotto voce. “You and I shouldn’t try it.”

I forgot to mention that we get to see a lot of Asil in this book, and I adore Asil.

You cannot look at a person, and say, ‘If I could change this or that, if I could pick what I want and discard other things, I could love this one.’ Such a love is pale and weak— and doomed to failure.”

As I said, I’m still not sure how I feel about this book. I tore through it, had trouble setting it down, and was happy to spend time with the characters.

There was just something about the story arc that felt odd to me. I’ll think about it.

Publisher: Ace

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