Burn Bright, Audio Version

Burn Bright, Audio Version (2018) Patricia Briggs narrated by Holter Graham

When I read this after it was published in the spring, I believe I wasn’t sure how I felt about it.

After listening, I think I know what felt off originally–this majority of this book takes place over a very short period of time. Two days if I’m parsing it correctly. That’s not an unreasonable time frame for a fantasy, but I’m used to the stories in this series taking place over closer to a week, so when the end of the story arc came it felt a little abrupt.

I think also what was a little unusual was that closing fight was seemingly smaller and less important than the one that happened a little earlier. And the death of the other bad guy occurred off-stage and was rather anti-climatic. Not that we should have seen that death, but it almost felt like a bit of a let-down.

None of these things were bad, it’s just that they were unexpected in this series.

And I still have issues with the following bit:

“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.

I just…no. Mercy came to him as an infant. Even if she was raised by foster parents, she was in Bran’s life as a baby, toddler, child, etc. That Bran could see her as something other than a daughter-like figure is just squicky and gross.

Oh, another issue:

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.

No. No she would not have gone through the windshield. I drive roads like that, and 20 MPH will not throw the driver through the windshield on an abrupt, controlled stop. It might toss unbraced passengers about a bit, but not through the windshield.

As for the narration, I’m still frustrated by it. As I said, I don’t hate it, I just wish it was better.

Publisher: Penguin Audio
Rating: 7.5/10

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