Burn Bright

Burn Bright (2018) Patricia Briggs (Alpha & Omega)

And now, I’m all caught up and have no more Alpha & Omega stories until March.

I was unsure how I felt the first time I read this story. There is a lot that happens here, that probably has repercussions for future books (and possibly the rest of the series).

Unlike most of the other books in this series, everything takes place on pack lands in Montana. It also all happens extremely quickly–pretty much over 48 hours.

Both of those thing may be why I was so confused about this story the first time around. It was extremely fast-paced, with several flash-backs and stories from the past.

There was plenty of Asil in this story, which is always good IMO. Though I feel like this line in the story was directed at me (and others) who unreasonably adore him.

Anna liked Asil. And even if it made Brother Wolf crazy, Charles was not going to interfere with that unless he had to. When she was ready to hear about how much of a monster Asil could be, she could ask him. Or Da. But Charles expected that she wouldn’t.

I feel like Anna–having seen Bran almost lose it–can deal with how much of a monster Asil is.

And I’m still irritated by this exchange.

“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.”

On the one hand she is trying to convince us that Asil is a monster–more of one than Bran–and then we get insinuations that Bran has feelings for Mercy?

Ew.

Just ew.

Bran helped raise Mercy from a baby. The idea that he could have romantic feelings for her is just icky and gross and makes my skin crawl.

(shudder)

But anyway, back to the main point of the story–there is a traitor in the pack, Bran is unreachable, and they get a call from some of the Wildlings (the very old wolves who can’t deal with others) that someone has been spying.

And bad things happen.

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

And on this read through, things fit together much better in my brain, and made far more sense. I could sense the manipulations that were confusing the first time around.

And I’m very curious as to where the next book is going to go. And also whether the sword ended up going back to Zee.

Publisher : Ace
Rating: 8/10

• Browse the archives:
  
• Unappreciated Gifts » »
• « « Dead Heat