Night Broken

Night Broken (2014) Patricia Briggs

This is the latest Mercy Thompson book, which I got as a new release, but was waiting for me to finish Why Kings Confess, which was waiting for me to catch up on the Sebastian St. Cyr series (which I didn’t actually do).

Mercy’s life is about to become miserable.

Adam’s wife is in danger–she has been threatened and then beaten by an ex-fling–and has come crying back to Adam for protection. Not only does Mercy have to live with this master manipulator in her home, but given Mercy’s already precarious position in the pack, Christy’s manipulations serve to undermine her authority with those in the pack who already didn’t like Mercy.

The fact that Jesse struggles with a woman who rarely has time for her and whose concern means Mercy can’t even strike out when Christy deserves it–because Jessee doesn’t.

“She’s a good person, but she is a weak person, too. She can’t take care of anyone else because she’s too busy taking care of herself.”

I think that’s one of the best things about Mercy, that she knows that what she wants isn’t always for the best, and sometimes you have to put aside your wants for the needs of others.

Something Christy doesn’t do.

But, with one sentence, it was made clear that no matter how selfish she is, she isn’t a monster, or even a bad person.

“I think your stalker just burned down your condo, building and all.”
She paled. “Did they get everyone out?”

That her first reaction was concern for her neighbors and not her things, shows that she isn’t completely self-centered.

But some good things happen to Mercy: she finally meets another Coyote shifter, even if she discovers that being the offspring of Coyote more of a curse to him.

“The funny part is that I had not had a drink of alcohol since I went on a five-day bender in 1917 and woke up to find I’d volunteered for the army .” He smiled and moved his arm back over his eyes. “It’s not safe, you see, to get drunk when Coyote might be watching.”

That’s both horrible and hilarious; I really liked Gary Laughingdog.

But, bad things happen to Mercy. She remains a shifter–fragile and easily broken–in a pack of werewolves with healing ability, and no matter how much she trains, when really bad things happen, she is going to get hurt.

Cover note: although the boobs are just ridiculous and I hate that these cover always dress her in stupid skimpy tops, the rest of the cover is pretty good. I loved that her braids actually look real–not the fake fat braids, but real braids from real hair, and she is in a position of strength.

All-in-all, another enjoyable entry in the Mercy series.

Published by Ace

Rating: 8/10

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