Iron Kissed

Iron Kissed (2008) Patricia Briggs

I still have great difficulty reading this book, and flat-out skip most of a chapter because it is so hard for me to read.

Just so you know.

Mercy is called by Zee to look into a death at the Fae Reservation; this will allow her to repay her debt to the Fae for using tools loaned her beyond the conditions of the loan. (See the previous book, and the vampire-killing toolkit.)

As with the previous book, we meet people who will have greater import in later books, and I particularly like these first impressions.

there was a young girl of about eight or nine playing with a yo-yo in one of the yards. She watched the spinning, swinging toy with solemn attention that didn’t change when Zee parked the car in front of her house. When Zee opened the gate, she caught the yo-yo in one hand and looked at us with adult eyes.

“No one has entered,” she said.

Zee nodded. “This is the latest murder scene,” he told me. “We found it this morning. There are six others. The rest have had a lot of people in and out, but except for this one”— he indicated the girl with a tip of his head—“ who is a Council member, and Uncle Mike, there have been no other trespassers since his death.”

I looked at the child who was one of the Council and she gave me a smile and popped her bubblegum.

Yo-yo girl indeed.

One of the other things I like about Mercy is that she is, in some ways, similar to me.

I tried to imagine working a job where your convictions were an inconvenience that you learned to ignore— and decided I’d rather turn a wrench no matter how much better her paycheck was than mine.

I would be utterly incapable of working such a job, and it’s nice to know I’m not alone in that.

Me, I believe in revenge— but I also believe in redemption.

Redemption is important.

Please recognize that portions of this story are very difficult to read. As I said, I completely skipped the Bad Thing and the lead up to The Bad Thing, but I did re-read the aftermath, but so many important things happen there.

And I’m still irked by very end of this story, even if she does take it back at the start of the next book.
Rating: 8.5/10

Published by Ace

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