Bone Crossed by Patricia Briggs

Bone Crossed is the 4th installment of the Mercedes Thompson series by Patricia Briggs. I thoroughly LOVED Iron Kissed (and I just discovered that I only posted my review of that one on We'd Rather Read so the link goes there) so I was a bit nervous that I would be let down by this one. While I didn't enjoy it quilt as much, it was a solid entry into the series.

In this one, the vampires are back and Marsilia wants Mercy to pay for what she did in Blood Bound. Stefan has quite the role in this one after his absence in the last book. Mercy has to solidify her choice between Adam and Samuel. Her old friend Amber is seeing ghosts- and vampires, she just doesn't know it. She comes to Mercy for help, but isn't it odd that she showed up at this point in Mercy's life?

So how did it play out? Pretty well, but not perfectly. My favorite parts were the interactions between Mercy and the werewolves and Mercy and Stefan. One thing Briggs does very well is maintain the consistency of her werewolf world. The scenes with Adam, Warren, Darrel, and the pack as a whole were my favorite, as in the last one. I was less impressed with the overall plot line. For the first time, I thought that it might be a stretch. I just didn't quite buy that Briggs knew this was how it would all play out when she wrote Blood Bound. Perhaps that is asking a bit much of an author but it seemed almost too convenient a way out of the conflict. This doesn't keep this from being a great book (it is) it just isn't quite as solid as the other Briggs I've read.

I had mentioned that I was worried that Briggs was going to take the book into a plot point that I just hate. I had to stop reading for a few days so that I could prepare myself for the seemingly inevitable. Several of you asked what it was that I hate and I don't think it's much of a spoiler to talk about it, but if you don't want to hear anything, skip the next paragraph.

Ok, so there is a point where Marsilia is showing her anger and the vampires have threatened Mercy. She decides this is the best time to run away to Spokane to help her long lost friend Amber solve a ghost problem. If she runs away, Marsilia will follow her and her friends won't get hurt. I HATE that. You have this great network of friends who love you and want to help you, and you run away to die alone. I hate that. I should have trusted Briggs not to do that, because in the end she didn't. So if you hate this, rest easy.

Overall, a strong book. The wait for the next one is going to be long.

Bone Crossed
by Patricia Briggs
Ace Books
2009
309 pages