Spaz Reviews: River Marked – Patricia Briggs
May 24, 2011 in Reviews
- Hardcover: 336 pages
- List Price: $26.95
- Publisher: Ace Books (March 1, 2011)
- Language: English
- ISBN-10: 9780441019731
- ISBN-13: 978-0441019731
- Patricia Briggs Website
Buy River Marked at:
Car mechanic Mercy Thompson has always known there was something different about her, and not just the way she can make a VW engine sit up and beg. Mercy is a shapeshifter, a talent she inherited from her long-gone father. She’s never known any others of her kind. Until now.
An evil is stirring in the depths of the Columbia River-one that her father’s people may know something about. And to have any hope of surviving, Mercy and her mate, the Alpha werewolf Adam, will need their help…
Mercy is just a girl trying to make her way in life being split in to four different worlds: coyote walker, human, Native, and white. She has spent her entire life reconciling all 4 parts of herself, never feeling accepted by anyone. In River Marked, she has the opportunity to finally learn more about her Blackfeet father and learn more of where she came from. And with Adam by her side as her Mate. We have not had a whole heck of a lot of information on Mercy’s dad in the previous books, aside from his being Native American and dead. This is the book where we get to learn about her Dad! Something nasty and evil is happening down at the Columbia River and some of the locals and her father’s people may know how to fight it. And what do you know? Mercy and Adam just happened to be there when everything starts to go down.
I was at first nervous that Mercy and Adam were finally getting some away time to just themselves, because I didn’t know how the book would stand without all the awesome secondary characters. I quickly learned that I worried for naught. River Marked is huge for Mercy in her own personal growth, and in that she was way more expressive of her feelings and affection towards Adam. It seems that she is truly healing and moving forward since the awful violent crime perpetrated against her in Iron Kissed.
The overall tone of this book is unlike any of the previous, and even though I missed so many of the secondary key players, I loved getting the very long-time-coming Mercy and Adam alone time. The only thing that could have made it better was more smexy-time scenes, but I know that isn’t Ms. Briggs’s style. The plot involves a monster in the river and it was really frightening at times! I am especially afraid of water when I can’t see anything in beneath the surface, and there are some scenes that had me totally freaked the hell out. Also, for the first time Mercy meets other walkers and learns that she is not the only one out there.
Stefan has been absent from the storyline lately and we finally get to see what has been going on with him. I didn’t realize just how much I had missed him until we find out the opposite-of-awesome state he is in. I really wish he could have had more screen time. In fact, I am surprised by how much I did love this book even without all the secondary characters we’ve all come to love and expect, and that shows you just what a good story this is.
The Mercy Thompson series is one beautiful example of how the heroine in a series can find love and yet the series continues to grow and remain as entertaining and interesting, if not more so. The worlds and characters of the series are so well built and multi-dimensional that the fact that Mercy and Adam are now married only adds to the experience, it doesn’t remove any of the suspense or tension. It is one of the first Urban Fantasy series I was ever introduced to and it continues to remain one of the closest to my heart.
- Moon Called
- Blood Bound
- Iron Kissed
- Bone Crossed
- Silver Borne
- River Marked
