River Marked
River Marked (Mercy Thompson, #6)by Patricia Briggs
Car mechanic and shapeshifter Mercy Thompson senses that 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. (goodreads.com)
Hi, I'm Cat and I am terribly behind on posting on this blog. Hence why this post shall be back-dated to February 29 when I finished this book. Thankfully I am currently only one book behind now. I still have to write the post for my first book of March and I am hoping to get that done this weekend. Anyhoo...Speaking of being behind, I am of course a year behind in this series since I wait for the books to come out in mass market before I buy them. As I was updating my list of books *points to end of post* I found out that the next Mercy Thompson book isn't out until Spring *2013*! What the--? I guess I'll not be reading another book until 2014 then. Alas. I love this series!Of course now that I have said I love the series, I have to follow it up with, this book wasn't really my favourite. I found it very slow and dull for the first half. I don't care about surprise weddings or honeymoons. I like when Things That Go Bump In The Night are creepy, evil creatures going around killing things. I don't like when the Things That Go Bump are two bodies gettin' busy in a trailer on their honeymoon. Bleh. (Thankfully my Inner Prude was spared any sort of graphic Bumping scenes. I am quite happy that Patricia Briggs does not go down the same sexy road as many other Urban Fantasy authors. Thank you for leaving things to our imagination and not detailing every single moan, groan and bodily fluid.)For 6 books now, even though I do love the characters and this series, I tend to have an on/off relationship with the stories. It all seems to depend on what creature the story is focused on. I don't like the stories that are heavy on the vampires, I love the ones heavy on the fey and I am ok with the werewolf ones. River Marked takes a completely different turn as it focuses on Mercy's Native background, so we're immersed in Native mythology, which I do find fascinating. What I don't like is a slow start to action and a lot of history lessons, which I felt this book had for a good half of the story.I have to admit, I am still not entirely certain what the hell was in the river and what it looked like. Was it just me? I found the description of the River Devil to be rather vague and all I can figure is that some weird fey otter creatures summoned it, but I don't know why. I even re-read a bunch of chapters and I still don't know why the otters summoned this weird tentacly-snakey thing that was eating people. I hate when a book makes me feel stupid. I just couldn't figure this out!Because I have no interest in reading Patricia Briggs' spin-off series Alpha & Omega, I guess I'm 2 years away from reading another book by her. Sadness. I truly love this urban fantasy world she's created where people know most creatures exist. I love Mercy as a protagonist (only not when she's mooning over Adam. Ugh. Please.). I'm happiest when she's fixing cars in her garage and gets roped into solving some sort of paranormal mystery. I am hoping that the next book is more of that type of thing and less of the "I'm married and happy" stuff. Of course, this makes me worried that Adam will get killed off at some point. I like Adam a lot. I hope he lives!Mercy Thompson series