PLEASE BE AWARE THAT THIS REVIEW MAY CONTAIN SPOILERS FOR THE MERCY THOMPSON SERIES AS FROST BURNED IS THE SEVENTH BOOK IN THAT SERIES.

Frost Burned by Patricia Briggs (UK edition)

Title: Frost Burned (Mercy Thompson novel, 7)
Author: Patricia Briggs
Genre: Urban Fantasy
Publisher: Orbit (5th March 2013)
Blurb:

MECHANIC. SHAPESHIFTER. FIGHTER.

Now that she’s the mate of Alpha werewolf Adam, Mercy Thompson’s life finally seems to be calming down – but not for long. After a traffic accident, Mercy suddenly can’t reach Adam or the rest of the pack. All she knows is that Adam is angry and in pain.

If Adam’s disappearance has anything to do with the werewolves’ fight for public acceptance, it means the entire pack is in serious danger. Outclassed and on her own, Mercy will have to seek help from an unlikely ally – no matter how grave the consequences.

Rating: **** (4 stars)
Review:

Patricia Briggs’s Mercy Thompson Novels is one of my favourite urban fantasy series, so when the seventh book was published I snapped it up. One of the things I most enjoy about the Mercy Thompson Novels is the way Briggs uses humour: Mercy (or, to use her full name, Mercedes) is a Volkswagen mechanic. That just makes me smile.

I really enjoyed getting back into Mercy’s world. In River Marked both Mercy and Adam are still getting used to married life – it takes place on their honeymoon after all – but by the time of Forst Burned they’ve settled into the rhythm of their new life – and Mercy has experienced some of the challenges of being a stepmom. Seeing Mercy’s relationship with Jesse and how it has both changed and stayed the same at the beginning of the book was really interesting.

The start of Frost Burned is pretty domestic, but of course things don’t stay that way. I think Briggs did a really good job of showing the growing tensions in the book. Of course there has been tension in the series for a whilie with the revelation of werewolves and the fey to the human population, but in Frost Burned things come to a head in an unexpected way: the disappearance of Adam and his pack. Normally it is Mercy herself who is at the heart of the danger, but Briggs switches things up in this book and it was really interesting to watch Mercy have to react to this.

The plot twisted a lot, which I really enjoyed and the final revelation of who the bad guy behind everything was a surprise. Briggs did a good job at not really giving anything away until the end of the book. There was a definite sense that things are coming to a head  in Mercy’s world, and I think that could mean interesting things for future books. If you are a fan of urban fantasy and like werewolves and shapeshifters and you haven’t checked out this series yet, then you should.