An unexpected phone
call heralds a new challenge for Mercy. Her mate Adam’s ex-wife is in
trouble, on the run from her new boyfriend. Adam isn’t the kind of man
to turn away a person in need—and Mercy knows it. But with Christy holed
up in Adam’s house, Mercy can’t shake the feeling that something about
the situation isn’t right.Soon, her suspicions are confirmed when she learns that Christy has the farthest thing from good intentions. She wants Adam back and she’s willing to do whatever it takes to make it happen, including turning Adam’s pack against Mercy.
Mercy isn’t about to step down without a fight, but there’s a more dangerous threat circling. Christy’s ex is more than a bad man—in fact, he may not be human at all. As the bodies start piling up, Mercy must put her personal troubles aside to face a creature with the power to tear her whole world apart.
Book
8 of the Mercy Thompson series
Publisher: Ace Hardcover
Publisher: Ace Hardcover
Date
Published: March 11, 2014
Pages
352
Genres:
Urban Fantasy, paranormal romance
I have been a fan of this series since
it first came out in 2006. As a huge fan of the series, this may be a biased
review. I have not written a review for the previous seven books and I don't
plan to. This is not a stand alone read. There is a lot that has happened in
the previous seven books and they are referred to in this one. There were
references to the ex-wife in previous books, so I was holding my breath for
this one.
It starts off with a frantic call from
Christy Hauptman, ex-wife of Adam Hauptman, Mercedes Thompson's mate. She asks
to "come home" after her boyfriend hurt her and apparently killed a
friend. When Christy reaches the house, she immediately makes herself at home
with her playing hostess, gourmet cooking skills, and all around pain in the
ass for Mercy.
Christy seems to like garnering
sympathy and she loves to act helpless. She was a great homemaker, very Martha
Stewart when she was living there. Werewolves apparently like to take care of
people, so with Christy's personality she fit in quite well. She was not a good
mother to Jesse. She's a weak person, who was too busy looking after herself,
to take care of anyone else, including her family. Yet, she still had the
pack's support, whereas Mercy had to work hard for it.
We got to see the inner workings of
Mercy and Adam's marriage. It was nice to see after everything they had been
through. Their commitment and unshakable belief in each other was amazing.
Other than Christy's stalker issue,
there was also the issue of a Fae that came to Mercy. The Gray Lord, Lugh
Beauclaire, wanted his father's Fae artifact back, the walking stick. However,
Mercy had given it to Coyote in the previous book. She was given a week to get
it back to the Gray Lord. A side mystery seems to be some murders occurring
across town. As a friend of Tony she is asked to consult in some werewolf-like
deaths.
And so the mystery ensues. From
figuring out who the stalker is, finding Coyote, discovering who the in town
murderer is, and the cherry on top, dealing with Christy, Mercy has a hell of a
lot loaded on her plate. Highly recommended for urban fantasy fans.
Rating: ★★★★☆
