Gwen’s Review of Blood Bound (Mercy Thompson Series, Book 2) by Patricia Briggs
Paranormal/Fantasy romance published 30 Jan 07 by Ace Books (Penguin)

Blood Bound is book 2 of Briggs’ novels surrounding a mechanic named Mercedes (Mercy) Thompson and her world. Book 1 was Moon Called  is not a prerequisite, but is a fine book on its own. 

Briggs surprised me again by how she’s able to completely suspend my disbelief – making me believe in her characters and the story. I never had that moment of “yeah, THAT can happen.” These two books are less love story than action-adventure, though, so read them if you’re ready for a change. I think the character relationships are involved and complex enough to satisfy any but the most demanding romance reader. They’re just not the conventional HEA.

Mercy Thompson is a coyote walker (can shift to the form of a coyote at will).  Her friends are vampires, werewolves, and fae. The world Briggs creates in these two novels is rich with interesting, diverse characters, complicated relationships, and normal concerns (getting up for work and dealing with the mundane). I really like Mercy and would love to find myself having coffee with her one day, laughing about the heap she keeps in her yard to annoy her neighbor (you have to read it to understand). The overall story arc is well conceived and very satisfying – and she leaves us wanting to know more about Mercy and her world.

I really enjoyed this book. The pages kept flipping, and I kept laughing at the dialog or something the characters did. I was also left on the edge of my seat with some of the action and suspense. It’s a rich, complex world that Briggs has wrought and one I want to visit again. Here’s hoping we see Mercy soon and that she gets busy with one of the seriously steamy guys she hangs with.

Grade: B

Blurb:

A sorcerer-turned-vampire wreaks havoc on Washington’s Tri-Cities, causing death, destruction and a paranormal faceoff in the second of Briggs’s series featuring Mercy Thompson, a mechanic and “walker”: one who can turn into a coyote at will. After attempts by the paranormal community to destroy the malevolent sorcerer fail, Mercy finds herself pulled into the fray: though her werewolf and vampire friends are stronger than she, it turns out that Mercy’s abilities make her the only one in town who can save them all. While she discovers the truth about her powers, she also learns more about her past, and the werewolves who raised her. Though the romantic subplot-involving two rival werewolves, Alpha wolf Adam and Mercy’s roommate Samuel-fizzles, Briggs has a refreshing knack for imbuing her characters (even non-humans) with lived-in human qualities. When it gets going, this paranormal adventure story is engaging, but a flabby first-person narrative stunts the suspense.

Read an excerpt.