Gwen’s review of Hunting Ground (Alpha and Omega, Book 2) by Patricia Briggs
Paranormal romantic suspense released by Ace 29 Aug 09

I love Briggs’ storytelling.  Her books are always these lovely tales that are full of interesting, unique, and oddly believable paranormal elements.  You sincerely feel as if her world could exist and she’s just telling you about it like a newspaper relates events.  I love that kind of confidence in an author – I have no trouble giving them several hours of my time because I know it won’t be wasted. 

The Alpha & Omega books are set in the same world as the Mercy Thompson books.  While Mercy is told in first person POV, the A&O books are in third (yay!).  We get to see into all of the characters’ motivations and heads. There are a few common characters, some common story arcs, and common species, but that’s where the similarities between the two series ends.  And Hunting stands alone fine – no need to read the first book in the A&O  series; but why deprive yourself, read it already.

Charles and Anna are set the task of negotiating the U.S. werewolves’ “coming out” to the public.  They’re negotiating the reveal with the other werewolf communities – helping some to stay hidden, helping others with public relations expertise and expense, and just generally making sure everyone knows what is about to happen.

As you can imagine, there are quite a few beings who are NOT happy about this upcoming event.  There are plots within plots and lots of gamesmanship involved – some of it deadly.  I had a lot of fun reading all the action and machinations.

The romance between Charles and Anna continues to be sweet.  However, I would have liked to read more about their one on one time and that’s the only reason I dropped the grade from an A to a B.  Otherwise, I really enjoyed the book.

I highly recommend the book to fans of the author and the series.  It stands alone fine, so if you haven’t read any of the related books, please pick this one up.  It’s a very fun story chock-a-block with lots of interesting action and characters.

Grade: B++

Read other reviews and information by following the series’ tag here.

Summary:

Mated to werewolf Charles Cornick, the son -and enforcer -of the leader of the North American werewolves, Anna Latham now knows how dangerous being a werewolf is, especially when a werewolf opposes Charles and his father is struck down. Charles’s reputation makes him the prime suspect, and the penalty for the crime is execution. Now Anna and Charles must combine their talents to hunt down the real killer -or Charles will take the fall.

Read an excerpt here.

Other books in the series:

Untitled Book 3, Aug 2010