Wednesday, February 26, 2014

Review: Night Broken

NIGHT BROKEN
Mercy Thompson #8
Patricia Briggs
Adult Urban Fantasy
352 pages
Ace
Available March 11th
Source: Finished copy from publisher for review

THE STORY (from Goodreads)
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.


MY THOUGHTS
The Mercy Thompson series is one of those series where returning to it is not a desperate, driving need, but yet once we’re there it settles around our shoulders with all the comfort of a warm blanket on a cold winter day. There’s a beautiful familiarity waiting for us from the moment we crack the spine, beloved characters ready to land themselves in various types of troubles for our amusement, and we can do nothing but smile when we settle down to read. Even installments that might have a particularly bothersome flaw don’t ruffle our feathers all that much or take away from our overall enjoyment because the strength of our tie to the series as a whole is simply too strong.

One of those aforementioned flaws is present and accounted for in Night Broken in the form of Adam’s ex-wife Christy, her manipulative and petty presence like nails on a chalkboard for the effect she has on Adam and the rest of the pack. Christy has an uncanny ability to render both Adam and majority of the pack completely docile, unwilling to say or do anything that might hurt her or cause her fake tears to flow, and while it’s easy to simply greatly dislike Christy and move on, it’s more difficult to do so with Adam's behavior toward her. Mercy is not the type of woman who needs a man to protect or defend her in any way, but there’s a point when Adam's lack of outspoken support for her becomes not simply a matter of keeping the peace within the pack, but rather shows a distinct lack of respect for his wife and mate. He expects Mercy to swallow behavior from Christy he himself would never dream of enduring were their roles reversed, so for the first part of this story Adam unfortunately loses a few of the points he's earned with us over the course of this series.

Where Adam loses points though, Mercy earns them with the way she handles herself, never fully backing down from Christy’s deliberate provocations but never rising to them either, instead she gives an inch or two before taking them back once again. We might wish for her to wrestle those inches back in more dramatic fashion as our anger on her behalf is quite impressive, but nothing knocks Mercy from the beautiful high road she’s so set on walking. Luckily for us though, about halfway through the focus shifts from Christy’s presence to the more pressing mystery surrounding her stalker, and we quickly leave all our frustrations behind in favor of diving headfirst into the adventure Ms. Briggs never fails to grant us with each Mercy Thompson novel.

Overall, even with Christy and her childish game playing this story is still delightfully entertaining, Mercy’s life as hectic and as dangerous as ever when she finds herself of interest to numerous very powerful entities. Adam does charm his way into earning our forgiveness by the end, so we're left with one of our favorite couples strong, in love, and back on track in our eyes by the time we reach the last page. We can only wonder what near-death experience awaits Mercy next, and I for one am greatly looking forward to watching her escape its cold, clammy fingers all over again.

Rating: 4/5
 

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This book was sent to me by the publisher free of charge for the purpose of a review
I received no other compensation and the above is my honest opinion.

34 comments:

  1. I remember wanting to start this series when it first came out, but I never did. I still want to, though, especially since I see there is a character named Christy. I'm narcissistic that way. lol

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    1. This is a favorite of mine Christy! I just love Mercy. She gets herself into so much trouble:)

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  2. I'm glad Adam charms his way back into our hearts as his behavior during the first half of this novel seems unforgivable in large part. I hate when alpha males tend to expect their partners to concede in certain situations that they themselves would never back down in, but I'm still extremely excited for this one and cannot wait for my copy to arrive! Lovely review, Jenny!

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    1. Exactly. I wanted to throttle Adam through the first half of the book, I just don't understand why he couldn't say "Christy, you will respect my wife and mate" instead of letting her do whatever she wanted and then thanking Mercy later for being a good sport about it. It was irritating, but I just love this series so much, I couldn't be too bothered:)

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  3. I wanted to STRANGLE Christie!! She's SOOO annoying!! I do like the way Mercy handled her, though I wish she'd done a bit more (of course, she would have come off as being mean and spiteful if she'd gone my route). LOVE THIS SERIES!!

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    1. Yes. I didn't understand why no one put her in her place. They could have done so in a respectful way, but still one that brooked no argument. I just didn't get why they all let her manipulate them when they were well aware she was doing it! I guess I'm just too vindictive because I would have been all "listen here..." :)

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  4. Ugh. Christie sounds like those typical annoying exes in books. I already can't stand her and want to smack Adam in the face. Not supporting your mate is not cool. >.<
    I'm glad to hear Mercy doesn't bow down to Christie though. She sounds like a strong, level-headed woman.
    I'm glad you enjoyed this book, Jenny. I haven't read it yet, but I know Rachel adores this, so I might give it a shot some day.
    Lovely review.

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    1. Mercy's a champ for sure:) WAY nicer than I would have been in this situation, so I had to respect her for that. Adam won me back over in the end, but I couldn't help but want Mercy to ask him to see things from her perspective.

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  5. Oh goodness it sounds like Adam lost some cool points for sure!

    I have a feeling this one will leave me feeling slightly angry and sad.

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    1. He did. I know with 100% certainty that if an ex of Mercy's was blatantly trying to win her back and flaunting it in front of Adam, there would be blood. I just wanted Adam to tell Christy that her treatment of Mercy would not stand. Still, once the focus shifts away from Christy and to the stalker, my anger faded and I enjoyed the story overall:)

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  6. Christy sounds like the type of character that might really make me lose my mind - and interest in the book, unfortunately. I'm glad to hear that the other characters like Mercy balance her craziness out though. That gives me a little hope! Great review, Jenny!

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    1. She needed a good Come to Jesus talk for sure. Mercy was epic as always though, I just adore her:)

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  7. My initial thought when I read the synopsis of this one that the whole stalker issue was made up but now I'm curious to learn more! I'm glad this one was a bit stronger than the last few week volumes.

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    1. I thought that initially as well, but definitely not the case Rummanah! All sorts of craziness ensues:)

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  8. I'm really excited for this one. I've been waiting for a year for it. I LOVE Mercy and of course Adam. I guess I'm surprised at his reaction to Christy. No one likes her in all the other books because of her behavior toward her daughter and Adam. The pack hates her. I'm really intrigued to see it all play out. Mercy is one of my favorite characters. Her personality is fun and tough and she's never afraid of admitting when things are really hard. Excellent review, Jenny!

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    1. It's crazy Jen because despite the fact that no one is hugely enamored of Christy, they all still tend to side with her over Mercy and that was hard to see. Mercy's awesome, and I just wanted Adam to lay down the law a bit with both Christy and the pack.

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  9. I've heard about "this ex-wife Christy" and how frustrating she is. I'm glad the story and Adam end up making up for it. This one sounds like another great novel in the series and I'm glad you enjoyed it, Jenny :)

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    1. She's a miserable excuse for a human being to be honest. She's unbelievably selfish and doesn't deserve to have a daughter as awesome as Jesse. Still, I appreciated that Patricia never really changed Christy, she didn't change her ways by the end, because people like that typically don't change. She did realize that she had no place with Adam anymore, but you could tell she wasn't magically going to be this amazing mom and understanding ex-wife all of a sudden:)

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  10. Is it bad to say that I haven't heard nor started this series before. I know Patricia Briggs is a brilliant Sci-Fi/Fantasy author and I love this sort of premises. I think I may have read something of this author and I absolutely divulged it in a heartbeat. It was brilliant. SO I have no worries that this series is just as good. Lovely review Jenny! :)

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    1. I started this series long before I started the blog, I just adore Patricia Briggs! Her other series with Anna and Charles is equally good:) Hope you give them a try Emma!

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  11. Oh I have a feeling this book is going to have me boiling. Mercy has worked way too hard to earn respect in the pack's eyes, for this chick to reappear and try to tear that away, Adam included, just makes me angry. I can't wait to read this, I have a feeling I'm going to fly through it.

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    1. YES! I was so mad the entire first half of this book (but I was clearly supposed to be). I wanted to smack Adam for not setting Christy straight from the onset with regard to Mercy, Mercy deserved better from him. Still, I love this series so much:)

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  12. Oh boy instead of a frightful paranormal creature we have a vindictive ex wife. I am two books behind on this series now and I am planning on catching up. I hope I am okay with this one.

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    1. Oh no Heidi. We have both a vindictive ex-wife AND a frightful paranormal creature. Life is never dull for Mercy:)

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  13. So jealous and giddy that you read this already!!! AHHH! I have a feeling Christy is going to get on my nerves. Loved your review!

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  14. lols! I actually thought that I was on the wrong blog for some reason or that Rachel was guest reviewing today on your blog, because I know she's a huge fan of this series. Oh, this reminds me of Owen and her ex girlfriend (which you know all about) from the Elemental Assassin series. Remember that? It was painful. I just.. yeah. lols. I don't want to experience that pain again. Eh, my mom has to get my laptop to skype my dad since he's been abroad for several weeks so I'm going to go, but I'll make sure to finish reading your thoughts later:) I'm so happy you liked it Jenny and I cannot wait to get started with this series:)

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  15. Ooooh! I am so behind on this series. It also looks like I'll want to kick Adam in the arse. So glad that I will later forgive him... still will keep my kick arse reading shoes on. ;)

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  16. I really like that Mercy takes the high road but also doesn't completely let Christy walk all over her. Christy's ex sounds like an interesting character.

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  17. I need to read this series. I don't have much more to add than that. One day I will binge on them.

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  18. Yes, I totally agree that Christy needed to be put in her place, but Mercy was in such a tight spot, it's like anything she said that would have had me cheering would have put her in opposition to the pack or weakened her. And yes Adam definitely disappointed me in this one, but by the end I was in a better place with him. So happy with how it ended up though! Awesome review!

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  19. Oh no, I hate installments like this. The only thing I hate more is cheating<-----marginally worse than a manipulative ex showing and trying to rekindle an extinguished flame, but not by much (IMO). Gah. I want to throttle Christie already, and I haven't even read it yet.

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  20. I haven't read this series so I know very little about it. I don't like the sound of Adam falling for the machinations of his ex. Silly men. I do like Mercy though. I think she'd be someone I could definitely like as a MC.

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