Sunday, May 12, 2013

Oh Mercy! robgirlbooks' Review of Frost Burned by Patricia Briggs

Frost Burned
by Patricia Briggs
Published by Ace Hardcover (3/5/13)
352 pages
My Own Copy
4.5 STARS!!!

Mercy Thompson takes her stepdaughter shopping on the eve of Black Friday. Much complaining and a sizable fender bender lead to a terrifying discovery; the mate bond between Mercy and Adam has gone quiet. Our favorite heroine switches to stealth mode to find out what's wrong because she's poked the supernatural beast enough to know something really bad has decided to bite back. With Bran busy negotiating with the Fae and almost every pack member unreachable, Mercy teams up with unlikely helpers and like always takes on more than she can chew.

The moment I cracked open Frost Burned, I happily fell into Briggs' easy style of storytelling. I love Mercy's snark, especially when she's cranky. And she's cranky about shopping when she should be rubbing her full belly after a big Thanksgiving Day dinner. She's always had this air of maturity, but she seemed extra grown up in this installment. She's a step mom now. She has an entire pack to worry about, as well as her mate who is in some kind of danger that has him in pain and raging pretty hard. She mentions several times she would like to hand over the decision making to someone better equipped, yet the fate of the world and her loved ones reside right there on her shoulders. I remember in Moon Called she wore the same cocoa stained shirt forever. I wanted to personally escort her to a hot shower. This time she's battered by one event after another with no sleep, no food, no medical care. I wanted to bandage up her many scrapes, feed her some soup, and tuck her in bed.

Along with the action starting up right away, we're treated to Adam's POV. It's a switch up to her previous Mercy books. And it's awesome! I would have liked a little more man-type thoughts. Most of them revolve around his monster-ness. Doesn't he know Mercy loves all of him? To counter the warm fuzzies inspired by insight into one of our favorite characters, Briggs kills us a little bit by revealing a less cool Stephan. What is happening to our favorite vampire? He's so dark. I want to slap him out of his funk, but then he'd just kill me for it. And I'm not entirely sure I want a friendly Stephan again. Maybe I like a potentially evil former Scooby fan lurking about.

The mystery part of the story is great in that I had no idea what/who was the big bad. I had my guesses, oh and my author judgements. "Patty, come on. That is so obvious." Ha! I was wrong with every dang guess. Some of that had to do with too much misdirection. The action was riveting. Briggs added new elements, new ways to fight, and new types of things to fight.

I loved Frost Burned. I couldn't read it fast enough, yet I tried to take my time. I haven't started stalking Briggs' website (which has had a complete makeover!), but I'm sure any day now I'll start hunting down the next big release date.

Talking points for those who have read Frost Burned.

The romance part in some ways was wonderful. Mercy loves Adam. We love Adam. It's all good. But come on, Briggs. They did it in Silver Borne. You can't reclaim your Urban Fantasy genre status because we've been rooting for this romance too long and you already gave it to us and we sat through a wedding ceremony. So give us the dang sex. Grrh. Anyone else feel this way, that Briggs was holding on to keeping this series light on romance when that ship has already sailed?

After reading the third book in the Alpha and Omega series, Fair Game, I wondered how Briggs' was going to address the fact that she just remapped the world. Briggs does a good job of filling in the blanks for those who need a refresher. For those who opted out of reading the Alpha and Omega series, they'd have the basics, but not the justifiable anger the Fae feel toward the human justice system. Was there too much backstory in this installment? Not enough? I personally do not like backstory. I want the most minimal possible to keep the read fresh and exciting and still fluid with the series.

I know Mercy is smart, but there were a few showy moments in this book where I felt like the stupid one at a cocktail party. Sheesh, even Tony said, "I and the police department..." or some such. Mercy had just used the same sentence structure pages earlier. It didn't feel like the way you'd expect conversation to naturally flow. I guess this one's more of a gripe than a talking point.


14 comments:

  1. I absolutely love the Mercy Thompson books! They are perfect. Great review, I've been kind of reluctant to read as there have been some negative reviews and I am a very suscpetible person. I don't read any other reviews of a book until've written my own

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    1. I love the Mercy books too!! I stayed away from all reviews of this one because I made that mistake with Fair Game and all the comments messed with my read. I'm with you on that. I'll be on the lookout for your review when you read Frost Burned so we can book chat. Thanks for stopping by Sadaf. Have a great week!

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  2. Great review, Robyn! I think you've talked about Patricia Briggs here before, so I found the name quite familiar. I like mysteries in a story too, and that's why I read a lot of Mary Higgins Clark. Lots of characters, which leaves you confused over who the bad guy is. Sometimes you guess wrong, and sometimes you guess almost right. And it feels like a reward when you guess right. :)

    I'm glad you enjoyed the book. :)

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    1. My mind won't quit guessing. I love it when I'm wrong. Sue Grafton hedges her bets because she'll create a situation where one bad guy did this and another unrelated bad guy did that. So I'm alway 50/50 with her books. I'll have to try a MHC book. Thanks for stopping by, Kaykay. Love your Beachman series!!

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  3. I've seen this series everywhere, so I am tempted to read it. I hope I get to start it soon

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    1. Rivie, I love this series. Mercy is a smart chick. She's a mechanic coyotee shifter trying to make her own way with a pack of werewolves, a vampire seethe, and a bunch of seemingly harmless fae around her ready to eat her up.

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  4. I have felt like Mercy is maturing more with each book and I bet it will be interesting to watch her fully take on the role of Step Mom. She loves Jessie and has always cared for her but more in an aunt type way. I look forward to seeing that. I also think it will be pretty cool to see through Adam's thoughts some. If there aren't many romantic moments then I will probably be growling with you. We're past that point already. Great review! Jaclyn @ JC's Book Haven.

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    1. Can't wait until you read this so we can book chat about it. Some people get upset when an author changes up styles mid-series, like adding Adam's POV, but I loved it in the Morganville series and I loved it for this book too. I hope Briggs finds a way to keep doing it. I'm so glad I hit Kim Harrison after Frost Burned or I'd be in a reading slump for sure.

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  5. I didn't read your review - as I haven't had time to read the book yet, and I'm always so scared of spoilers... but I had to like it anyway - I love that you gave it 4.5 stars! I look forward to reading it myself :)
    Happy reading.

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    1. I'm right there with you. I didn't read a single review for Frost Burned before I read it. I did that with Fair Game and one of Richelle Mead's books a while back. I won't read spoilers unless I want to be convinced to read the book. Thanks for stopping by and for the like! I try to stay as spoiler free as possible, but even a summary gives away info you might want to encounter through the MC instead of the blogger.

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    2. I am very strange when it comes to books I know I'm giong to read - I stay away from all reviews in advance. I already own the book, and will read it soon. I am so afraid something said in a reviw will make me 'see' things differently when I read the book myself.

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    3. I totally agree! And then it's strange and kind of fun when you love a book you discover other people gave 1 star ratings to.

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  6. Oh, Robyn! I'm with Lexxie - haven't read Frost Burned yet so I didn't read the review yet. But I'm excited you gave it 4.5 stars! :) I love Mercy and I have been looking forward to this book (2 years!!) but won't be able to read it til June...which isn't too far away. Ahh! ;)

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    1. No, June is way too close for my comfort. I'm not nearly as productive as I need to be right now. I think parents get end of the school year apathy along with the kids. At least I have a new series I'm in love with...I'm a 1/3 through Dead Witch Walking by Kim Harrison. I'll stay tuned for your review when it comes so I can chat with you about it. I just saw that Night Broken is the title for book 8. Yay!!!

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