Tina's Reading Books

Ok, I am just going to get this out of the way.

What the fuck, Adam?

Ok.  There.  I feel better.
First let me talk about the stuff I liked:
- Interesting developments regarding Stefan and Tad.
- Intro of Gary who has a surprising connection to Mercy.  I liked him and his fatalistic, cynical, darkly humorous take on everything.
- Mercy getting shit done.  Basically, being Mercy.
- Good use of continuity.  The scenes in Mercy's garage as she fights off an attacker harken back to  Iron Kissed (Mercy Thompson) - Patricia Briggs  Mercy and Adam have that firmly in the front of their minds as they react.
- Honey.  I am liking the progression of her relationship with Mercy.  Finally.

Ok, now the part that makes me WTF:
The premise of the book is that Adam's ex-wife Christy is being stalked by a really nasty customer and seeks protection from the pack.  Ok, fine.  This has good dramatic possibilities.  A storyline that hasn't been mined yet in this series.  And it helps that her stalker really is a bad piece of work.  We know Christy was a flake for taking off, leaving her husband  and abandoning her kid, but maybe -- just maybe, this could have fleshed out her character a bit.

Nope.

She was a cliche.  A manipulative nasty ex who acted sweet as pie and helpless while trying to undermine Mercy in insidious ways.  It was like Briggs wanted to have it both ways.  Christy's plans worked up to a point without exactly succeeding 100%.  Adam sees through  all of Christy's machinations  and it is clear that his love and commitment to Mercy is strong and thriving.  And yet, he doesn't stop Christy or shut down her efforts and his inaction not only makes Mercy react in a way counter to her nature, it plays into some members of the pack's continuing dislike of Mercy. 

I was floored by how easily these people (especially the women) dismissed Mercy -- who has fought for and bled for and fucking rescued them -- to pet, hug and protect Christy.  What was worse they all knew what she was doing and yet sat back and let it happen. There was an unfortunate message conveyed here:  Mercy is strong and can take care of herself she can handle it, her feelings will be fine.  Christy is weak and helpless and human, her feelings need to be protected. 

But Mercy being Mercy still got stuff done.  She kept her eyes on the prize and she pretty much did all the legwork on finding out about the crazy stalker.  In the end,. Christy owed her safety more to Mercy than the pack, when all was said and done.

Frankly, Adam's shine was tarnished in this one for me. 

A smack down of Christy would have gone a long way to restoring some of it. 

  It infuriates me that we didn't get that catharsis.

Oh well.  I have to shake that off.  Minus the stupid Christy business -- which admittedly is quite a bit of the book -- there was a lot of good Mercy action and a nice showdown with some Cantrip agents that gives me an idea of the direction some future plots are going to go.

I still love Mercy and the world.  And even though Adam and most of the pack (Mary Jo needs a serious ass kicking, seriously!) let me down, at least Ben, Warren, Jessie and Honey had Mercy's back.

The ending was abrupt and kind of jarred me a bit.  It had the effect of making this book feel kinda...incomplete.  It wasn't a cliffhanger or anything, but you are left with a vague feeling of stuff not quite finished..of something on the horizon.  When all was said and done this book had a Monster-of-the-week feel with some set up for future installment.