Lately I’ve been craving some alpha-shifter-romance novels and I stumbled upon my Mercy Thomson shelf. There was a time before my kindle, you know, when I ordered books and never really read them resulting in me hording a full shelf of Patricia Briggs novels that are now morphing into dust catchers in my basement. I’ve been reading Mercy Thompson a few years back but never went further than book nr. 2. Unfortunately, this hasn’t kept me from pre-ordering every fucking book which leaves me no other option but to admit that clearly I suffer from compulsive book hoarding syndrome. There you have it, I need help, medical care, psychological therapy. The first Mercy Thommpson book was even better than I remembered and I was sucked right back into this world. Then I skipped the second book, Blood Bound, because it was all about the vamps and went right to the third book Iron Kissed, which focuses on the fey. I love Briggs’ fey, especially Zee. Why? I am just so impressed about the accurate German references in this book. As you might know, Briggs graduated from Montana State University with degrees in history and German and her love for German cars, German language and German fairy tales shows. I adore it! But the more the story in Iron Kissed progressed the more it got difficult for me to really like it. Some of the scenes were so bewildering. "Ménage-à-trois" or "Curtain up for alpha monstrosities":A love triangle is not per se something I dislike, but in this case both male characters and the execution of the romance were more than perplexing. Mercy switches her "love/affection" between her childhood sweetheart Sam and her more recent attraction to Adam. I was into neither of them. Sam a several hundred years old Werewolf tried to seduce her at age 16 not because he loved her or anything but because Mercy in his eyes was the only female worldwide (talk about specialness, yo!) who can give birth to werewolf puppies. What a creepy, pedophile, manipulative bastard. And now he is Mercy’s roommate and wants to win her back? And she lets him court her, because she has these First Love memories? He coldly manipulated her into falling in love with him when she was just 14, he wanted to marry and mate with her when she was 16/17. This is just something … simply no! And there is this moment after a party when they both laugh it off and decide they are not in love with each other and never will be? This was the lamest solving of a love-triangle I ever heard of. You just don’t fall out of love one night after being in love for more than 15 years. Just no! And then there is Adam, Alpha supreme, and imho asshole superlative. He is constantly invading her personal space, he showers his unwanted affection on her, he declared her his mate before his pack and now she has to deal with the ramifications. And everybody pesters her to decide although she never wanted to be his mate in the first place. Example: He installs a security system in her garage without even asking her. I never for one second felt emotional attached to their “romance”. I just couldn’t care less about his character. There is a scene at the beginning where his daughter comes home after being beaten by some high-school dumbasses and he doesn’t care that she is bleeding and hurt, he doesn’t call a doctor … What he does is shouting and intimidating her further into telling him who did it so he can go and murder them. Mercy has to constantly tiptoe around his volatile character and play submissive wolf just so that Adam doesn’t turn HULK punching walls. I mean really this is sooooo not romantic: a pedophile creep on the one side and an aggressive cave-man who barely controls himself on the other. My bullshit-o-meter alarm is blaring. (view spoiler)[And then the ending: Are you fucking kidding me? She was raped and two days later she walks around all back to normal and decides I am no victim and thus is over the whole rape-incident and then decides that Adam is THE MAN and has sex with him??????????? (hide spoiler)]
I think I just about hyperventilated through the last three chapters of this book.Excuse me, but I must get this out of my system ---OMFG!!!Anyway, this is the third of Patricia Briggs' Mercy Thompson series. Just as the first book was an introduction to the wolves and the second book brought the Vamps to the fore, this one brings the third of the major preternatural "races", the Fae into sharp focus.Mercy is asked by her friends in the Fae community to use her special talents to help them track down a killer who is targeting the Fae. Unlike the vamps who will never go public and the wolves who are planning to go public with (but only with very careful PR) -- the Fae are already public. They were forced to reveal themselves as preternatural beings to the human population by their leaders the mysterious Grey Lords. But they've very carefully only revealed the harmless among the Fae.In truth, the Fae (and their Fae possessions) are just as dangerous as the vampires as we find out in a harrowing, awful way in this book.I won't go into much detail except to say that I read this in one sitting. The book is deceptive. It starts out as one thing and then the stakes kick up like crazy and becomes something completely different in the end.I will say that I am beyond happy that Briggs does not draw out the love triangle between Sam, Mercy and Adam for eleventy-twelve books like some authors who shall not be named. I hate it when a reader gets strung along for no good reason and by the 14th book you really don't care anymore you just wish all three would go away. But not so with this author. I love the manner in which Mercy made her realization of who she wanted. No stupid plot points, no big misunderstandings, no grand betrayals -- just grown people acting like grown ups.I also liked the insight into Ben's character. Talk about adding some depth to a character in an awesome way!Anyway, three books and counting in this series and not a false note yet.Highly recommend!!
What do You think about Iron Kissed (2008)?
I liked the main plot of this one better than the first two. Fae! Interesting! And Zee is awesome.I had a lot of issues with other things though. I think I would enjoy this series a lot more without the romance, and this book had more of that than the others did. I think that, if the choice is between Adam and Samuel, Mercy made the right choice; that doesn't mean I like Adam. I hate all the werewolf dominance stuff, and Adam has his dominance turned up to eleven. He's controlling and possessive
—Jojo
The 3rd book in the enchanting Mercy Thompson Series and the more I get to like Mercy…. This is an intense and emotional story.Mercy becomes involved in some dangerous things when she becomes involved in the fae world and politics in her quest to save her former mentor and fae, Zee. Filled with nerve-wracking moments, suspense and tension – you just can’t wait for turning the next page to finding out what happens now!!! You kept guessing until the very end and it’s certainly not what you expect!!The world building continues growing and it’s becoming more and more interesting with all the different characters.We finally get to see Mercy making up her mind about the man she really loves…and I was beyond happy with her decision!!!!A great and fabulous read.
—Alex is The Romance Fox
Iron Kissed was deceptively calm in the beginning, and then all hell broke loose. Parts of the ending were shocking and heartbreaking, and then touching and heartwarming. You’ve won my heart Adam!As you can probably guess from the title, the mystery here revolves around the fae. Mercy is called in for assistance by her former boss and sort of father figure. The fae are a dangerous and powerful race full of secrets, and don’t like outsiders discovering them. So of course, Mercy puts herself in grave danger to help out her friend. Fortunately, she has the wolves at her back. I’m not going to go into a long review, but I will say this is my favorite so far of the series. As I said it was heartbreaking and intense for Mercy and I’m sure the after effects will haunt her in the future. The situation with Adam, Samuel and Mercy is finally resolved and I’m thrilled with how things turned out. I can’t wait to see how it impacts Mercy and her friends in the coming books. I want to mention that I was pleasantly surprised by Ben who I have been wary of in the past. He stepped up and won my heart in the process. This series is shaping up to be a favorite of mine, burrowing into my heart a little more with each installment! I listened to the audio version of this book and I highly recommend it Lorelei King’s narration was perfection!Favorite quote: “It's only fair to warn you that you sealed your fate tonight. When you knew you were in trouble, you came to me. That makes twice, Mercy, and twice is almost as good as a declaration. You are mine now.... Ben says you might run. If you do, I will find you and bring you back. Every time you run, Mercy. I won't force you, but. .. No more excuses, Mercy. You are mine, and I am keeping you.”
—♥Rachel♥
