Review: Frost Burned by Patricia Briggs
Author: Patricia Briggs
Title: Frost Burned
Release: March 5, 2013
Reviewer: Teresa
Series: Mercy Thompson #7
Source: Library
Purchase: | Book DepositoryMercy Thompson’s life has undergone a seismic change. Becoming the mate of Adam Hauptman—the charismatic Alpha of the local werewolf pack—has made her a stepmother to his daughter Jesse, a relationship that brings moments of blissful normalcy to Mercy’s life. But on the edges of humanity, what passes for a minor mishap on an ordinary day can turn into so much more
After an accident in bumper-to-bumper traffic, Mercy and Jesse can’t reach Adam—or anyone else in the pack for that matter. They’ve all been abducted.
Through their mating bond, all Mercy knows is that Adam is angry and in pain. With the werewolves fighting a political battle to gain acceptance from the public, Mercy fears Adam’s disappearance may be related—and that he and the pack are in serious danger. Outclassed and on her own, Mercy may be forced to seek assistance from any ally she can get, no matter how unlikely.
Mercy and Jesse go out shopping Thanksgiving night for the start of Black Friday sales… What could go wrong?
I know that’s a loaded question.
The Rabbit dies…
Writing this review has been difficult. There are many things I want to tell you about but I can’t, I’d give you spoilers and not a review. I’ll do my best to give you a review you can sink your teeth into and not give away too much information.
After two years we finally get to read book seven. I will say the Mercy Thompson series is getting a little more interesting, and Patricia added a few more twist and turns in her latest book. In the last book River Marked we saw Mercy and Adam married and going off on their honeymoon. We also learn about who Mercy is and where she came from, that is an important listen as we learn a little more about Mercy’s magic in Frost Burned.
It’s now Thanksgiving in the Tri-Cities and Mercy is out of the wheelchair. It seems like everything is going pretty well for Mercy and Adam, their mating bond is working itself out and Mercy hasn’t killed any of Adam’s wolves yet.
However, everything is not prefect in the Tri-City, the Fae have packed up and moved onto the reservations and the Gray-Lords have declared the Fae and their territories a sovereign nation. No one can get in or out, at least not without magic. And even then its highly frowned upon.
Frost Burned, book seven is an interesting and extremely funny book. I think I can say that its my favorite so far. Whether that’s because of the one-liners that a few of the characters have or that PB reference one of my all time favorite poems. I’m not sure. Parts of The Tiger by William Blake are quoted in chapter six. My favorite quotes from that chapter are:
Adam: “Tiger, tiger, burning bright in the forest of the night,”… “What immortal hand or eye dare frame thy fearfull symmetry?”
Warren: “We’re not tigers, we’re werewolves, boss. God didn’t make us, nohow. Just ask the dead guys where we come from.”
“Dead guys don’t get an opinion,” Darryl told everyone. “We’re the good guys. That we’re scary doesn’t mean we’re the villians.”
Besides my favorite poem being quoted Frost Burned has other great one-liners from an array of different characters. Some of the one-liners are other references to authors and movies. For instance in chapter one there are nine paragraphs that discuss misquoting Shakespeare’s Macbeth and then move into horror movies because you’re not supposed to say Macbeth you call it “The Scottish Play” or bad things can happen. Besides the discussion on “The Scottish Play” you’ll probably get a few good chuckles throughout the first six pages, PB was on a role.
You’ll see Bran channel Arthur Conan Doyle, and how he does it is a woot. There’s also a message that gets relayed through Ariana thats from Bran to Samuel about a “disturbance in the Force.” I chuckled and thought of Flyboy who was in the next room, he watched Star Wars a few days ago. These are just a few of the one-liners that you’ll find in Frost Burned. There are a whole lot more and there funnier when you read them in context, trust me.
I’m sure you’ve gathered that Frost Burned is not a peaceful story and that the action most likely heats up from the get go, and you would be right. The pack, and I mean the whole pack, gets kidnaps at the beginning of the novel and Mercy is determined to find them and kill them. The group that kidnaps Adam and the gang have gotten in deeper than they realize and the outcome isn’t pretty. PB brings back a few issues that most of us probably hadn’t thought would come back, or at least I thought it was dead and gone but I was mistaken. And I’m sure we haven’t seen the last of it this time. Jerry Wallace’s drug is going to haunt the wolves for a long time. And there’s no way to turn back time to stop his betrayals.
With Adam and the pack in trouble and Mercy on the run again, she uses a vehicle that could land her in a heap of trouble. I mean its never a good idea for Mercy to uses anything that’s Marsilia’s. And borrowing/stealing her Mercedes AMG and driving it around so the “bad guys” can find you might get Mercy killed. I can’t tell you how many people chid Mercy about taking Marsilia’s car. Most calling Marsilia the Vampire Queen or we have Kyle’s “Queen of the Damned” and saying the “bad guys” should get Mercy first before Marsilia does. And that’s before all the damage happens.
Yes we actually do see Marsilia in the book. In fact we see/hear from a few of our favorite characters. Mercy even gets to meet one of the interesting characters from the Alpha Omega series. Bran sends Asil to help Mercy find the pack when he hears Adam and his wolves have been taken. And let me just say Asil adds a lot of twist and turns to the mix. Having his own brand of crazy makes Mercy’s life interesting and creates tension along with action for the reader. Asil has a lot of one-liners that I absolutely loved. The Moor has a history with our beloved Zee that we get snip-its of. I really hope we get the full story some time, and it seems that he might have a little insight on Marsilia as well.
As I said with Asil, who gave us twist and turns, he is not the only person or even within the pages to create them. Frost Burned is filled with action that has twist and turns that some times your not sure who the “good buys” are and some times the people we think are “bad guys” i.e. Marsilia, turn out to be the good ones.
One of the twist and turns is that Frost Burned starts out as a Werewolf novel but ends up being a vampire novel which was kind of cool. Yes we do get to see a few of our favorite crazy/psychotic vampires and with them you never know whose side their on.
There is so much more I could say about Frost Burned but if I do I’ll give so much away and I can’t/won’t do that. All I can say is that this is a must read, and be prepared to laugh your butt off throughout the novel. Also don’t drive during the first chapter if you’re listening to it. You might just end up in an accident like Mercy did.
I know a lot of us have seen a have looked at the books and labeled if they were werewolf, vampire or fae. In the grand scheme of things I think the tally is still about equal between the three supernatural groups in the series. Though I could be wrong the vampires may have one more, but at the rate its going I think we’ll see a Fae book next, even though we saw a fae issue in River Marked. With talks between Bran and the Gray-Lords along with the issues the wolves are having, Mercy will be helping the fae again soon.
I hope you enjoy this installment of Mercy as much as I did.
