Smoke Bitten (Mercy Thompson, #12)

by Patricia Briggs

[EBookObsessed]

One of the best Urban Fantasy series. Love these characters. Must do a series re-read soon.

Having one of the scariest vampires ever actively stalking you, should have been the worst thing to happen to Mercy. But at least Wulfe isn’t actively trying to kill her. At least she doesn’t think so. Not yet anyway.

Something has slunk out of the fae home of Underhill; something that can take over your mind and turn you into a killer. Since it tried to control Mercy and failed, it is now pissed off. Immensely pissed off. Fear and the fae don’t go well together and now this smoke beast wants to get rid of Mercy and is using her friends to do his bidding. Everyone Mercy loves is under attack and she can’t protect them all. The worst part for Mercy is once that smoke beast takes you, you die and several of our favorites are taken over with only one goal, get close to Mercy and destroy her.

It is especially hard for Mercy to concentrate on Wulfe or Underhill or this smoke monster when all she can think about is the fact that her husband has started choking off their mating bond. Things have been strained between them since the night they destroyed the zombie horde. Is it the pressure of her declaration that the Tri-Cities was under the protection of the Pack or Mercy’s odd nature being such a draw to more and more supernatural bad guys? Has Adam simply had enough of the trouble that she has brought into his life? If so, why won’t he simply tell her that instead of avoiding her?

Once again, poor Mercy is taking a beating from all sides, and not all of them figuratively.

I am not saying that the smoke monster wasn’t an interesting story plot and didn’t keep me biting my nails but what was going on with Adam had me more distracted than any mind-controlling monster. The monster you know Mercy will destroy, eventually, but was Adam really done with his relationship with Mercy? Can you break a mating bond? Is this some way to bank on that statement Anna makes in Burn Bright questioning Bran’s actual feelings for Mercy? No, no, NO! She can defeat any monster which comes but if Adam wants out? WTF? I was very stressed about this book.

And the thing with Wulfe — you might think “Oh, he’s a great character. I love him. It’s awesome he’s on our side now.” No, no, DEFINITELY NO! He is definitely interesting but I wouldn’t trust his sudden willingness to play nice with the pack for an instant. Wulfe is a great character but he is also crazy and unpredictable. Like many of the older supernatural creatures, he finds Mercy to be interesting? Like a fascinating bug they want to keep in a jar. And in Wulfe’s case, when will his fascination turn to actually trying to keep Mercy in a jar and cutting off her toes for fun? We will need to wait and watch.

I love the Mercy Thompson series and the Alpha and Omega series and want more, more, more! I definitely need to make the time to start this whole series again and do a straight re-read.

Received an ARC from the publisher in exchange for an honest review:

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