Murder Of Crows (The Others, #2)

by Anne Bishop

[EBookObsessed]

I am enjoying the characters and the world building of this series. I would highly recommend to all the fantasy/urban fantasy lovers out there.

There has always been a line between humans and terra indigene who subtlely control the natural world, but some humans are beginning to stir up unrest. They want more: more land, more control, just…more. Why is everything controlled by the beasts?

Someone making two very dangerous drugs: one makes you furiously angry and one makes you lethargic and neither allow you to worry about your own safety. One is being fed to crowds of humans who are attacking terra indigene with no regard to claws and teeth, and the other is being fed to the terra indigene, more specifically traps are being laid for the crows and when they eat the drugged food, they simply stand there, helpless against their attackers.

The humans are forgetting that the lands given to them by the terra indigene are far apart and surrounded by woods for a reason, and that past uprising have lead to human cities suddenly disappearing overnight. Humans are responsible for an attack on crows in Jersy and they wake to find their city cut off. The city is under seige by the terra indigene. The humans can’t leave and their food supplies have been cut off. What happens now will be up to the terra indigene.

The leaders have chosen to meet at the Lakeside Courtyard. Lakeside isn’t immune to the unrest but it is the only courtyard with a human pack living within the walls. Meg Corbyn, the human liaison and a cassandra sange or blood prophet, has created her own pack of friends among the humans who work within the courtyard, and for the first time, Simon Wolfgard, the leader of the Lakeside terra indigene finds himself counting these humans among those he needs to protect, rather than just meat.

It is Meg who first warns Simon and the crows of the danger of attacks. A small cut allows the blood prophet to view the danger among the hunt for “shiny” that the crows usually enjoy on garbage day.

And it is that early morning prophecy that shines a light on the issue in the growing friendship between Meg and Simon. Since Meg was hurt in an attack, Simon has taken to protecting her and sleeping with her to make sure she is safe. But being suddenly kicked off the bed by a blood prophet, makes Simon shift to his human form to ask what is happening? Sharing a bed with wolf-Simon is one thing, but when naked-human-Simon slips under the covers, Meg has concerns where their unusual friendship is leading them.

As tensions rise between the humans and the terra indigene, can Lakeside be a shining example of co-existence of the races, or will is simply highlight the differences?

Since I read book 6 first, I have an idea what is in the future for this series, but I am still enjoying as the story unfolds.

In a story where the shifters are more animal than human, you can understand where both sides have a concern of how far Simon and Meg’s friendship can go. They have become very comfortable with each other and has the feel of a friends-to-lovers story, but Meg has just escaped a life of capitivity and is almost innocent to relationships in general, let alone the complexity of a romance with Simon. As leader, Simon keeps himself apart from the others, even the other wolves, so spending time with Meg brings him contentment. It is Simon’s people who remind him that while humans write stories of shifters and humans falling in love and living happily ever after, those same stories told by terra indigene are told as warnings why it should be avoided.

We also meet another group of humans known as the Intuit, who, while they don’t prophize, they do get feelings of thing that might happen. A large group of intiuts live on an island not to far from Lakeside. They believe that blood prophets might have one time been intuits. When the leader from the island wants to meet Meg, Simon agrees until he realizes that while things are awkward between Simon and Meg, Meg could easily mate with an intuit. Then Simon wants to make sure Meg doesn’t like him too much.

I am enjoying the world building presented in this series and as a romantic, I like the sweet moments between Simon and Meg. Right now there is not sexual tension, just a growing friendship that both are growing to depend on.

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