I'm a huge fan of werewolf anything and Briggs has brought a wonderful air of expertise to the genre, you can tell that she cares and dives deep into the topic to bring such honest and intense writing to her fans. Reading this series is a ride and she keeps up with the intensity to a great degree, I often find new things I never realized about animals, wolves especially that make perfect sense when the human element is introduced. The man wolf folk character that so many grew up with is rich here and you can almost smell the power and see the dynamics between all the characters. Werewolves were always popular but now we get to feel their transition to the modern world with some great Urban Fantasy stories such as this one as they are truly a flight into the amazing so open your mind and eyes and enjoy. I certainly love this series, it's one of the few rare stories that transcend paper they are written on, some people like me love books but this is almost beyond reading, it's special.

I must recommend reading in order and not reading reviews for book 4 if you're not caught up, otherwise proceed. .. When I read a series that I really like I usually take my time so it can be a year between books which I don't mind, if they are great of course my brain all ready jumps on the next book but as a literary masochist I like to stretch out what I really love to read and sometimes it takes me ages. I was prompted to pick this up after watching a live reading/ bookstore even which Patricia Briggs attended in Seattle with Kim Harrison this march, I love these two ladies so watching an hour of it was pure heaven and let me tell you I couldn't wait to read one of their books! I apologize for yapping as I'm a year behind my reviews ( this was a fresh read I was compelled to review asap) and it's hard to bottle in my excitement into coherent paragraphs.

Mercy needs to get away from the Tri-Cities area, as usually she has pissed someone off and this time it's the vampire queen and her black poison like heart is not ready to forget and forgive for atrocities that Mercy committed in the previous installment. The vamps here are close to the super duper ones Anne Rice writes ( ignore the movies, read the books) in complexity and it's something I love here. Saving human lives has not only caused Mercedes a lot of unwanted attention but an act of defense so great that she will never forget. The pack has her back as she finally decides on letting someone hold her hand when she needs it, I won't spoil it but I was very happy with the flow of the story, meow! And there is no cheesy romance, everything is presented nicely here and well written as the reader certainly gets the picture...So back to the plot, Mercy runs from one enemy into another, a vampire they call The Monster and it's just too bad that she had promised her friend to free her house of ghosts, looks like she found a way to cause more trouble. She is on her own in the end and her salvation is quiet adventurous. Love, hate, power struggles and mystery, it's all here supported by a sublime cast of characters that you can shed a tear for and some dynamic werewolf psychology that will kick you in the bu ttt.

- Kasia S.