Iron Kissed (Mercy Thompson, #3) in Pick-a-Shelf

Nov 08, 2010 Stormy rated it it was amazing

Shelves: in-a-place-of-honor, shape-shifters, paranormal, urban-fantasy, favorites

My reaction to this series is very similar to the one I had last summer when I read the Dark Days series by Jocelynn Drake. I had to get a few books in and come to grips with the fact that this is an urban fanstasy series, not a romance series. Once I get there, I'm golden.

I really liked the first book in the series. I was luke warm about the second, but this one really got me. I am so happy to see the love triangle resolving (that really bugged me in the last book). And I actually found myself ...more

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Mar 30, 2009 Misty rated it it was amazing

Shelves: series, favorites, horror-mystery-suspense-thriller, read-in-2009, supernatural-paranormal, own, fae, sci_fi-fantasy, helluva-halloween

In Iron Kissed, Mercy is recruited by her fae friends to help sniff out (literally) a killer on the fae reservation. When friend and former boss, self-proclaimed gremlin, Zee, is later arrested, Mercy’s search for the killer becomes more frantic -- and dangerous. In other (werewolf) news, Mercy comes to a resolution about Samuel and Adam, but will she live to see it through?

This book crystallized in my mind for me some of the reasons that I love this series so much. Briggs seems to intuitively u In Iron Kissed, Mercy is recruited by her fae friends to help sniff out (literally) a killer on the fae reservation. When friend and former boss, self-proclaimed gremlin, Zee, is later arrested, Mercy’s search for the killer becomes more frantic -- and dangerous. In other (werewolf) news, Mercy comes to a resolution about Samuel and Adam, but will she live to see it through?

This book crystallized in my mind for me some of the reasons that I love this series so much. Briggs seems to intuitively understand restraint. She doesn’t pad her books and draw every scene out, milking ever last drop. As a writer, it’s tempting to make the reader see exactly what you want them to by writing every little detail. Briggs understands that sometimes, things are better left to each individual’s imagination, and so she uses a light hand during crucial situations. This doesn’t mean the books are bland and description-less; rather, there is a base to work off of in the readers’ mind so that they can supply all of the extraneous details. This is effective for two reasons: 1), the reader inherently makes the story better for his/herself when applying imagination and preference -- this is why the book is always better than the movie. 2) all of the excess scenework that you have to wade through as a reader isn’t there. I know that scenework can be pretty, and you may love how someone describes something in such detail, but when they constantly do that, it gets old. I can't tell you how many times I’ve read Anne Rice or Laurell K. Hamilton and rolled my eyes or said “get to the point already!” A 300-400 page book is often padded our to 600-700 pages. Briggs doesn’t do this. The result is that the books fly by and leave you engaged the whole time, and leave you hungry for the next. Everything seems so brilliantly paced, and everything is necessary.

Now, one thing that almost knocked this particular book back to a 4 for me was a couple of Scooby Doo scenes. It drives me nuts when a villain spills their guts to the good guy, thereby tying up all the loose strings that had you wondering; b) I hate it when one character in conversation to another summarizes the whole book, essentially recapping, and thereby tying up loose strings. These things seem lazy to me, generally. But the reason that this didn’t end up knocking the story back to a 4 was that in both cases where Briggs does this, there was a reason that actually made it work and made sense in the context of the story, as well as expanding the readers‘ understanding of the characters in a way that worked, when anything else would have shown less and seemed clumsy. I ended up being sort of impressed by something that normally drives me insane. (More on this, but it gets spoilery, so it will be on the blog)
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Jan 17, 2010 Debbie rated it really liked it

Shelves: paranormal-romance

Several murders on the fae reservation leads Zee and Uncle Mike to ask Mercy for help. With a coyote nose, Mercedes Thompson can literally sniff out who could be responsible for these crimes. When their main suspect turns up murdered and Zee is arrested for the crime, Mercy does everything she can to prove he didn’t do it. While Mercy is putting herself in danger, this time with the fae, both of the alpha werewolves (Samuel and Adam) are still waiting around to see who and when she will decide t ...more

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Mar 28, 2010 Gaijinmama rated it really liked it

Shelves: fiction, paranormal

Mercy rocks! Like any Urban Fantasy protagonist, she is badass and kicks major evildoer butt. Seriously, she doesn't exactly go looking for violence but when she dishes it out she can be pretty damn brutal, and rest assured they definitely had it coming!
What makes her special is that she has believable weaknesses and contradictions just like the rest of us. When she's really upset, this girl bakes brownies and watches bad movies.
She goes through some truly awful stuff in this book, and of cours ...more

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Oct 31, 2015 Nancy rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: paranormal, on-kindle

I think the best way for me to describe the Mercy Thompson series is 'solid'. It is always good, although it doesn't make my heart sing like Kate Daniels does. This is the third book in the series and Mercy is at a cross-road with the love triangle between her, Samuel and Adam. She finds herself involved in a series of murders on the fae reservation and as usual gets herself into awful trouble. The final events are really sad and really well done (I won't give too much away). I think what lost i ...more

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