Moon Called

Things I like about this series of books, which maintain the same level of quality:
- The protagonist has two extremely hot werewolves in love with her. Yet it is not a romance. Forget anything like Twilight.
- These werewolves are among the top 5 most powerful of they're kind. Yet it is not an action or even heavy fantasy book.
- Mercy is witty and relatable. She has some supernatural powers, but she is very weak. She uses her intelligence (not the focus though, not that kind of book) and her personality to solve problems.
- When trouble arises, she doesn't hold on to details to herself. THIS IS A HUGE DEAL! I hate plots that revolve around characters withholding vital parts of the problem. If everybody would just speak up their mind, things would get done.

For instance, every now and them she blurts out a synthesis of the plot so far to some other character, like her cop friend or her powerful werewolf neighbor. If things goes wrong, she won't be accused of something she did not do, because she is truthful and upfront about everything. Also her friends know just when/how much they should be worried about her in any given situation.

Found out who the murderer is? Don't keep it to yourself because you're not sure, don't want to worry others or anything like that.

I'll start with the story. It was fast paced and interesting. The characters were also interesting. Normally I would want to go on in the series, and I probably will. But having just finished all the Kate Daniels books the story elements seem like it's built the same, with the big battle coming at the end.

This was a great book. It's nice to read a story with a kick ass heroin who doesn't have to sleep with the male protagonist. I saw some reviews who disliked this book due to no sex, not every book has to be smut in order to be good. Personally I prefer the books without all the gushy gushy romance. Mercy, the main character, is a skinwalker. It's good to see a supernatural lead character that is out of the norm, spices things up a bit. And Briggs was able to compare walkers and werewolves throughout the story without sounding like a lecture. There were many characters introduced in this book, but by the end you feel like you have a good idea of who everyone is. There's plenty of back story and she leaves you wanting to know more. I'm certainly ready for the next book :)

I definitely had a little nostalgia reading this, but it's not the most profound story. I really like Mercy and enjoyed her attitude toward outdated gender roles, but at times her character felt inconsistent. There were a number of things that went unexplained (probably to get the reader to pick up the next book) that were a crucial part of climax. It would've been nice to get the explanation in this book. Like many books in this sub-genre, I felt the end wrapped up way too quickly. There always seem to be a bunch of sentences in a row that wrap up all the loose ends in a single paragraph. I really appreciated the story of Dr. Wallace and felt is was a very interesting take on the typical “werewolf” story we've all come to expect.

~Check out all my reviews over on The Bent Bookworm!~ “I have a degree in history, which is one of the reasons I'm an auto mechanic.”Somehow, I am only now getting into the very popular and long-running Mercy Thompson series. It's been recommended to me for years, but I put it off...and now I am in the fortunate position of having 11 books to binge if I so choose...my library has all of the main books, but I think I'll have to hunt down the many, many side short stories.Can we just take a moment and lament this unfortunate cover? eyeroll I really, really hate cover art of this style. I literally refuse to buy physical copies of books with covers that use solely sex appeal to sell. Thankfully, there is an alternative cover version of these, which I did buy after deciding this was a series I could enjoy over the long term.“Honey,” he drawled, pulling on his Southern roots. “When a wolf watches a lamb, he's not thinking of the lamb's mommy.”I grinned. I couldn't help it. The idea of Bran as a lamb's mommy was too funny. “I'm not much of a lamb,” I said.Things I Liked- There is just so much wit infused through the entire book. I chuckled so many times and belly-laughed a few times as well. Mercy has such a dry sense of humor, I loved it.- The age-old werewolves vs. vampires thing is present, which makes it easy for anyone remotely familiar with that mythology to jump into this story.- Politics, brawls, and feelings – there's a mess of all three, and I feel like there is SO MUCH backstory for all the main characters yet to be explored.Things I Didn't Like- I was not entirely convinced of the attraction between Mercy and Bran. It felt a little forced. Also, I'm kind of terrified it's going to turn into something a la Janet Evanovich's Stephanie Plum and her never-ending-on-again-off-again relationship.- The guys don't seem to entirely respect Mercy. They're forced by circumstances to let her participate, but they keep trying to baby her. ARGH!If You Liked...- Jim Butcher's Dresden Files, you'll probably like this series. Very similar in setting, but with a female main character and different tone.Blog Twitter Bloglovin Instagram

“Mooncalled” reads like a firecracker that's gone off in the urban fantasy genre section. The book is a mish-mash of clever bits you know and love, but it is presented in a ‘nice' way. 

Mercedes, or Mercy for short, is a mechanic who is a skinwalker, which means she can transform into a coyote at will. When an inexperienced werewolf shows up on her doorstep, she must find out who's pack he belongs to. This path sees her become embroiled with her past once more and stirs up quite a fizz among werewolves and other creatures that go bump in the night. 

Mercy is incredibly smart, cunning, and giving. These traits are pretty unique to the genre, and I was surprised at how much the author focuses on the character and the history of werewolves in general.

Overall, it's entertaining, and you can tell the author is having a great time writing it. For every bit of action and circumstance, there are equal parts building on the werewolf lore as well as enhancing the small side characters. 

I wish there would have been a bit more to the location descriptions, but there was just enough variety to set the mood. The novel length was just right, and it all seems like a grand setup for future books in the series that I, for one, will be checking out in the future. 

⭐ | Rating | ⭐

❖ 4 out of 5 ❖

It was okay. I loved the native mythos and world building. And the main character was pretty cool.

I'm kinda disappointed by the ending. A lot of cool foreshadowing was kinda abandoned for a very confusing ending.
I also wasn't really a fan of the writing style. Things kept getting repeated.

It was a nice short read though. I wouldn't tell people to skip it or anything.

There is always a question I ask myself when I start any urban fantasy book: how much does the exposition about established lore affect the main story? In any urban fantasy novel, one must remember that the reader has probably experienced vampires, werewolves, and whatnot in other novels, and so the author of this novel needs to distinguish how their world is different from others in order to make their novel seem unique. Did Patricia Briggs do this? Yes, and that is part of the problem.

You see, it is because she has too much exposition in her novels, talking about how werewolves and vampires relate to each other, and other magical being politics. It takes away the focus from the characters and the plot. I can hardly remember anything about the minor characters, let alone the main character, Mercedes Thompson, because their personality and growth is buried underneath piles of werewolf politics that I just didn't care about.Also, this novel has a major problem of introducing the reader to a character that is already familiar to the world at large: a major amount of exposition dumps that are only for the reader's benefit. This makes the plot go slow and even seem to stop to a screeching halt, just when I didn't need it to.

I think there is a good book buried under there somewhere, but be darned if I can find it. I think I liked some of the aspects of the characters, and the dilemmas they face, but after a while, I stopped caring. For that reason I will have to say I am going to stop reading it at 66% of the way through. If I were to rate it, I give it a two out of five.