Friday, July 31, 2009

Moon Called
by Patricia Briggs

In this version of current day Washington state, members of the preternatural community known as the "fae" have come out of hiding and are letting the world know that they exist...or at least the weaker and gentler varieties have. The more powerful and dangerous beings such as werewolves, witches and vampires are still living in highly secret societies which are becoming more difficult to maintain due to the computer age and advances in forensic technology.

Mercy Thompson is a mechanic. She is also a coyote shapeshifter known as a "walker". Although she was brought up by werewolves and shares many of their shapeshifting and animal characteristics, she is both less powerful physically and more powerful magically than them. When a young, newly turned and terrified werewolf turns up at her garage looking for work, she is drawn into a mystery which involves both murder and kidnapping. The journey for answers brings along with it some more personal questions for Mercy - both about her past and future.

I really liked this and will be reading more in the series. I normally avoid books written in the first person, but it was very well done in this story and I did not find it distracting. The book is classified as a fantasy but I think it has great cross-over potential for paranormal romance readers. There is quite a romantic triangle between Mercy, her neighbor Adam who is the Alpha of the werewolf pack whose territory she currently lives in, and Samuel, a powerful werewolf from the pack she grew up in who she had once loved. Although there is quite a bit of sexual tension between these characters, there is no actual sex. However, I would hold off on recommending this as appropriate for the YA crowd until I see if this holds true in the next few books. Currently, there are four books in the Mercy Thompson series with another two in a spin-off series about the pack Mercy grew up in.

Submitted by Michele

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