Fire Touched (Mercy Thompson) (spoilers)

[snshne322]

I know a few here have read this, so I wanted to post.  It was slow for me to get through, but by the end I was solidly back on track with my Mercy fandom. A couple of notes:

1) I liked Aiden and I think he brought a lot to the story.
2) How old is Jesse now? I thought she was 16 when the series started by the keep talking about her being in school. I thought more time had passed than 2 years, but I admittedly don't remember a lot from the last couple of books.
3) I want a Jesse spinoff a la Charles and Anna.  Or maybe Ben.  OR BOTH!
4) I love Baba Yaga.
5) I still like the series, but I feel like it lost a lot of steam after book 5. Since Adam and Mercy got married it's more of a team effort and while that's OK, Mercy was such a fantastic strong character alone and that dynamic has changed.  I loved full alpha male Adam and bull headed Mercy.  They've mellowed so much.

What did you think?

[ufcasey]

So things I loved about that book:
1) The MLM 'attack' on Mercy - that whole scene had me cracking up
2) The addition of Aiden as a character, I liked him and his connection to the Fey now
3) Baba Yaga - another good addition
4) Tad and Zee are getting to be more involved in the storyline again
5) The whole 'protect our territory' thing - it made sense to me, and I thought it was interesting when they got cut off from Bran's pack. Though in Chapter 5 I didn't really get the whole 'The last time Bran had abandoned me, I'd been alone.' line. What was that in reference to? Does anyone know? It wasn't explained any further.

I do agree that I miss the independent Mercy. And I think Briggs has done a lot of plot manipulation to try to retain that: Adam gets kidnapped along with most of the pack, Mercy has to fight in a deathmatch by herself because she was specifically chosen, Adam can't swim so she has to fight a river monster by herself, etc.

I was also sad that Christy didn't play a larger role in this book - her character slays me with the cutting comments and references to 'her' house.

Oh and Stefan the vampire and Samuel (Bran's son) have both taken major backseats - I wish they would come back into play more. Especially Stefan since he seems to apparently have some weird vampire control over her that he just chooses not to exercise (that we know of).

Speaking of a Jess spinoff, I think the Kate Daniels series is doing a spinoff with Derek and Julie in "Magic Stars" (which I haven't read yet). In goodreads it has a series link of Kate Daniels #8.5 AND Grey Wolf #1: oooooh!

[snshne322]

Derek and Julie? YASSSS! I want to read it!

I think you're right, she's done what she can to maintain Mercy's badass ways, but it's not as strong as it once was. Or maybe the tension between Adam and Mercy isn't there now because they're married? I adored books 3 and 4 for their tension.

Good point about Sam. He's off with his fae mate, buts he's been gone for quite some time! I feel like they must be coming back since she seems to put some effort in at least continuing their relevancy.

I was pretty surprised when Bran cut them off, but one of the things I adore about Briggs is her way of getting into the nuances of decision making and how nothing is so clear cut or black and white. How tone and body language mean so much more to the supernaturals. She does an excellent job maneuvering that.