Etched in Bone by Anne Bishop

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Category: Adult
Genre: Urban Fantasy
Content: Strong Language


 
After a human uprising was brutally put down by the Elders the few cities left under human control are far-flung. And the people within them now know to fear the no-man’s-land beyond their borders—and the darkness…

Lakeside Courtyard has emerged relatively unscathed, though Simon Wolfgard, its wolf shifter leader, and blood prophet Meg Corbyn must work with the human pack to maintain the fragile peace. But all their efforts are threatened when Lieutenant Montgomery’s shady brother arrives, looking for a free ride and easy pickings.

With the humans on guard against one of their own, tensions rise, drawing the attention of the Elders, who are curious about the effect such an insignificant predator can have on a pack. But Meg knows the dangers, for she has seen in the cards how it will all end—with her standing beside a grave.

This is the last book in The Others series and I thought for the most part it was a good ending. I did feel like the book that preceded this one felt, in many ways like it should have been the end of the series. I agree with a friend of mine who said this book felt like a big epilogue. There were a few things that were needed in this book to tie up some loose ends, but those things could have probably been added to the previous book to tie things up. It also felt a little weird to be isolated to just Lakeside once again with a "villain of the week" after reading about the overarching plot that spanned the whole world in the previous two books. I think that's one big reason this felt like an epilogue or like it was tacked on.

There were some parts of this book that just felt mundane and not really needed as they didn't help the plot along and just seemed to serve as filler, but I've found that this author does that to an extent in every one of the books in this series. I think it occurred a bit more in this one though. One example would be the whole potluck dinner. However, I can't complain too much about it, because I still found it very enjoyable to read. It especially showed what an amazing character Twyla was. I just wanted to give that woman a hug and Skippy too. I wish she had been added to the series sooner!

As far as the other characters go I would have liked to have seen Meg grow into a stronger individual than she did. She will always need the protection of Simon and the courtyard to an extent because of who and what she is, but it would have been great to see more growth as an independent individual there. I also would have liked maybe a little more movement in the romance. The way it ended was very sweet but just a little bit more would have been nice.

Just like in the other books in this series, there are some gruesome deaths in this book, but they are never described in too much detail and when they occur I can't help but feel like the persons that are killed got what they deserved. I do have to wonder every time I read a book in this series how stupid the humans can possibly get?! There doesn't seem to be a limit to the stupidity, and the antagonist in this book was the stupidest one ever. Why would anyone dare to cross the terra indigene, ever? Certainly no one with half a brain would.

I'm looking forward to starting Lake Silence soon, the first book in a companion series to this one.