Smoke Bitten by Patricia Briggs

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Category: Adult
Genre: Urban Fantasy
Content: Strong language, a few scenes leading up to sex, one sex scene described in mild detail

 
Centuries ago, the fae dwelt in Underhill–until she locked her doors against them. They left behind their great castles and troves of magical artifacts. They abandoned their prisoners and their pets. Without the fae to mind them, those creatures who remained behind roamed freely through Underhill wreaking havoc. Only the deadliest survived.

Now one of those prisoners has escaped. It can look like anyone, any creature it chooses. But if it bites you, it controls you. It lives for chaos and destruction. It can make you do anything–even kill the person you love the most. 

This is one of my favorite urban fantasy series. It has never disappointed me, and this time it was still just as good as ever. There were several things going on in this book and it was great fun trying to make sense of things, and figure out which happenings were related to each other, and which ones weren't. In the beginning my heart hurt for Mercy with the issue that was going on with a certain someone.

Some things got turned upside down this time around, and I wasn't sure if they would ever be the same again, and I was really anxious for a while, but I'm happy with the way things were handled. Mercy is just awesome all around and she always comes up with brilliant solutions to things. I especially loved the parts that Mercy spent in her 'other' place, and getting to see the way she viewed the pack bonds and the mating bond, and also her bond with Stefan. It was all so very interesting. One thing I loved the most about this part of the book were the interactions Mercy had with Adam's wolf.

As for the 'big bad' in this one, The smoke beast was an interesting concept, and I'm always amazed at what Briggs comes up with for each book. It ended up being pretty easy to predict the name of the person behind this smoke beast, and I actually kind of giggled a little, but it was not easy to figure out some other things. The book definitely kept me reading, and now I'm counting down the days until the next installment.

On a side note-

I noticed Mercy wears pajamas with ponies on them and says they were a gift from her mom, who loves horses. I thought of the author Patricia Briggs, who loves horses, and who is Mercy's 'mom' in that she created her. I'm sure the author was referring to herself. I just thought it was a fun little thing that was added in there.

Thanks to NetGalley and Berkley Publishing Group for providing me with an ARC of this book.