Winter Lost (Mercy Thompson #14) by Patricia Briggs

  

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Category: Adult
Genre: Urban Fantasy
Content: Strong language, Mostly off page sex

 

In the supernatural realms, there are creatures who belong to winter. I am not one of them. But like the coyote I can become at will, I am adaptable.

My name is Mercy Thompson Hauptman, and my mate, Adam, is the werewolf who leads the Columbia Basin Pack, the pack charged with keeping the people who live and work in the Tri-Cities of Washington State safe. It's a hard job, and it doesn't leave much room for side quests. Which is why when I needed to travel to Montana to help my brother, I intended to go by myself.

But I'm not alone anymore.

Together, Adam and I find ourselves trapped with strangers in a lodge in the heart of the wilderness, in the teeth of a storm of legendary power, only to discover my brother's issues are a tiny part of a problem much bigger than we could have imagined. Arcane and ancient magics are at work that could, unless we are very careful, bring about the end of the world . . .

This was probably my most anticipated book this year. I just love returning to this world year after year. It never gets old for me. This book had a bit of a different format than the other books in the series. We get multiple points of view with interludes between the chapters. I actually liked this about the book, but my husband, who I buddy read this with, had to get used to it. We've been listening to this series and the Alpha and Omega series together for over a year. Up until this one, they were all rereads for me. For this one he listened to the audio but I read the hardcover because I always like to read the print version of these first. I get more out of them that way. 

One thing we both appreciate about Patricia Briggs's books is the way she incorporates different mythological creatures into her stories. She does a really good job of adapting them into her world, and this book was no exception. Another thing I think she's good at, is distracting the reader away from the obvious with other things. Because of this, there was something in this book I thought I should have figured out sooner. 

This book tied up some loose ends, left some other big ones hanging, and also seemed to plant some seeds for future books. I'm wondering how some of these elements in the story will play into future books, and slightly frustrated that the vampire problem is still unresolved, but not really surprised by that. 

There was one surprise in this book that I loved. There's a book, Shifting Shadows, that was published several years ago that includes all the short stories and novellas Patricia Briggs wrote that relate to this world. There's one story in there called Gray that I really liked, but although set in the world didn't really have a connection to the books. Well, the characters from that story make appearances in this book, and I was thrilled. I would love to see even more of them at some point.

As always, I'm eagerly awaiting the next book in the series.