Burn Bright

Burn Bright mainly focuses on a whodunnit and why mystery, delving into areas of Bran's territory many haven't explored, including us. Over the years, Bran has taken in wildlings, those who

"... were, as a whole, both dangerous and fragile." They live in the mountains,

"separate from everyone, their homes and territory protected by the pack because it was in everyone's best interest for no one to intrude in what peace they could find." This is Bran's territory, but he's currently out of town. Charles and Anna must do what they can to protect those under his protection until Bran returns.

They were so fragile, these wildlings of his da's. Dangerous as all get out, but they were fragile.

My thoughts: The good, the sad and the WTH ~

The Good:

~ We get to meet some of Bran's most vulnerable, yet powerful wolves

~ Charles reconfirms his spot on my "one of the most sensitive and thoughtful mates in UF" list

~ We see Anna further "explore" her Omega abilities

and it's wicked! The fact that she was able to break a hundred year old curse on Wellesley, with Charles' help, should prove interesting going forward. Will she be able to help wounded wolves in other new and interesting ways?

~ Leah takes up too much space in this installment for my liking, but Patricia Briggs did a good job trying to help readers understand not just her, but also her relationship with Bran (This was a fail for me, but good effort nonetheless)

The Sad:

~ My heart breaks thinking of Patricia's loss of her husband in early 2017; a theme of this installment was definitely loss - the thought of loss, actual loss, devastation following loss

~ Is this the final installment in the

Alpha & Omega spinoff? If so, it definitely feels open-ended with more to be answered/revealed, which makes me sad

~

I wish we could've known Hester and Jonesy. What an interesting pair! So sad when she was murdered, which lead to Jonesy taking his own life. His hoard of magical bits and bobs ... will we find out what they were, what they do, who'll protect them from the Gray Lords finding them?

~

The thought of Charles having to kill Bran at some point is beyond depressing. I can't even.

WTH?

~ This is a same-world series, so storylines crossing back and forth makes total sense. But, um, what's up with this?

"Bran is funny about Mercy."

"Bran's not funny about her," he told Anna, feeling uncomfortable.

"He thinks of her as his daughter, and he doesn't have any other daughters alive. There's nothing strange about it."

Yes. I saw it, of course I did. As did Leah. But my da would never have moved on Mercy. Say what you will about him - but his wolf has accepted Leah as his mate, and he will not cheat on her.

"Mercy has never seen him as anything except a father figure and her Alpha. That's what she needed, and that's what he gave her. I don't think Mercy has ever recognized that it could be more than that."

What the What?!

(I couldn't settle on a full rating, so I'm going with 4½ stars)

I don't know why, but this didn't really do it for me. It is honestly surprising, because the Mercy Thompson 'verse is one of my rock solid favorites.

I suppose that ... I don't know. I found Anna to be too ... know-it-all-ish. She comes across as condescending. Not just a little bit, a heck of a lot.

But honestly, I feel like the primary thing that put a bad taste in my mouth was

the retconning of Bran and Mercy's relationship. Because I'm sorry, their relationship was always so solidly father - who was in too powerful a position to dote the way you could tell he wanted to - and rebellious daughter. And I love that relationship. This implication that Bran has always had a thing for her is not only weird, it's icky. He sent her away when she was SIXTEEN! He had a thing for her then? Starting when?! When she was, what, twelve? Come on. That's weird. I know he's super protective of her, and that he loves her. But it has always been in a papa-bear way. No weird lingering glances, nothing like that.

I hate retconning. And I felt like this was ... just trying to justify why Leah was such a dick to Mercy. But it wasn't necessary. It is justifiable in exactly the same way her relationship with Charles was justified at the end of this book (in a beautiful moment, frankly) - Bran loves Charles. And he doesn't love Leah. So she's always hated Charles. It's just jealousy. And I feel - and have felt, since like book 1 - that that is exactly the case with Mercy. Why does it have to be made into something weird now?

So maybe that put me in a bad frame of mind early in the book. But honestly, there was lots that I wasn't thrilled with. Like ... Bran dropping off the face of the earth in the middle of this. And the characters being slow on the uptake -

the super powerful witchcraft with Wellesley plus the super powerful witch gun should have been a tip off that the things are connected, and I can't believe they let him from their side for even a moment after that

.

And even though I could see it was going that way - the personality quirks weren't subtle - the reveal of the traitor was disappointing to me.

Oh well. The Mercy 'verse is generally really great, and it remains one of the most solid series out there. This one was just a bit of a let-down to me.

i always enjoy this series

briggs strikes a great balance between inviting readers into her world and not burying us in exposition

charles and anna and brother wolf are an adorable.....triple? somehow briggs makes charles' wolf, aka brother wolf, a part of their relationship without making it kinky

not that kinky is bad, it just isn't the tone of her books, and briggs navigates it well

the stakes for the whole series are raised in this book, when we learn a family of black witches has been gaining power in the shadows for centuries

and bran, the leader of the north american wolves, is having real trouble managing the power he's amassed over perhaps a thousand years of life

things may be coming to a head in this and the mercy thompson series

I love this series, but this book somehow didn't work for me. Either something was missing or I wasn't in the right mood.

Let's start with the fact that it might be my fault. Lately I have not had the best time to read and it is very difficult for me to find a book that will capture me completely. That is why I had such great hopes for this story. I have loved all the books in this series so far. But unfortunately that did not happen. It's still a great book, but not as amazing as I had hoped.

I guess I was hoping for a well-structured and complicated mystery that Anna and Charles would have to solve. And while we have a mystery here, it's not as complicated as in other books, and the focus of the story shifts to other things. With this book, we get to know wildlings much better. And don't get me wrong, it's wonderful, they're really fascinating. But because of this, the main story goes a bit to the side paths and the answer to the mystery is not in the center of the story.

Instead, we get to know some very interesting characters. It is a pity that so many of them die so early. It gives the impression that they were only introduced for this book, only so that they could die. Shame. I feel like the author has run out of ideas. I mean, the main problem in this book is not fully resolved, we are far from there. Anna and Charles will have to deal with it in the next books. But I wish this book had more plot. There is a lot of action here, but the plot is a bit lacking. Looking at the plot, this book has something of an introduction to a longer series. The more I feel sorry for the characters who died before they had a chance to appear in this story.

It is still a brilliantly written and interesting story. But I'm a bit disappointed that I didn't like it as much as the other books in the series.