Moon Called by Patricia Briggs: Review

By: Patricia Briggs
Synopsis (From Goodreads): Mercy Thompson's life is not exactly normal. Her next-door neighbor is a werewolf. Her former boss is a gremlin. And she's fixing a VW bus for a vampire. But then, Mercy isn't exactly normal herself.

My Review: I seriously almost didn't post the cover of this book. I feel like it so poorly misrepresents the book that it would turn off potential readers, and I'd hate to do that. I didn't pick up this book for months because it looked like a trashy romance novel.  The trend of scantily clad women in leather on urban fantasy novels has got to stop. Blegh.
Anyway, I love Mercy! What a fantastic female protagonist.  As I was reading this book, I made a list of things I liked about Mercy:
  • Not only is Mercy strong willed, she has the skills and expertise to back it up. (Unlike some protagonists I know. Yes, I'm looking at you Bella Swan-Cullen).
  • Mercy doesn't put herself in harm's way on purpose and knows her limits.
  • But, she's not afraid to follow her instincts and test those limits.
  • Mercy's shape-shifting abilities are very awesome.
  • Mercy can and does cry. She's not a whiner, but she is still female and has compassion.
Gosh there were so many things I liked about this book. The fact that vampires were creepy and unpredictable. I loved the fast pace of the book. The plot kept rolling right along and each interaction in the book had a specific purpose. I didn't feel like there were any loose ends that needed to be tied up. Briggs did a fantastic job of explaining Mercy's past without spending too much time going backwards.

I am going to admit that the climax/ending really puzzled me. I think I left off at a bad place in the book, because I got really confused about which characters were doing what and with what motives. I think too many characters were introduced at the end, and I'm so bad at retention that I couldn't figure out where they all belonged. I had to read a couple chapters twice to get it all.

But, it was a fantastic urban fantasy. I'm excited to continue reading in the series

My Rating:
I gave this book 5 stars

Book-a-likes:
City of Bones by Cassandra Clare, Wicked Lovely by Melissa Marr

Profanity: Mild
Drugs and Alcohol: Mild
Sexuality: Moderate. It's quite tame, but it is mentioned
Violence: Moderate. Lots of werewolves die.


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