Moon Called by Patricia Briggs: Review

Moon Called

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.

It's Monday, What Are You Reading? 4/26

Hosted by Book Journey

This week marks my last week of maternity leave. So, I'm going to try to get in a lot of good reading this week.

Completed:
The Princess and the Bear Mette Ivie Harrison (review this week)
Moon Called Patricia Briggs (okay I've got like 10 pages left...)

Currently Reading (or will read this week)
The Demon King Cinda Williams Chima audiobook (Still working on this one from last week because I listen to it as I fall asleep)
Palace Beautiful Sarah Deford Williams
The Dead and Gone Susan Beth Pfeffer
The Outsiders S.E. Hinton

What are you reading this week?