Iron Kissed (Mercy Thompson, Book 3)
by Patricia Briggs
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Book Reviews of Iron Kissed (Mercy Thompson, Book 3)
Book Review: Iron Kissed
Summary: 5 Stars
Once again Mercy gets tangled up in trouble. The action starts when she agrees to help Zee and Uncle Mike sniff out the murderer on the Fairyland reservation to end a debt she owes the fey for helping her end the vampire demon from the last book.
Mercy determines that the murderer must be a human man named O'Donnell who works as a security guard at the Fairyland Reservation. This is puzzling news to Zee and Uncle Mike since no human should be able to kill the fey like O'Donnell managed to. Uncle Mike and Zee go to talk to O'Donnell but when they get there their suspect is already dead and the human police have just arrived and take Zee into custody.
Since Zee is a personal friend and Mercy knows that while her old gremlin friend is capable of murder that he did not kill O'Donnell. Mercy hires the best lawyer she can find and starts digging for evidence herself.
As usual the plot is complicated and Mercy gets in way over her head. The werewolves and her fey friends help out a lot but there is no mention of the vampires in this particular book. Once again the tension between Adam and Sam is present but in this book it comes to a head and Mercy has to make a choice.
I particularly appreciated the last few pages of the book where the author takes some time to ponder feelings of guilt that sexual abuse victims may carry. I was almost ridiculously pleased with the revelation about Ben (the snarky, usually snarly werewolf that was abused as a child and stood up to protect Mercy). I knew there was a reason that I liked him/didn't hate him as we were obviously supposed to. That part was also particularly heart-wrenching and added a whole new human emotional depth to the story that doesn't usually find it's way into urban fantasy novels.
I think this was my favorite of the three so far and now consider myself to be well and truly hooked on Patricia Briggs.
Book Review: Werewolves and Vampires and Fae, Oh My!
Summary: 5 Stars
If you haven't been reading this series stop right now and pick up Moon called (book 1) and Blood Bound (book 2). If you like the paranormal genre I doubt you'll be disappointed. That clarified, Iron Kissed is the third installment in an already popular series. Blood Bound left us with Mercy in danger from the vampires she had worked for and not feeling any comfort regarding her current living situation. With Samuel as her current roomate and Adam still her neighbor the love triangle has certainly not gotten any less pointy around the edges.
But who has time for sorting out man troubles when there's a mystery to solve? Enter Mercy's mechanicing mentor, Zee, with some dirty, little fae secrets. There've been a handful of murders out on the Fae reservation and since they govern themselves they don't want the police involved. Sometimes it's better not to have the humans know things- like just how powerful the fae really are. Here Briggs gives us our first real glimpse into the world within a world that are her fae. Mercy sniffs out the murderer and when Zee and Uncle Mike, the bartending fae we met in the last book, go to handle the murderer someone has gotten to him first. Conveniently the police arrive just in time to catch Zee with blood on his hands and he is arrested.
From here on out Mercy has to prove Zee's innocence, find the murderer's killer and stop them, and if she's lucky sort out her love triangle. Briggs hits it out of the ballpark again with her original story and world-building, vivid depiction of south-eastern Washington (which she uses greatly as its own character in this series), and of course, making her secondary characters an important part of the book. If you loved Moon Called and Blood Bound you shouldn't miss out on this one! Expect lots of nail-biting suspense and some very satisfying resolution to threads that have carried over from earlier in the series.
Book Review: Agreeing with most of the others...
Summary: 4 Stars
I'm agreeing with all the people who've said that it's a great book. It is. The character development in it is amazing, and I didn't see the twists coming at all. However, I think that the sudden change in tones in the series might be too much for some readers who've loved the previous books. It worked for me, but that's my personal taste. It is much more somber in tones, and I can see why someone would call it depressing. That said, with a good friend and mentor in prison for a murder he didn't commit, what other tone would Mercy take? She's been through a lot in the last two books, and there are going to be some emotional backlashes from it.
The end of the love triangle was bittersweet. I was disappointed at first, I'll admit. It had been built up and built up, and you could practically smell the testosterone in the air, and even the other pack members warning of impending danger if Mercy didn't decide between them soon, and then...it was over before anything really happened. But the more I think about it, I think about how perfect it was. I don't think Briggs wrote one of the guys out just because she didn't know how else to end it. Briggs is a clever woman, she could have done anything with him. If nothing else, she could have had the fae kill him off. I think (SPOILER) she had Sam back down because it was the honorable thing to do. Sam is an old werewolf, and we all know that old habits die hard. Even in this book, it's mentioned how much werewolves hate change, so is it really that hard to believe that Sam had a hard time admitting his true feelings? And even then, he's still a guy, of course he's going to give Adam hell just because he can.
The ending did feel abrupt, especially after the trauma Mercy goes through. That is my biggest bone with the book, and the reason it received four stars instead of five. I'm definitely happy to hear there are more coming along.
Book Review: Surprisingly emotional
Summary: 5 Stars
Third installment in the Mercy Thompson series, Iron Kissed brings Mercy again involved in a mess she shouldn't meddle in. After the werewolves and the vampires, now her problems involve the fairies. Zee, her mentor as a mechanic and a gremlin fae, asks Mercy to help him sniff (literally) the responsible for a series of murders in the fae reservation, a place filled with secrets that could get her killed for learning too much. Seemed like a simple task until the body count grows and the human police is involved.
Different from the previous books of the series, in this one Mercy finally deals with her feelings and instead of growing into a sweet love story, she's caught by surprise in her adventures trying to catch the killer and the consequences might create psychological wounds that will never heal. Although it's an emotionally hard read for those who've grown to like Mercy, specially the final parts of it, it's superbly well-written.
It was unexpected for me, considering the last two books were very focused on the action, but Briggs managed to describe emotions and reactions with the same great skill she uses to create the mysteries. And, thankfully, she did it without underplaying the later, keeping us, readers, engaged and in the dark until the very end.
Once again I found one ''subplot'' that was not used. The same happened in the previous book but I'm starting to think it's one of the author's tactics to make us blind to the answer of the puzzle. It's clever, since I only discard these characters after the end when they don't come back. I just expected them to be at least mentioned in the last pages, even a single phrase would kill the feeling that they were simply forgotten.
It doesn't change the fact it's another great addition to the series and I'm eagerly waiting to read the next.
Book Review: Better than the first two books but still lacking in creativity
Summary: 3 Stars
This is the third book in the Mercy Thompson series by Patricia Briggs. I think this is the strongest book in the series so far; although it still didn't blow me away with its quality and creativity.
In this book Mercy is contacted by Zee to see if she can come to the fairy reservation to help sniff out a serial killer that is on the loose there. As the mystery unravels, Mercy finds that she is not only putting her own life in grave danger with her involvement in the case but also the lives of her friends.
The writing for this book follows the first two books in the series. The book is decently written, if nothing special. There were a couple typos in the book which I found distracting. I was happy that Briggs made progress in the Mercy, Adam, Samuel deal; I was worried that she was going to string that out forever. Hopefully the issue is not continually visited in future books.
I thought that this book had more action than the previous books and put the characters in more dire situations, especially Mercy. What happened to her was horrible but should serve to add some much needed depth to her character. It was again a quick read and a fun read, if not a very involved read.
Having Mercy deal with the fairy folk made the book more interesting. Although I was disappointed at the lack in creativity when dealing with the fairy-folks special powers. Mercy made some slight progress in finding out what a walker is, but not as much as I would have liked to see.
So while this book was, in my opinion, the best of the series; the series is still mediocre. It is not horrible and I get some enjoyment from the books; I still don't see anything all that special here. I am not sure if I will continue to read this series or not, we will see.
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