River Marked - Patricia Briggs

River Marked
Patricia Briggs
Ace Books
Copyright: March 2011
978-0441019731

The amazon.com product description:

Car mechanic Mercy Thompson has always known there was something different about her, and not just the way she can make a VW engine sit up and beg. Mercy is a shapeshifter, a talent she inherited from her long-gone father. She's never known any others of her kind. Until now.

An evil is stirring in the depths of the Columbia River-one that her father's people may know something about. And to have any hope of surviving, Mercy and her mate, the Alpha werewolf Adam, will need their help... 

This is the sixth book in the Mercy Thompson series, following on Silver Borne, and Bone Crossed. This is the book that tells us the most about Mercy's background and her mysterious father, which in some ways was the best part of the whole book. River Marked begins just before Mercedes' marriage to Adam - which goes in typical Mercy Thompson fashion. Patricia Briggs has put in the usual lines that will leave you laughing out loud - they did for me.

And yet, for all that I was looking forward to reading River Marked, for some reason I just couldn't get fully into the story. I was enjoying the read, but I found it all too easy to put down for another book half of the time. I honestly don't know why that was. It didn't drag at all, nor was the story boring. And, I'd love to know what's going to happen next for Mercy.

I did really like the incorporation of native mythology into the story too. What I'd like to know though, is just how closely Patricia Briggs described the region she used as the setting for this book. For the other books it wasn't as burning a question, but I think it would be neat to see how closely the real history of the area is matched to that of the story and museums etc. Not to mention the various pictograms, both mentioned and described. It would be neat to know if those are real. This is the first book in this series that made me wonder those kinds of questions.

Overall, I'm going to say that I liked River Marked, but I don't think it was my favourite of the series to date.

The first book of the Mercy Thompson series is Moon Called, and honestly, with this series, I do recommend starting with book one. Believe me, you won't regret it. The whole series is so good.