Blood Bound - Patricia Briggs

Blood Bound
Patricia Briggs
Ace Fantasy
Copyright: 2007
9780441014736

From the back of the book:

Under the rule of science, there are no witch burnings allowed, no water trials or public lynchings. In return the average law-abiding solid citizen has little to worry about from the things that go bump in the night. Sometimes I wish I was an average citizen...

Mechanic Mercy Thompson has friends in low places - and in dark ones. And now she owes one of them a favor. Since she can shapeshift at will, she agrees to act as some extra muscle when her vampire friend Stefan goes to deliver a message to another of his kind.

But this new vampire is hardly ordinary - and neither is the demon inside of him...

This is a re-read of Blood Bound, so there probably won't be much that's new and different from my previous reviews of this second book in the Mercy Thompson series, found here and here. Re-read or not, this is one of my favourite urban fantasy series.

Blood Bound follows on Moon Called, the book that introduces us to the world of Mercedes Thompson, walker and mechanic. Where Moon Called focused on the werewolves, although the other supernatural communities had a presence, this book involves the vampires more, and there werewolves and fae move more to the background.

What makes the whole series so different in my mind is that the supernatural is in the process of becoming openly known about, although some segments are still hidden, others have exposed themselves to the public. I can't think of any other urban fantasy where this process is depicted as being in progress. Usually, the paranormal and supernatural are staying as deeply hidden as possible. The other common option is that they've come out of hiding at some point in the past, but are accepted by the time the book has been set. You don't usually get to see the growing pains in progress.

Even on a reread Blood Bound was a riveting read, keeping me turning the pages as though it had been the first time I read the book. Not too many books and series manage this in my mind.

The Mercy Thompson books are a series I highly recommend to any readers of urban fantasy and paranormal romance (although most readers seem to have already given them a try).