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...

As with the previous book, Moon Called, Blood Bound has all of the staples of good urban fantasy, along with some new (to me, anyway) twists. I couldn't put the book down.

Just as there was in the first book, there's more to the bad guy of the story than there seems to be at first glance. Every time things seem to be solidly wrapped up, a new wrinkle gets added to keep the reader guessing.

I like that it's not all about the supernatural, that there is some of the ordinary as well, ranging from work at the mechanic's shop to interacting with kids (albeit often in animal form). The other books in this genre that I've read seem to be so tangled with the supernatural/paranormal that there's nothing unconncted.

Some threads, most notably the relationships that Mercy has with the two werewolves, Adam and Samuel, are picked up from the previous book, and, given the blurb for Iron Kissed, the sequel, I think they are going to remain for at least the next book, if not the one after that.

The books are short, but that doesn't get in the way. Rather than being too short, the Mercy Thompson series is 'just right'. They could stand to be longer, but the price fits with the length, and the font size is normal, unlike some of the shorter books I've seen lately.

One thing I'm finding is that, and this could simply be because I am too new to the series at the moment, I enjoy reading the books a lot, but I'm not falling into them in terms of my imagination. It doesn't get in the way of reading and enjoying the stories though.

I'm already reading the next book, Iron Kissed, and looking forward to finding out what's going to happen there.

The other books in this series/world so far are:
Moon Called
Blood Bound
Iron Kissed
Bone Crossed

Cry Wolf

Other Reviews:
Books and Other Thoughts: The Shapeshifting Mechanic Returns