Why must "urban fantasy" make me sadface?
So, having heard good things about them (in a comment in this comm, actually, I think), I picked up the first book in the Mercy Thompson series by Patricia Briggs, Moon Called.
I liked it. I liked Mercy as a character, I liked the story, I really enjoyed the description of werewolf society and "dominance games" and the political situation between fae and humans, and how it affected the other supernatural cultures. I didn't even mind the love triangle between Mercy, Samuel and Adam (well, I did, but only on principle, because I dislike love triangles), because at the end it seemed like Mercy would be handling it much better than other women in her situation in fiction (whom we will not name).
So I went and bought the next two books, Blood Bound and Iron Kissed.
Unfortunately, Blood Bound went completely in the opposite direction for me from almost the beginning.
Suddenly, Mercy's waffling about her werewolf boyfriends. Their behavior is atrocious, and she doesn't handle it at all the way I expected her to... which is worse because she's thinking the way I would expect her to, but not acting on it... except when she's genuinely waffling. She waffles even though she admits to the reader, thus herself, that Adam respects her (as much as a male werewolf can respect a female of any type), while Samuel neither loves nor respects her. Why is this a difficult decision, then?
Oh, that's right, because Samuel is mopey and pining and potentially suicidal, and oh, was her teenage love.
Oh, and apparently now her vampire friend is in love with her, too.
...
I want to like this series, because basically the only thing about it that drives me nuts is the love triangle "romance" that's apparently turning into a love quadrangle or whatever, and the way Mercy seemed like she'd be different from other UF female protagonists, and then fails so hard at it.
I'm going to finish Iron Kissed because I bought it, but so help me, if it ends with Mercy still flipflopping between Adam and Samuel, I will not be buying any more of them.
And don't even get me started on the covers.
I liked it. I liked Mercy as a character, I liked the story, I really enjoyed the description of werewolf society and "dominance games" and the political situation between fae and humans, and how it affected the other supernatural cultures. I didn't even mind the love triangle between Mercy, Samuel and Adam (well, I did, but only on principle, because I dislike love triangles), because at the end it seemed like Mercy would be handling it much better than other women in her situation in fiction (whom we will not name).
So I went and bought the next two books, Blood Bound and Iron Kissed.
Unfortunately, Blood Bound went completely in the opposite direction for me from almost the beginning.
Suddenly, Mercy's waffling about her werewolf boyfriends. Their behavior is atrocious, and she doesn't handle it at all the way I expected her to... which is worse because she's thinking the way I would expect her to, but not acting on it... except when she's genuinely waffling. She waffles even though she admits to the reader, thus herself, that Adam respects her (as much as a male werewolf can respect a female of any type), while Samuel neither loves nor respects her. Why is this a difficult decision, then?
Oh, that's right, because Samuel is mopey and pining and potentially suicidal, and oh, was her teenage love.
Oh, and apparently now her vampire friend is in love with her, too.
...
I want to like this series, because basically the only thing about it that drives me nuts is the love triangle "romance" that's apparently turning into a love quadrangle or whatever, and the way Mercy seemed like she'd be different from other UF female protagonists, and then fails so hard at it.
I'm going to finish Iron Kissed because I bought it, but so help me, if it ends with Mercy still flipflopping between Adam and Samuel, I will not be buying any more of them.
And don't even get me started on the covers.