Book 49, 2019
Storm Cursed by Patricia Briggs
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
Over the course of this weekend, I read Storm Cursed by Patricia Briggs. It's the 11th installment in her "Mercy Thompson" series, featuring coyote shifter Mercy, who's the mate of the Alpha of the Columbia Basin Pack.
After taking responsibility for the safety of everyone in their territory, Mercy and Adam's pack now find themselves in the unenviable position of mediating a meeting between humans and fae. That wouldn't be so awful, but at the same time, the local coven of witches is attacked by black-magic wielding rogue witches. One of them is a necromancer, and Mercy and the werewolves are soon tracking down zombies and dispatching them at an alarming rate. Worse, it seems that one of their broken wolves, Sherwood, may be a particular target of the witches, but the Columbia Basin Pack protects their own. To combat the threat, Mercy calls on her allies, including the fae and the local vampire seethe. However, it is Mercy herself, and her odd immunity to most magic, that may be the key to saving them all.
As per usual, the action in this book raced along at breakneck speed. I was a tad disappointed not to see more of my favorite pack members, but we got to know some of the fringe wolves better, including Sherwood. There were enough light moments to keep the story from getting bogged down in gore and tension, which I also appreciated.
Favorite lines:
♦ "What are we going to do? Stand out here until the goblin gives up and runs out screaming, driven desperate by boredom?"
♦ You know you're in a hotbed of agriculture when there is a traffic jam at four in the morning on a gravel road.
♦ "Zombie miniature goats. Roaming the countryside. Doing what zombie goats do...whatever that is."
♦ "Miniature zombie goats," I corrected. "Or miniature goat zombies. The 'miniature' is important. 'Zombie goats' just sound satanic."
♦ Sometimes there is no way to make things better. There is only making it through.
♦ "Happy to oblige by distracting the ogre with my grisly remains."
This wasn't my favorite of the series, but I enjoyed it immensely. Briggs always crafts such marvelous stories. Five stars!
