Review: Storm Cursed

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Ever since those years ago when Mercy moved to a trailer house near the home of the Columbia Basin Pack’s alpha, her life has been drastically different. She sometimes wonders if it’s because she became involved with Adam and his werewolves, but she understands that her relationship with Coyote, the god of chaos more likely has something to do with it. If you read book #10, SILENCE FALLEN (EBR Review), when Mercy was kidnapped by the vampire king of Europe, we learned that Coyote does have his hand in influencing events, and uses his children to clean up the messes that disrupt the world. I suspect that is the reason why Mercy’s life has grown more dangerous over the years.

That’s what she gets for being Coyote’s daughter.

In STORM CURSED this time it isn’t the fae, vampires, or government interference that Mercy has to deal with — now it’s witches. Only these aren’t your ordinary witches. The Hardesty witches use black magic, the worst kind that uses blood, death, and torture to fuel their strength; they create zombies, force people to do things against their will, and generally sew chaos. Adam’s witch-on-retainer, Elizaveta, seems to be their target as they attempt to create a 13-witch coven and use the strength to make their power untouchable. But Elizaveta and the Hardesty family has been enemies for years, and while Elizaveta is in Europe, they decide to strike at her family. Unfortunately, this attack uncovers to Mercy and Adam that Elizaveta herself has been up to no good.

Told from Mercy’s PoV, STORM CURSED follows our heroine as she deals with the magical fallout (including zombie baby goats! lolz), and eventually must take action to stop the witches before they cause irreparable harm. Patricia Briggs’ Mercy Thompson books have not only been consistent across the series with the storytelling, but also I’ve immensely enjoyed the development of the characters and the unfolding of the magical world in which Mercy lives. Briggs just gets better with each book.

Witches are serious business, and Mercy wonders if the two Hardesty witches might out-class her and the werewolves. Fortunately she’s got her own arsenal. There’s Sherwood, the amnesiac, three-legged werewolf given to the pack by Bran, and who turns out to be more than he first appears. There’s Stefen, her vampire friend; also the creepy/scary vampire Wulfe makes an important appearance, which was enlightening (in a scary/creepy way). There’s Larry, the goblin king who helps out when needed, and who really deserves a story all his own because Briggs hints at some interesting stuff. There are an assortment of Adam’s werewolf pack, and it’s nice to see the spotlight shine on some we don’t usually see up close. We get to see Tad and Zee do their kick-butt fae stuff that is always fun to read about. And even here at book #11 there are still some new things to learn about Mercy. You’ll see. (Seriously, how can she get more awesome?)

Briggs’ pacing, action, and plotline are as taut and fun-to-read as usual. STORM CURSED seems to have more humor in it than SILENCE FALLEN, and also unlike SILENCE FALLEN the book has more scenes with Adam and Mercy together. By this point we have a good grasp on the abilities of the characters involved, so that shorthand allows the story to be read quickly; however, readers tuning into the series for the first time won’t get the same punch because they lack context, but should still enjoy the book. The end gets a little hectic and I questioned it at first, but Briggs explains things (she occasionally likes to be a little convoluted). There were quite a few chatty pages as Mercy tries to sort out the witches and their motives when I was ready for the story to move on, but it’s a nit-picky complaint and didn’t impair my overall enjoyment.

Will there be a book #12? Most certainly. We do know that there are more than the two Hardesty witches who plagued the Tri-Cities in STORM CURSED. The only question is: what will happen if the rest of them decide to come for a visit?

Briggs can’t write the next book fast enough.