River marked by Patricia Briggs

For the first time ever I feel the need to include a SPOILER ALERT with a review - if you have not read the rest of the series and are not up-to-date with the life and trials of Mercedes "Mercy" Thompson then do not read past this point as you may end up learning more about the earlier books than is good for you.

Okay, now that is out of the way I can say without doubt that the Mercy series is still going strong with this sixth book in the series.  From the start Mercy has been a strong, independent almost anti-hero who makes mistakes, has her flaws (did I mentions she can be really stubborn yet), and has this amazing ability to end up in the wrong place at the right time.  Over the past five novels Mercy has fallen into more trouble than is humanly possible, but as she is not human but a Walker who can turn into a coyote, then maybe that explains it.  This time around Mercy and Adam have left on their honeymoon, and they are camping in a very flash RV in a campground that wont be open to the public for some time to come.  But it turns out the honeymoon comes with Mercy's own special brand of complications, and Mercy and Adam soon find themselves caught up in the mystery of a river monster that is killing tourists and locals alike. 

For the first time you really get a blending of Native American mythology and magic from Mercy's ancestry in the story, and as I am not from America and don't have a sound knowledge of what is real with Native American culture and what is just for TV and novels I can only say that it appears to have been handled with respect, but I can say it answered a lot of questions and made the story so much more because it added to the general mythology of mercy's world and built on a world view of what it is like to live in a world with vampires, werewolves, walkers, the fae - and now some other things entirely (don't want to spoil things for you too much). 

I love this series, and one of the things I love best about it is the seamless way that Patricia Briggs blends together the real world that we know, with a fantasy world that blends magic, monsters, and the fae into a world that you think is just around the corner.  Other authors have tackled this "urban fantasy" genre before with varying success, and some series that started strong have become less readable over time, but the Mercy Thompson novels just keep getting better and better, and the companion Alpha and Omega series is just as addictive.

If you like this book then try:

• Cry wolf by Patricia Briggs
• Knight of ghosts and shadows by Mercedes Lackey and Ellen Guon
• Burning water by Mercedes Lackey
• Blood price by Tanya Huff
• Dead witch walking by Kim Harrison
• Guilty pleasures by Laurell K. Hamilton

Reviewed by Brilla