Night Broken

I generally enjoy the Mercy Thompson series and really admire Patricia Briggs talent. While Mercy is sometimes nerve-wracking with her full out dash towards self-destruction, I respect her spunk, her cleverness and the amazing way she can think on her feet. However, I have to say that this book Night Broken caused me to take a hard look at whether I wanted to continue patronizing the Mercy universe. The two biggest reasons for my possible defection are:

1. The constant need for Mercy to involve herself in near disasters.
I realize that shes unwittingly drawn into some of them, but others she plain old dives head first into without any thought for her safety. She’s been physically damaged so many times that it is hard to believe she isn’t a walking body of scar tissue.

2. In this book, Night Broken, the high school “mean girl” antics of ex-wife Christy.
Christy is always described as “pretty” so I guess that makes her nastiness acceptable. She shows up unannounced at Mercys doorstep and goes full-tilt at trying to damage all of Mercys relationships. Sometimes it becomes a little too much to take and at times looks as if shes succeeding. I find it difficult to believe that any woman (or man for that matter) would allow an ex-anyone to abuse them and their home in this way.

Christy, took over Mercy’s kitchen, ordered everyone around, put her toiletries in Mercy and Mercys husbands bathroom, connived to engender sympathy from and alienation towards Mercy from the pack; says pretty much whatever she wants to say to Mercy and to husband Adam while constantly whining that everything is always someone else’s fault. No one comes to Mercy’s defense, including Mercy herself (who keeps justifying her lack of defense by saying she doesnt want to sound jealous and petty). The only person who attempts to support Mercy is Jesse ( the teenaged step-daughter). Warren and Ben make a couple of supportive comments. However, they mostly remain silent letting Mercy and sometime Adam take hit after hit from the verbal assaults of the “pretty” ex-wife.

Ms Briggs did a lot of justifying as to why stalwart, take no prisoners Mercy would tolerate this kind of behavior. After a while, however, it just became excessive. I’m a woman and as much as I acknowledge that women have been abused (and continue to be), it doesn’t make it acceptable for another woman to step into the role as the abuser and/or take advantage of another woman- especially in that womans own home.

Eventually, there was some minor attempt at giving Christy her due, but other readers will have to decide whether it was enough.

It could be said, prior to this book, that all of Mercys problems have (nearly) always been aimed directly at her, Moon Called excepted. Thats not the case here. This problem heads straight for Christy Adams ex-wife. Adam, being who he is, cant deny protection. And I love that about him, honestly, I do. But I absolutely hate Christy in this book and a good number of the Pack, too.

Most of the books prior to this we could see more movement in the overall world and politics between the supernatural beings in it. Not so much here. There are glimpses, moments where we realize and find out that stuff is still moving along, and maybe not to the best of places, but for the most part this book focuses on Adam and Mercys Pack. That doesnt mean its slow though. I think back to my experience reading it, and I realize that Mercy spends a lot of time trying to get away from Christy, but that doesnt mean theres a lot of downtime. Were moving from one revelation to the next, learning more about some characters with a few surprising me hugely along the way.

I dont want to rant anymore, like I did when I first finished this book, but I still do hope that Christy goes away and never returns. Shes the most selfish, self-absorbed, horrible woman. I also really hope that someone puts the effing Pack in their place. The lack of respect that they show Mercy is absolutely ridiculous. Time and time again shes put her neck out on the line for them. Time and time again shes never left them hanging, or in danger. Shes never backed down from a fight even when she didnt think she could win. And how do they repay her? With betrayal and snide comments. EFF that. I am so pissed at (most of) them. There are a couple of notable exceptions, and I couldnt love these four more. I want to gather them all into my arms and give them huge hugs for being decent, caring human beings.or werewolves.

I found the mystery pretty interesting not because there was a huge mystery, I dont think, but because it was so different! And there are some downright amazing things that happen because of it. I cant wait to see the consequences of some of the choices that were made here.

I think that most fans of the series will hate the main aspect of the book Christy trying to worm her way back into Adams, and the packs, life and I cant blame them. I hate it, too. A lot. But what I can say is that Adam makes it bearable. Those four other characters gave me hope to hold onto. Also, Mercys a better person than I. Im not sure I would have taken Christys jabs with such grace. I get why she did because of Jesse but, man. That took some serious strength.

I love this book. Now if Christy would just die, Id be a happy woman. Or I, at least, hope the Pack gets an awesome set-down in the next book, Fire Touched.and that Christy goes back to Eugene.

The world building is epic, at the risk of sounding 16 instead of my 55 years. I love to read, but read enough of the same genre and it gets predictable. I turned to sci fi fantasy because it is not as predictable (for me) as other genres, but I also prefer happy-ish endings. The Mercy Thompson series is wild, fun, intense, and very engaging. The characters are very strongly written, and are constantly learning and growing. The relationships never stagnate. This book, Night Broken, #8 in the series was as riveting as all the others, which is not always the case. I found myself asking, how is she going to get them out of this one? And happy to not know the answer until I got to the end. Spoiler alert – I was so glad that the relationship between Adam and Mercy, while strained with Christy’s constant manipulation, was written in such a way that it demonstrated the constant need to communicate, to fight one’s inner demons of jealousy, insecurity, and desire to defend oneself against unfairness and injustice. It was so healthy! We don’t see enough of that in books and movies. True, the relationship can be healthy since the conflicts are more external. I love that! And even better, I love a strong female protagonist. This series has that in spades. Urban fantasy at its finest. I’m really enjoying this.

Briggs writing draws me in so easily. I ended up reading this book in one sitting.

Night Broken is #8 in the Mercy Thompson series of urban fantasy novels. If you have read the previous seven books then the main characters need no introduction. If you haven’t read them I highly recommend you go read the first book in the series, Moon Called, as Night Broken is not really a stand alone novel.

Night Broken is about Mercy’s ‘ex-wife in-law’ Christy calling and saying she fell for a guy who’s now stalking her and killing people, basically, she needs help. Mercy offers the woman sanctuary at her and Adam’s home.

Whilst dealing with the manipulative ex living in her home is going on in the background we have Mercy trying to deal with Christy’s homicidal stalker, an investigation into the local brutal murders plus a personal request from a powerful fae.

I enjoyed the story and the action, which as usual was excellent, but I felt Night Broken was more focused on relationships. Not only the romantic ones but all relationships between several characters in this series. I normally tend to get frustrated with romantic writings within urban fantasy. However, I found the small tender moments between Adam and Mercy to be some of the highlights of the book.

The ending felt slightly abrupt to me I had to check a couple of times to see if I had missed a few pages or an epilogue. The main story was wrapped up but there were many sub-plots left open which I am sure will be investigated later.

Overall, an essential read for all fans of Mercy Thompson.

The core of this book is the reappearance of Adam’s ex-wife Christy as a damsel in distress triggering his protective instinct and creating havoc in the lives of Mercy, her family, and the pack. Everyone knows someone like Christy – her ability to play the victim and to belittle and blame other people is breathtaking but very realistic and hugely funny as Mercy does her best not to lose her temper or otherwise react. Christy really is in trouble and by fleeing to the pack for help (and also to try to get Adam back) she brings danger with her without the capacity to deal with it. The search for Christy’s stalker and his revealed identity represents the real danger in the werewolf world and contrasts well with Christy’s nonsense.

The joy of getting to this volume in the series is that the author doesn’t just tell the same story over and over again but she has actually developed her characters through their experiences in previous volumes and we see that in the way that they react to each other and the events of this book. This means that it is probably best if you have read some or all of the previous books as you will understand many of the nuances better than if this is your first exposure to the series. I have read all the previous books and the Alpha/Omega series too and it really added to my enjoyment of this book as there are fleeting references to all sorts of previous events which add real depth to the story (there is also a delightful passing reference to Jim Butcher’s Harry Dresden novels which nearly made me laugh out loud).

The core of the book is Christy’s return, the effect that it has on Mercy’s relationships with the pack, and the problems that she brings with her. The author creates a fascinating adversary for Mercy in a god from the Canary Islands. There are other sub-plots too which are neatly interwoven with the main story and which leave lots of new story lines to be explored (hopefully) in future volumes; these include a fellow walker for Mercy to get to know, an unexpected discovery about Stefan the vampire, trouble for Tad with the fae, a secret government agency which has nefarious designs on werewolves, a new submissive werewolf for the pack with his secrets, a new member of the pack who is not a werewolf, and a difficulty with the ownership of the magic walking stick. I am really looking forward to seeing what the author does in the future with some of this material.

The book is told all the way through in the first person from Mercy’s point of view and is full of her wry observations about other people and her sarcastic wit. There are some very funny moments, some very scary ones, and some tender scenes. In all, this is a captivating read – I was gripped all the way through up to the very sudden, but effective, ending. It is going to be very difficult to wait for the next installment.

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