Silver Borne (Mercy Thompson, Book 5) by Patricia Briggs

Description:

Being a mechanic is hard work. Mercy Thompson, for instance, just spent the last couple of months trying to evade the murderous queen of the local vampire seethe, and now the leader of the werewolf pack - who's maybe-more-than-just-a-friend - has asked for her help. A book of fae secrets has come to light and they're all about to find out how implacable - and dangerous - the fae can be. OK, so maybe her troubles have nothing to do with the job. But she sure could use a holiday ...

My Review:

This book picks up more or less where the last one ended.  Mercy is still working on her issues with intimacy after her rape and the subsequent panic attacks that it has left her with.  We are also trying to figure out what she is to the pack, and what this means for her relationship with Samuel.

There are three concurrent plots in this novel.  1) Adam and Mercy's relationship. 2) Samuel and his attempted suicide. 3) The kidnapping of Finn, a bookstore owner who is mostly human, but part fae.

Let's get to it.

1) Adam and Mercy's mate bond is pretty much run down and broken.  It doesn't seem to work correctly, and they don't know how to fix it.  During a date, someone manages to use the pack to influence Mercy into acting badly and drives a rift between the two.  The undercurrent here is that one of the pack members is trying to oust Adam as the alpha and uses Mercy to make it happen.  The two are trying to reconcile when....
2) Samuel tries to kill himself because he is old and sad and doesn't have anything that he feels is worth living for.  However Samuel's wolf, Sam, keeps him from completing his deed.  Then Sam is in charge.  This is a major problem because when a wolf takes over for his human half the werewolf must be killed, it's werewolf law apparently.  However, since Samuel is so old, Sam manages to keep anything bad from happening.  Now all we have to do is find a way to entice Samuel from wanting to die, and here is where part three comes in...

3) Finn has been kidnapped.  It isn't immediately clear why, but when we learn that he sent Mercy a message concerning a book he loaned to her the mystery starts to subside.  Turns out the book isn't just a book (because that would be too simple), it is in fact a mysteriously important fairy artifact that steal magical powers.  A crazy fairy queen wants the book and kidnaps Finn, and this forces Mercy into action. 
And here is where all plots come together because it just so happens that the maker of the magical fairy article is Ariana, the ‘grandmother’ of Finn and a fae woman who is coincidentally is also Samuel's long lost love.  Her sudden appearance gives Sam a reason to live and opens a door for Mercy to save Finn.  But how does this fix Mercy and Adam? Well, Mercy ends up getting kidnapped by the crazy fairy queen who thinks Mercy's got the book.  Through some magical wanderings, Mercy is able to fix her mate bond with Adam, who saves her from the evil queen's grasp.  And thus we have harmony in the Tri-Cities.

I have to say I enjoyed this book because it had a bit more romance in it and it didn’t have any vampires – which were boring in the last book.  But as much as I like romance, I really must object to the forced Happily Ever-After that was shoved on us out of nowhere for Samuel.  How very lucky for us that his long lost love just so happens to be the key to solve Finn's kidnapping.  Samuel's story was definitely the weakest link in this novel.  His motivations for suicide were never fully fleshed out, and I really couldn’t buy that he was willing to go off into nothingness just because…what?  We didn’t have any motivation for it.  I feel that this area really needed some more work.  Nonetheless, the book was a fun read and I'd recommend it to those already following the Mercy Thompson books.  Briggs is always doing a fantastic job making Thompson’s world believable and relatable.  She also deftly weaves the three plots together.  I will give this book a 4 out of 5.

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