Review: Silver Borne by Patricia Briggs (& Contest)

Silver Borne (Mercy Thompson series, Book 5)
by Patricia Briggs
2010 Ace Books
Hardcover Edition; 342 Pages
ISBN:978-0-441-01819-2
Genre: Urban Paranormal

4/5 Stars

Summary (Press Release)
Mercy Thompson, car mechanic and shape-shifter, never knows what the day - or night - may bring in a world where "witches, vampires, werewolves, and shapeshifters live beside ordinary people". But she is about to learn that while some secrets are dangerous, those who seek them are just plain deadly...\

Mercy is smart enough to realize that when it comes to the magical fae, the less you know, the better.  But you can't always get what you want.  When she attempts to return a powerful fae book she previously borrowed in an act of desperation, she finds the bookstore locked up and closed down.

It seems the book contains secrets - and the fae will do about anything to keep it out of the wrong hands.  And if that doesn't take enough of Mercy's attention, her friend Samuel is struggling with his wolf side - leaving Mercy to cover for him lest his own father declare Samuel's life forfeit.

All in all, Mercy has had better days.  And if she isn't careful, she may not have many more...

My Thoughts
Silver Borne is the fifth installment in the popular Mercedes Thompson urban paranormal series.  I enjoyed this one tremendously, and as usual, it was the interplay between the characters that I truly enjoyed, not necessarily the plot around the Silver Borne, which I actually found really weak. 

In Silver Borne, we see Mercy struggling to deal with her relationship to Adam, alpha of the local werewolf pack.  Mercy, as a shapeshifting coyote, is strugging to fit into the pack, and is meeting resistance from many of the other werewolves who don't think she is equal to the task as Adam's mate or as part of the pack.  Trouble meets Mercy and Adam on one of their dates, as Mercy suddenly finds herself doing something wholly unexpected and dangerous, and discovers later that mind-control, from the pack, was used.  With Mercy's innate ability for certain kinds of magic and talents, she was able to fend off some of the mind-bending, but this raised awareness of how much danger and how many problems she and and Adam could face in the future.  I like how her relationship with Adam develops in this story and how it isn't such a smooth path as relationships are not always sweet and carefree.  It is interesting to see how they work through their problems and how they deal with their strengths and weaknesses in their relationship.  That it wasn't just about sex, but about love and respect and learning about each other is what fascinates me.

With Mercy's other talent being trouble, it is inevitable that it would find her in leaps and bounds in this novel.  When Samuel decides to hurt himself, she suddenly finds herself knee deep in more trouble, especially as she tries to protect him from others, the pack leader, and from himself.  Samuel is one of my favourite characters in this series and I really enjoyed this part of the book.  The relationship between Samuel and Mercy is very interesting and reminds me of a brother and sister who feud a lot, but when it comes down to it, will protect each with their very beings.  Mercy went out of her way, even to displeasing Adam, to protect Samuel and I was so glad she did.  She jeopardized other relationships by protecting Samuel and jeopardized other lives, innocent young lives, in doing so, but also had to pay the price for doing so.  I enjoyed the character development in this story and I think we saw Mercy grow up a bit novel as she realized how much her actions could really hurt others, and not just herself.

Silver Borne definitely moves swiftly from one scene to another, and is very densely plotted.  There are a few loose threads however, and some things did not always flow smoothly.  I was somewhat disappointed in the story line around the silver borne.  While I really enjoyed all of the characters and the events that happened were fun and interesting, the storyline itself was somewhat weak.  I am hoping that maybe it will be explained more fully in the next novel.  This is why I did not give the book five out of five stars.  I also have to admit that I missed the vampires in this novel.  It didn't make the novel any less interesting, but I really enjoyed that aspect of these novels in the past.  However, with a huge number of werewolves, a coyote, some fae, a fairy queen, and a gremlin, there are certainly enough otherworld creatures in the novel to satisfy anyone.

Verdict
Silver Borne is another excellent addition to the Mercy Thompson series.  It was fun, exciting, interesting, with a variety of quirky and fantastic characters that really make this series stand out.  The writing is superb and I was caught up in the action right from the beginning.  If there was anything amiss in this book, it was the silver borne itself, and its role in the story, which is one of the few things I found to be weak.  I can't wait to read more about Adam, Mercy, Samuel, and Ariana in future instalments of this series.

Silver Borne was sent to me as a review copy by Penguin Canada.

Contest Time

I have one (1) copy of Silver Borne to give away.

Here are the rules:
1) You must be a follower of my blog.
2) Leave a comment with your email address telling me about your favourite supernatural character (and why) from any book.
3) Contest is open to Canada and the US.
4) Contest closes April 30, 2010.

Good luck!