Hunting Ground by Patricia Briggs

Second full length novel in the Alpha and Omega series, Hunting Ground continues the story of Charles and Anna. Bran the Marrock of the US werewolves has decided it's time for the werewolves to come out into the public. He knows that this view will not be without opposition, and Anna and Charles are sent to Seattle to keep the peace at the wolve's conclave. But nothing is ever simple, when one of the delegates is murdered, suspicion falls on Charles and the penalty for murdering another werewolf during the conclave is death. It will be up to Anna to discover the truth and save her mate.

Sounds relatively straightforward? Actually though that's the plot in a nutshell it's actually more complicated than that. But I'm not giving any spoilers away.

The thing I love about Patricia Briggs writing is that it's like catching up with old friends. You really feel you know the characters and I'm always eager to find out what's been happening in their lives.

I enjoyed Hunting Ground more than Cry Wolf (the first full length novel in the series) I think mainly because this story feels more like a coherent whole. Everything is working together, plot, character and the overall story arc. It's a little strange because you know where the overall universe plot is going (as the Mercedes books are ahead of the Alpha and Omega) but it also gives you a privileged viewpoint.

A major part of this story was the progression in the relationship between Anna and Charles. I love how Patricia Briggs tackles the concept of the bonded couple, it makes that 'instant soul mate' convenience thing in some other stories look like nothing other than a convenience.

Most UF authors are building over the course of two or three books towards an innate trust and instinctive understanding between their main couple (usually with a few major arguments and flare ups along the way). But Patricia Briggs takes Anna and Charles to that point almost immediately, as their wolves bond before their human selves do. She illustrates in a realistic way that relationships based on a form of instant bonding have just as many problems (if not more) than relationships which build over time. Anna and Charles's relationship is incredibly strong in some ways but it's also fragile. They have to work at understanding each other, instinct can only take you so far, the rest of the way is a leap of faith.

He loved her beyond all reason and didn't expect her to love him back. He was just waiting for her to wise up.

He expects that when she sees him for what he is - a killer - that she will be repulsed and leave him. But Charle's view is biased by his own perception of himself. He doesn't see himself in the way that Anna does. She has an objectivity, she sees all that he is and knows what being his fathers strong right arm costs him. And she proves she's more than capable of defending him.

(Angus)"...I don't ever want to face that man fang and claw."
"If you don't shut up," Anna bit out, "you might not ever have to worry about it."

A quick shout out for two new characters - Moira (witch) and Tom (werewolf) - as soon as I started reading them I wanted to know more. So was delighted to find out that their story is in the anthology Strange Brew which I will be picking up very soon.

I highly recommend this entry in the series and am impatiently waiting for the next release in the series. Luckily there will be another Mercedes book before then to help me through the wait.

Cry Wolf by Patricia Briggs

Cry Wolf continues the story of Charles and Anna begun in the short story Alpha and Omega (from the On the Prowl Anthology). Following the incident in OTP Anna is moving to Montana to live with Charles, and take her place in the Marrok's pack. However, when you live as long as werewolves do you can make a lot of enemies. Before they have time to resolve the issues between them Charles and Anna are on the hunt for a rogue werewolf and a whole lot of history is about to smack them in the face.

I love Patricia Briggs. So this is going to be an ungraded review as I am not completely objective. :) I think Cry Wolf works best if you've read Alpha and Omega first, there is a little bit of a catch up at the beginning of Cry Wolf but I think you'd get more out of the story if you read about Charles and Anna's first meeting and how Anna became a werewolf. You only really get the bare bones in Cry Wolf. This book also slots into the Mercy Thompson Universe following up some events that happened after Mercedes returned to the Tri-Cities.

One slight niggle before the gushing, because if I gush first (LOL) I may forget to niggle later. Cry Wolf was a little slow in the middle for me, but I think that's more to do with the fact that I wanted more of the werewolf interaction stuff. I shouldn't be greedy.

I love Patricia Brigg's heroines. They're not superwomen, they're doing the best they can in difficult situations.And she has these one line quotes that can almost sum up a heroine at a particular time.

She wondered that hope was so much harder than despair.

(In Iron Kissed, Mercy's was - it's better to ask for forgiveness than permission.) Her characters have little quirks - Anna has a fondness for quoting phrases in Latin. Which I love and it made me want to get a t-shirt with Interdum feror cupidine partium magnarum europe vincendarum on. I hesitate to think what that says about me. :)

Anna is an Omega wolf. She's previously been told she's a submissive, the lowest of the low, but that just isn't the case. What we experience in Cry Wolf is Anna starting to learn exactly what it means to be an Omega. Charles and Bran will only help her so far, part of being in a werewolf pack means she has to find her own place.

Charles and Anna's relationship as humans is much more wary than their relationship as wolves. Their wolves have already decided they are mates, however their human halves have not. Kind of a unique situation in werewolf society as it usually happens the other way round, with the wolf being more wary.

This is what I liked most about Cry Wolf, how Patricia Briggs fleshed out the relationships between the various members of the Montana pack, not only Charles and Anna, but how they work together as a unit, as a dysfunctional family. It's interesting that Anna thinks of the pack as a bunch of psychotics, in a way the Montana pack is a pack for werewolves who can't fit in anywhere else - they're too damaged, too set in their ways, too broken, but very interesting to read about. The stand out characters for me (not including C&A) are Bran the Marrok (of course :) ), Asil and Sage. And I really like how we finally get an insight into the relationship between Bran and Leah. Patricia Briggs pulls off the tricky thing of getting me to dislike Leah but also feel kind of bad about the situation she's in.

Because Cry Wolf is written in third person rather than first. It also gives us the opportunity to see situations from more than one point of view. So it's nice to be able to see what both Charles and Anna are thinking, and also being given the opportunity to see the way Bran thinks and to learn more of his history. So there are more complex relationships being explored here rather than just that between Charles and Anna. We also have Bran & the pack, Asil & Bran, Asil & Sage. Each one unique and revealing something different.

With only book being released for this series a year, I'm certainly learning about patience. :( And if anyone out there knows anything about the next book please feel free to share. :)

Giveaway Closed