Review: River Marked by Patricia Briggs

River Marked
(Mercy Thompson #6)
Patricia Briggs
Release: March 1, 2011
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Coyote shifter Mercy Thompson knows that life with her mate, the Alpha werewolf Adam, will never be boring, but even their wedding doesn't go as planned. Nevertheless, a ten-day honeymoon camping on the banks of the Columbia River, alone, just the two of them, should make up for it. But the trip - and the pimped-out trailer they're using - is courtesy of the fae. And nothing from the fae comes without strings attached...

Being a different breed of shapeshifter - a walker - Mercy can see ghosts, but the spirit of her long-gone father has never visited her. Until now. An evil is stirring in the depths of the Columbia River - and innocent people are dying. As other walkers make their presence know to Mercy, she must reconnect with her heritage to exorcise the world of the legend known as the river devil...

Review by Rose Red:

Mercy Thompson doesn't have the sense to be really afraid of anything. She's faced so much in the past, from kidnapping werewolves and demon possessed vampires to killer Fae queens and other villains with delusions of grandeur. So, it is a little amusing that the one thing that terrifies her the most is just an ordinary human, her mother. Margi has gone a little overboard in the wedding ceremony planning, so Mercy is determined to elope. Yet like all of good laid plans, that doesn't work out so well either. After their surprise wedding, Mercy and Adam go on their honeymoon. Ten days camping in a ginormous camp trailer away from the garage and the Pack sounds like an awesome and relatively safe thing, right? Unfortunately, trouble follows Mercy around waiting to club her with a tire iron. 

A lot of people I know have complained that there wasn't enough going on in the story so it was considerably slower than the rest of the series. Personally, I didn't find it that slow but I did find it to be different than the other books and I think it needed to be that way. There was a lot information that was needing to be put across. This is a much quieter book which serves give more depth to Mercy's relationships. We learn why she has felt the way she has about the various members of her family and her growing awareness that some of her feelings of isolation may have been based on misinterpretations. We also see more of her relationship with Adam. One of the things I love about Patricia Brigg's books is her characters change and grow based on events and their perceptions of the world around them (just like Ben, Mercy has been changing and I think this book was necessary to reflect that transition).  

We get a deeper look into Mercy's past and some of the reasons why she is the way she is. We already know what growing up as a coyote in werewolf country did to her, It made her tough but now we get to see how vulnerable it also made her in some ways. It's something that was only hinted at in the other books but for a majority of the series Mercy fought her feelings of not belonging anywhere. One of the reasons I loved this book as much as I did is because we got to learn more about Mercy and her walker side. Mercy is starting to come to terms with her past and the person she has become. I love that her past brought in a lot of Native American mythology and I really enjoyed how Briggs incorporated Coyote and his fellow entities. Coyote is going to be a great addition to this series, I believe.

Just like Silver Borne was different from the previous books in this series, this book was more different than it was. Adam and Mercy were pretty much the only characters from the main series in this book which was good. It lets us get to know what Adam is away from the pack. The thing is I really missed the Pack in this book. I love the pack life and dynamics, conflicts, and ties, and even though I know we needed to see Mercy and Adam on their own for a while, I still missed it. That being said, I did love that Mercy got to spend an entire novel with Adam. They definitely needed the alone time after the craziness that happened around the time they mated. This book focused more on Adam and Mercy as two individuals rather than the coyote shifter and the alpha. They get to be a normal couple without others hovering. I appreciated seeing this side of them even with the mysterious and mystical going on around them. The vein of the story is showing us their commitment to each other.

River Marked was yet another great addition to this series! I love that it's mostly just Mercy and Adam in this book and that we get to learn more about Mercy's Native American heritage and walkers. Add an evil water monster, otter fae, and Native American gods and you have one heck of a book!  

    

  5 / 5 Stars!!!

My reviews of other books in this series:
Moon Called by Patricia Briggs
Blood Bound by Patricia Briggs 
Iron Kissed by Patricia Briggs 
Bone Crossed by Patricia Briggs 
Silver Borne by Patricia Briggs
Frost Burned by Patricia Briggs
Night Broken by Patricia Briggs