I learned how to put a picture in a review just so you guys could see how bad this is. This is not a book I ever would have picked up on its own (the cleavage! the moistness!), but since it was loaned to me by someone whose opinion I trust (thanks Mom!), I forged on despite the cheese. While I’m being judgy, the blurb is pretty hokey too: “Mercy Thompson’s sexy next-door neighbor is a werewolf. But then, Mercy Thompson is not exactly normal herself…”
Mercedes (Mercy) Thompson is a skinwwalker – she can change into a coyote. She was raised by a werewolf pack, since apparently there aren’t packs of coyote-folk roaming around. Magical and otherwise different people have begun to come out of the closet, slowly letting the public know they exist and they aren’t planning on hurting anyone. Humans have been slowly getting used to the idea of the fae, but the werewolves think people aren’t quite ready to face the thought of a real live lycanthrope.
Mercy lives next door to Adam, an Alpha wolf who runs the area pack. They have a sparring but trusting relationship, and when a new wolf in town is killed and things start heating up (including Adam’s daughter being kidnapped), Mercy and Adam team up to take care of things before stuff gets too big to be ignored by humans. When Mercy expects a rat in Adam’s pack, she goes back to her own pack for help – conveniently getting re-entangled with her ex-boyfriend.
It’s basically a mystery (who’s behind all the badness?) with a side order of romance (Adam is swoony, but Samuel stirs serious High School Angsty Feelings), dipped in a layer of magic to keep things hopping (vampires! gremlins! Buffy quotes!). It’s fun, it’s fast-paced, and I totally want to hang out with Mercy.
There’s a bit too much big strong macho bullheadedness, with Adam and Samuel both trying to protect Mercy and claim her and tell her what to do. The author gets around the blatant sexism a bit by making it the “alpha wolf’s way,” but it would still be aggravating if Mercy wasn’t so damn competent and uninterested in their nonsense. She refuses to sit back out of danger and watch from the sidelines, and they’re lucky she won’t, because she seems to be the only one with half a brain most of the time. She’s pack-adjacent, but not officially part of either pack, so she doesn’t have to obey orders or put up with the territorial crap. She’s smart even when she’s scared, and she’s not afraid to be her own person.
It’s a quick read, with good writing and action, and I will definitely be picking up the next one in the series. No matter what the cover looks like.