Burn Bright (Alpha and Omega) Hardcover – March 6, 2018

This review was originally posted on the Goldilox and the Three Weres blog.Burn Bright takes place just after the events in Silence Fallen. With the Marrok out of the country on a vacation after dealing with the ordeal with Mercy, Charles has taken up the temporary role as Alpha of the Aspen Creek pack and a phone call from one of his father's Wildlings leads him and Anna on an investigation that just escalates from there. I know I say this every time I read a book in these series, but I loved everything about this one! I read it pretty much in one sitting and I was hooked from the start.One of the things I've loved about the Alpha & Omega books is that we get to see a lot of the world because Charles and Anna are always traveling. This book felt like a throwback to the early Mercy books but with the A&O crew. We're finally back in Aspen Creek and this book delivers on feeding my curiosity about the members of the Marrok's pack.We know that the Aspen Creek Pack is full of wolves that are wounded and broken and who wouldn't survive in any other pack. But what I didn't realize it that Bran's pack held even more broken wolves called the Wildlings who are too damaged to even interact with the pack. They are such intriguing characters! I loved learning more about them as much as I did learning more about Tag, Asil, Sage, and Leah.Yeah. I just said Leah. If you would have told me that I would come to like and respect Leah after pretty much despising her character for the last fourteen or so books, I would have said you were crazy. But Briggs did the impossible. She may not have made me love Leah in this book, but I certainly respect her and even kind of like her now. We even got to learn more about Mercy's time in the pack which was interesting, as is everything with Mercy.One thing I noticed a lot in this book was the emphasis placed on the bonds between mates. Many of you may not know but Patricia Briggs lost her husband unexpectedly in 2017. This is the first book published since she lost him and it was clearly influenced by his loss. I loved that it focused heavily on the different matings and bonds of the characters, even the ones who have lost their mates. Burn Bright was dedicated to her husband and it really was a fitting tribute to the man who was her own mate and such a delightful man in real life. RIP Mike.This book was a real roller coaster of feelings for me. It made me laugh. It made me kind of tear up. And it had me on the edge of my seat a majority of the time reading it. The mystery was so good! I thought I had everything figured out and then I got hit out of left field with the reveal. I never saw it coming and all I can say is: Bravo, Patricia Briggs! Bravo!The events in this book have consequences for both series and I'm intrigued to see what it does to this world. I think it's really going to shake things up.*ARC provided by the publisher via Netgalley

Hello, Hello!Glad to be back in the Mercyverse with Charles and Anna again! It has been a while since Patricia Briggs gave us a new Alpha and Omega.... but better late than never, right?Burn Bright's plot is an interesting one. For once, Charles and Anna are with the pack in Aspen Creek instead of having to go somewhere else to "fix" a problem. Charles is in charge of the pack while Bran is out of the country. Then, a distress call comes from the mate of one of the wildings. The couple is under attack and they're asking for the pack's help. Soon, the danger is closer to home and Charles and Anna are in a race to find the answer to the question of Who's behind the attacks on the pack?So who are the wildings? The wildings are the more unstable and older werewolves who need/ have agreed to Bran's protection. They live in isolation from the rest of the pack. Some of them have a past full of pain and misery. There's a reason why Bran offers them sanctuary. However, if one becomes to too lost to his wolf then Bran won't hesitate to take care of the threat. Yet, this time, the threat comes from outsiders and since Bran is not available, Charles will have to deal with the mess.Anna and Charles's relationship keeps on moving forward. Their mate bond is a strong one. They complement each other. Despite Charles being what he is, he's never overprotective. He doesn't overshadow her either. Anna is becoming a much stronger werewolf. She's becoming much more comfortable with her Omega side. She's not a victim and she doesn't want anyone to see her that way. Brother Wolf as always is just great. He can be quite scary but he also brings some needed levity at times.Also, Patricia Briggs let us into a big revelation or at least it was to me. I'm pretty sure I was as clueless as Mercy was/is. Not sure if this information is going to affect the Mercy books. Why bring it up if there is no importance to it? Yet, I don't want Mercy to find out.I love how we get more details in regards to Mercy's upbringing. She was a force to be reckoned with and I'm glad Charles helped her in whatever way he could.Now to the whodunit part....I was with Charles with his suspicion but I was glad I was wrong. Nevertheless, it hurt to see the pack hurting with their losses.Another surprise was Leah, someone who I thought (and might still think) is not the best choice of mate for Bran. Yet, in this installment, she was much more tolerable and even useful. If you don't think so, ask Charles.Asil was one of my favorite secondary characters in Burn Bright. He can be funny but don't underestimate him. He can also be quite scary when he wants to be. He enjoys teasing Charles by using Anna but he loves Anna and would be there to protect her in a heartbeat.One last thing, the cover of Burn Bright is amazing. Certainly a winner.I do hope we don't have to wait three years for the next one and long live the Mercyverse.Cliffhanger: No4/5 Fangs

Book is okay but the pacing felt off. Like the beginning took forever, there was no middle, and the end was really rushed. On top of that, too much was left open-ended. When I finished, I felt like part of the book was missing.

Generally, I have really loved Patricia Briggs' books. Her protagonists are well drawn and engaging. The plots are creative. The romance is both steamy and sweet. Prior books in the Alpha and Omega series have sort of followed a story arc which involved Anna and Charles learning to accept and accommodate each other. This book attempts to begin a new story arc, which is fine except that the characters weren't in place for the new arc. Certain characters in this book undergo dramatic characterization shifts. These don't feel organic; rather they are contrived to start up the new story arc. In fact, much of this story feels contrived. There are a lot of "gosh, I never thought...." and "Who could have guessed?" moments. My two biggest problems with the story are that there is some information which points to the bad guy and drives the plot which we are told exists somewhere, in some form, but we don't really know what it is, just that it's very persuasive evidence. The second big shift, in my opinion, is that Bran shifts from a deus ex machina with a character flaw to a limited viewpoint character who is willing to let other people fight his battles.This book is still a fun read; just not up to the standards of the previous books.

The Alpha and Omega series goes back to its roots in this latest installment. Not just because Anna and Charles are home, sorting out problems in Aspen Creek, but because the wider plot cleverly loops back around to not just Anna’s beginnings in Chicago, but to where this whole world began with Moon Called from the Mercy Thompson series.I loved getting to see more of the Aspen Creek pack – Asil especially, but also Tag and Sage, even Leah – as they tried to work out what was wrong with the Wildlings while Bran was AWOL. I especially enjoyed seeing how far Anna and Charles have grown, as a couple as well as individually. Charles is so much more than the bogeyman of werewolves, while Anna is really learning to explore her omega powers and stretch her instincts. The pair of them make a great team, but the fact that Anna is capable of working just as well away from Charles is one of my favourite things. He (and Brother Wolf) might want to protect her at all times, but he also understands what she needs in order to be strong enough to protect herself.The plot is gripping, giving some fascinating hints and insights into different parts of this world. The Wildlings are a very interesting bunch, from sad Devon, through the unhinged Viking twins, right up to Hester and Jonesy. There’s clearly a lot more going on in Bran’s backyard than has ever been shown before, and now they’ve drawn the wrong kind of attention. It also sets things up very nicely for future books in the Mercyverse because all those hints about Sherwood Post are clearly not accidental. Plus there’s all those loose ends that need to be tied up.However, this book also had another agenda, which seemed to be to improve everyone’s opinion of Leah, while also making us hate Bran. I don’t think I’ll ever like Leah, but her relationship with Bran is messed up. My opinion of Bran has been all over the place for a while – usually fairly positive in the Mercy books, less so in the A&O ones – but this time it’s taken a complete nosedive that it’ll be a struggle to recover from.But this book isn’t about Bran, and I refuse to let him, his behaviour and one suspect conversation spoil everything else. Because Asil is in this book. So much Asil! And Charles, and Anna, and we see a little bit of Kara too, and meet some really interesting old wolves that I’d love to know more about. There is so much more to this book than Bran, and that’s what I really enjoyed. I can’t wait to see where the whole Mercyverse heads next.

I make a habit of crashing into series out of order as anyone who has spent any time reading my reviews knows. Mostly, I manage to work out what is happening without too much difficulty, but I can’t deny that it sometimes causes a bit of confusion at the beginning of the book. Not this time, though. Immediately Briggs pulled me into the action so at no stage was I floundering, which demonstrates a great deal of skill, given this is the fifth book in the series. Of course, I was aware there was a hefty backstory and some of the previous events were mentioned, which has certainly whetted my appetite to read more about these engaging characters.And it is all about the characters. I loved both Charles and Anna, so very different and yet so suited. I also enjoyed reading about the jockeying for position and the pinsharp awareness of their ranking within the pack and how that balances with the human side of their character. I’ve read one or three werewolf stories in my time, each with its on take on how the blend of wolf and human works, and this was a dynamic I particularly enjoyed.I also liked the fact that despite it is a world where lives are invariably lost – they matter. Near the beginning one of the deaths really winded me – I had expected that it was going to be alright and this particular character, whom I’d really liked, would prevail. It was a shock when it didn’t.Another of Briggs’ skills is her ability to write broken, desperate characters with compassion and empathy. Some of the oldest fae and werewolves are overwhelmed by the weight of years and bloody experiences they have endured and are too dangerous to live in the socially supercharged atmosphere of the Pack. Briggs doesn’t just tell us how dangerous and unpredictable they are – her demonstrations of their lethal oddness had me reading waaay later into the night than I should have done.As for the climax and solution – the risk is when I’m so thoroughly invested in a story so early on, I’ll find that the ending doesn’t quite live up to my expectations. This wasn’t an issue here – there was another surprising twist near the end that certainly changed everything once again. And then again, when another twist superseded that one… The conclusion tied up most of the plot points, leaving a major one dangling in the breeze, ready for the seventh book in the series. I’ll definitely be reading that one – and before that – I’ll also be backtracking and reading more about these charismatic, engaging characters in the meantime.Highly recommended for fans of quality urban fantasy.10/10

Bran, the Marrock, leader of Charles and Anna's pack is also father figure to Mercy Thompson. So if you also read the Mercy Thompson series you will know that in her last book Bran left his pack to go to Mercys aid, leaving Charles in charge at home. But the situation with Mercy has been resolved but Bran has not returned home, in fact he says he's taking a holiday, unheard of, before Charles can investigate as to what is going on with his da a phone call comes in with an emergency. Bran has always given a home to the most damaged wolves, the ones who can no longer function as human and are slowly being taken over by their wolves. What most do not know is that there are a select few that are really dangerous even to other wolves so they live outside the pack, alone and left to find what peace they can, then one day Charles receives a call there's something happening on the mountain one of these damaged dangerous wolves has been captured and her fae mate has called Charles to come and get her back. Someone is hunting among the most vulnerable of the pack, what they are looking for Charles does not know nor does he know what it has to do with Brans absence but he will have to figure it out quickly because whoever it is hasn't found what they want yet and it's up to Charles to stop them. Great to spend more time with Brans pack and learn more of Leah, Asail, Sage and Tag, to name but a few. Charles and Anna are often sent away to deal with problems outside the pack, so it's good to see them at home.

I love this series, and every book gets better. Charles and Anna make a great team. Some of their adventures have taken away from the pack. This one seemed to involve most of the pack we know, and some of the Wildings that we don’t.I am not going into any details and give anything away. I know it is one my great pleasures in life to read a new Patricia Briggs novel. I will say this is must read for fans of this series. If you have only read The Mercy Thompson Series, this it set in the same world and begins with a short story from an anthology called On The Prowl which was called Alpha and Omega. This is also available in a digital copy available. This is Anna’s story, and how she met Charles. As I enjoy reading a new Patricia Briggs I also enjoyed the  Audiobook which is narrated by HOLTER GRAHAM who brings this wonderful book to life for me.

Disjointed, episodic and some of the characters you would only recognise, such as Kara, if you had read other books by this author. Yuk to the obligatory sex scene though to be fair not horrible just unnecessary. It would have been much more interesting to pick up new werewolf, Chelsea, from the previous book and follow her establishment as the first female Alpha - very clear she was going to outrank her father-in-law and Kage was not every going to take over the ranch business while his father was alive. Also had elements about the witchblood in the family. An Omega would help with the transition process. Hey ho, you can't dictate what an author writes. Just hope Ms Briggs is able to take a bit more of a break between books and recharge the imagination. She is a very good writer and I have enjoyed her other books.