Moon Called: Mercy Thompson, Book 1

Moon Called was surprisingly very entertaining. It’s more urban fantasy vs paranormal romance as the romance is minimal and the sex is non-existent. There is a bit of a slow percolating love interest that will flesh out in later volumes; and technically there’s a bit of a love-ish triangle that also gets resolved in later volumes – but it’s all understated to the point of not even knowing it’s there if I hadn’t read ahead for plot of future installments. All of that said, the story, world building and characters are decent.Mercy short for Mercedes Thompson is a Native American coyote shifter and auto mechanic. She doesn’t know much about her background or her abilities as her shifter side comes from her Blackfoot rodeo bull-rider father Joe Old Coyote. Her mother met him when she was 17. He claimed to come from a long line of medicine men and died in a car accident three days later. While there is a plethora of preternatural folks inhabiting Mercy’s world, shifters are surprisingly rare. Her mother tried to find her father’s family but the closest she came was a great grandfather’s uncle who happened to be a werewolf which led to young Mercy being raised by The Marrok Pack of Montana. Not a bad place to be to make connections given that the Marrok, the title given to the Alpha of the pack has oversight over all North American werewolves. Unfortunately, young Mercy was courted by the Marrok’s son Samuel and fell hard, only to find out that he basically saw her as a baby making machine. And also that he wasn't a young man as she thought but really a 60 something old dude with dead wives and babies. She left the pack at 16, spent some time with her mother and then established herself on her own, in the Tri-Cities.There seems to be a lot of suspicion and minimal fraternization among the various preternaturals in Mercy’s world. Mercy, however, seems to have connections everywhere. Of course, she’s familiar with werewolves and currently happens to be neighbors with Adam Hauptman the Alpha of the local Columbia Basin Pack. She has an in with the Fae, having bought her garage from Zee, aka Siebold Adelbertsmiter from the Walla Walla Fae Preserve, supposedly a lesser Fae, metalsmith and technically a Gremlin. She has somewhat of a friendship with the vampire Stefan since she fixes the cars of his Seethe for free as she can’t afford to pay for the vampires’ “protection”.All of Mercy’s connections come in handy, especially when a twisted werewolf plot lands on her front door and leaves the local alpha half dead and his human daughter Jesse missing. It’s not like Mercy to mind her own business when it comes to people she cares about. Mercy is very likeable; the characters are well developed and the world she lives in feels three dimensional. A great start to the series.

New favorite series to binge 🥰🐺There is so much to love in this first book in the series.🐺 I loved the MC and secondary characters so much! I can’t wait to see their progress as the series continues. I especially loved Warren and Stefan.🐺 low angst which is so important to me.🐺 great start to a new series filled with a page turning story that left me guessing until the very end.🐺 HFN ending🐺 found familyNot thrilled about😬 possible love triangleHighly recommended if you are looking for an urban/ paranormal fantasy. Only wish I had read these sooner. 🥰🐺

MY RATING SYSTEM5 stars--WOW4 stars--would read again3 stars--was good, won't read again2 stars--read it, but didn't enjoy it1 star--didn't finish, it was so awfulDo I need to read books before this one: noCliffhanger: noSUMMARYA boy approaches Mercy as she fixes cars in her shop, hoping to earn cash. Mercy smells he's a new werewolf, takes him on, will figure out how to get him to Adam, the alpha here who's also her neighbor. Her human police friend, Tony, stops by, sees Mac, and tells her he's seen Mac sound and he's not violent nor on drugs. Later, Mac confides he and his girlfriend were attacked in Chicago. He survived the Change, she didn't. He woke up in a cage, heard someone sell him, and had a variety of drugs tried on him. She goes back to the shop to bring Mac a blanket and finds him being threatened. Mercy shifts into her coyote form, kills the werewolf and scares off the human with a gun. She calls Adam, who takes Mac home to introduce him to the pack. She also calls Elizaveta, the witch the pack pays to do cleanup.In the morning, Mercy's cat wants out. Mac is dead on her doorstep. She mourns, then hears noises at Adam's. She races over, kills another werewolf who's fighting Adam, and sees his 15yo daughter, Jesse, has been kidnapped. Worried about a coup to take Adam's leadership, Mercy can't call his pack, so she puts Mac's body and Adam in her van, then drives to Montana to the head alpha of North America, Bran. She'd been fostered in his pack, though she's a skinwalker, not a werewolf. She calls Zee, the gremlin who taught her everything about fixing cars and sold her his garage, to cover for her while she's gone and warn him about what happened. She also calls Stefan, her vampire friend, to explain she hauled a dead body in his van (painted like the Mystery Machine), though Elizaveta cleaned it.In Montana, she shifts to hunt the hills for Bran. She finds Samuel, her old boyfriend she'd planned to marry until Bran interfered. Bran makes it clear Mercy is welcome home so the pack don't hurt her. Samuel, since he's a doctor, tends to Adam and will investigate Mac's body and the tranquilizer dart she'd found by Adam. In the morning, she reconnects with Dr Wallace, the human who'd helped her after her foster parents died; he's now a werewolf, but he won't hunt because he's a veterinarian and a vegetarian. Samuel returns to Kennewick with Adam and Mercy to keep Adam's wolf controlled until Adam is healed, and to investigate the attacks.EVALUATIONExcellent story. Mercy's compassion for Mac drew me in; her being friends with a variety of supernaturals and humans intrigued me; and her snark made me laugh. Her character is well developed: her history includes loneliness, love, loss, fear, and self-acceptance; her present is developed through action and dialog rather than a lot of interior monolog. Other characters are introduced, though not as well developed, and I look forward to knowing them better. The plot starts simply, and keeps growing, not going where I expected.RECOMMENDATIONEveryone who enjoys fantasy should read this.FAVORITE QUOTESThere’s a lot of truth in the adage that all cars named after animals are lemons.His voice was soft and sweet as molasses; but my mother once told me that you had to trust that the first thing out of a person’s mouth was truth. After they have a chance to think about it, they’ll change what they say to be more socially acceptable, something they think you’ll be happier with, something that will get the results they want.“I don't like lies. Not even lies of omission. Hard truths can be dealt with, triumphed over, but lies will destroy your soul.”“Living's easier than dying, most times. Dance when the moon sings, and don’t cry about troubles that haven’t yet come.”“Happiness is German engineering, Italian cooking, and Belgian chocolate”“Siebold Adelbert’s Smiter from the Black Forest,” I translated, using my required two years of a foreign language course for the first time ever.For four years I banged out tunes for a half hour a day and hated the piano more each year. It hated me back.Politics. Humans, werewolves, or, apparently, vampires, it doesn’t matter; get more than three of them together and the jockeying for power begins.“I’ve always wanted to do that,” I confessed. “Maybe when this is all over, you can drive, and I’ll stick my head out the window.”“Next to vinegar and baking soda, WD-40 is the miracle discovery of the age.”“I’ve never heard you swear before. At least not like that.” “Power words. Without which mechanics the world over would be lost.”POSSIBLE TRIGGERS (spoilers)Sex: kissesLanguage: 0 F words, 1 Lord's name in vain, 1 S wordsViolence: animal maulings, threats, gun fights, drug experiments, report of suicideCRITIQUE (spoilers)I'm not clear how Clark died.Is there a coup happening in the vampires?

love it. i own it on every type of platform. excellent 5 stars

É o primeiro livro da Série da Mercedes Thompson, é um livro melhor que o outro, recomendo muito

I liked the main character, the premise and the universe. However, I think the writing needs a bit of polishing because sometimes it feels like the author wasn't sure where she was going with the plot and the character development was a bit lacking. I'm looking forward to read the next book.

Den som gillar lite lagom fantasy med en potion humor och en stark kvinnlig huvudrollskaraktär kommer bli glad och nöjd. Rekommenderas!

I think I must have borrowed this book the first time I read it, so I was delighted to get it to keep for my Kindle.This is the start of the series and it draws us in from the start with intriguing glimpses of some of the characters who will be developed even more as the series progresses.We dive straight in to see Mercy in action and find out about her world. I love that she meets the big bad wolf and ends up rescuing him from bad guys. Mercy knows her strengths and is humble enough to know her weaknesses and to ask for help when she needs it - though usually to help other people rather than herself.Another strength of this world is that it's all about the shades of grey. We don't generally have villains and goodies; we have individuals trying to survive and thrive in a world which isn't always aware of their nature. This makes for much more interesting reading. Thank you Ms Briggs!