Great start to what seems like a great series; love how the author mixes different legends and cultures to make a well-thought out novel that combines various elements into one cohesive plotline. Well worth reading; five stars and recommended to all fantasy lovers out there.
I waver in how I feel about Mercy as a heroine. It seems like she's very under-powered, compared to the other (so far mostly male) characters, but there are hints that she might have some bonus stuff she doesn't know about yet. And I like that she mostly doesn't let it get her down or stop her from doing what she wants.
Personality-wise, she's tough and smarter than Kitty Norville/WAY smarter than Rachel Morgan--at least in terms of the decisions she makes. (Like most urban fantasy/paranormal romance heroines, she's very well-read. My kingdom for a scientist or engineer heroine, in one of these books!)
There's a little bit of religious preaching, which is unfortunate, but as long as it stays pretty minor, I can overlook it.
Also frustrating: the world is set up in a gender-imbalanced way, where female werewolves don't have the same rights as male ones, and that's …
I waver in how I feel about Mercy as a heroine. It seems like she's very under-powered, compared to the other (so far mostly male) characters, but there are hints that she might have some bonus stuff she doesn't know about yet. And I like that she mostly doesn't let it get her down or stop her from doing what she wants.
Personality-wise, she's tough and smarter than Kitty Norville/WAY smarter than Rachel Morgan--at least in terms of the decisions she makes. (Like most urban fantasy/paranormal romance heroines, she's very well-read. My kingdom for a scientist or engineer heroine, in one of these books!)
There's a little bit of religious preaching, which is unfortunate, but as long as it stays pretty minor, I can overlook it.
Also frustrating: the world is set up in a gender-imbalanced way, where female werewolves don't have the same rights as male ones, and that's annoying to the reader AND to the main character. If that changes over the course of the series, I'll forgive it. There's one other troubling gender-related thing, which I won't spoil, but since the heroine calls it out as troubling, too, I feel like Briggs has it under control.
And there's some "the last of my kind" trope happening, which means she'll probably meet another walker at some point later in the books, and they'll be evil (most likely), or hot (less likely, but possible), and it'll be a big deal. That isn't my favorite story, but it'll probably just be one book, so no big thing.
Lorelei King does a great job of narrating the audiobook; she's got a really similar sound and style to Marguerite Gavin, so the whole thing feels very familiar, after listening to so many of the latter's performances.
