River Marked - Patricia Briggs

Car mechanic Mercy Thompson has always known there was something different about her, and not just the way she can make a VW engine sit up and beg. Mercy is a shapeshifter, a talent she inherited from her long-gone father. She’s never known any others of her kind. Until now.


An evil is stirring in the depths of the Columbia River—one that her father’s people may know something about. And to have any hope of surviving, Mercy and her mate, the Alpha werewolf Adam, will need their help…

River Marked is book number 6 in the Mercy Thompson series. This is a series I've been following and I was looking forward to know what would happen to Mercy and Adam after the last story. In this story we get to find out what Stefan has been doing and then see Mercy and Adam get married and drive off on honeymoon. This means the usual set of secondary characters is nowhere to be seen for much of the action and I have to say missed them.

So, Mercy and Adam go camping for their honeymoon, unfortunately the lake where they plan to stay has a monster in it. Unlike the previous book is monster is not a vampire, fae or a similar creature. This is one that lives in the water and calls her prey to come to her where she proceeds to eat them.

Mercy first hears about her when she finds a wounded man on the lake. She and Adam decide to investigate and at the same time they find more about Mercy's father. But the monster on the lake is not happy with the humans she is eating, she wants Mercy and won't stop at nothing to try to convince her to sacrifice herself and be eaten. Mercy is ready to sacrifice herself if needed be but on an operation to kill the monster.

I did love that Mercy found her father. We can't really say they opened their hearts to each other but I liked that she understood where she came from and how they worked together to stop the monster. I would definitely have loved a reunion between her parents! Then I also loved how she and Adam got to spend so much time together and how the bond between them is now stronger.

Unfortunately the monster never really convinced me, I found it a bit cartoonish and I could definitely do without kids being victims. I also wanted the usual gang to show up at some point. So while there were things I loved, this book ended up not being as memorable as the others in the series.

Grade: 3.5/5