I loved Iron Kissed – and ditto here. I loved the way Mercy progresses – growing as she is – and i’m totally hooked on this entire series. The characters are complex and interesting – and I love getting to know them better as we move along.

How long do we need to wait for the next one? -:)

And it is well worth the money for the hardback!

Jane, I reread your remarks and realized that what you objected to about Mercy’s mom, wasn’t what I had worried about. And I put my thoughts into your review. Sigh. So everyone gets to see both of the things that are wrong.

I know all about the relationship between Mercy and her mom. But I’ve only told the readers just a very little bit — and I forgot just how little it was. I could have made this a little less unexpected. My apologies for throwing you out of the story.
Patty

Yep, Tracy, I know. The problem . . . and cool thing about writing a series is that I get to play with a lot of characters. And all characters cannot possibly appear in all the books without muddying the plots hopelessly — or worse, making it feel like each character must have their cameo appearance. I had A Lot of complaints because Stefan didn’t appear at all in Iron Kissed. Bone Crossed was his book.

Samuel gets his book in Silver Borne (next year), I promise. And Mercy and Adam will progress in their development, too. I am keeping this series in check and making sure it continues to be urban fantasy instead of paranormal romance (I have a lot of guys who tell me they put up with the romancy bits because they like the rest of it). It’s a balancing act and I’m doing my best to make it fun for us all.

If I have learned anything in the past fifteen years, it is that writing a book everyone likes is just not possible. (Maybe if your name is J K Rowling, but mine is not) I have to settle for writing what I like and hope that pleases enough readers that I can write the next one :) I hope that, if this one did not please some of you, that my next one will — and that you find something you like better in the meantime .There are a lot of terrific books out this month!

And Jane, about Mercy’s mom. You are absolutely right. From a writerly/craftsman’s perspective, I should have put off bringing her in until I had a balanced (beginning, middle and end) role for her to play. But I needed her for continuity/reality check (who would believe she wouldn’t come see Mercy after finding out she’d been hurt?). And I also needed her because who else would have the nerve to interrupt Adam and Mercy — and it had to be someone Adam wouldn’t kill Still, it could have been worked in better, I agree.

Best,
Patty Briggs

SPOILER concerning Sam in future books-

At Hurog – Mike let slip that Sam will find someone and she will come from a long lived race and we will meet her sometime in the future. Also the next book will deal with Sam ;D

Adam's daughter maybe?

Actually, this thought also popped into my head. Poor Samuel . . . if so, he’s got a bit of a wait.

I agree with Nifty about the POV, and wondered the same thing re: Adam’s first wife. First person makes a lot of sense for UF, and generally works for Mercy, but when the narrative is focused on the personal/relationships rather than the adventure or fantasy element, the lack of POV of other characters tends to leave a little bit of a hole. IMO.

The Kindle version has some extra line spacing but the story seems to be completely there. So glad Feb. has some good releases. Jan was basically a 2 book purchase month for me – pretty low and very sad.

Superb review and summation of the series!

I never considered buying it, not having read the earlier ones. In fact, the reviews of Iron Kissed were two of the pieces that sold me on this web site. Two reviews, both well written, articulating very different opinions on the same book. Since, like Jia, I’m a longtime sf/fantasy reader, and I very much share that particular “hot button.”