Woman Reading (is away exploring)'s Reviews > Bone Crossed

3.5 ☆ rounded up

My soul was a lot more battered than my body, but I couldn't see it in the mirror. Hopefully no one else could either.

Mercy Thompson has faced many life threatening situations in the past year, but events in Iron Kissed #3 truly rattled her psyche. Bones Crossed picks up Mercy's story the same hour in which book #3 ended. Briggs addresses her mini cliffhanger and then returns to the secrets from the ending of book #2 Blood Bound. It isn't absolutely vital to read the preceding three books as these books are episodic. The reading experience, however, would be richer (and a little repetitive) for doing so as Briggs begins to link up her previous storylines.

One of the oddest things about being grown-up was looking back at something you thought you knew and finding out the truth of it was completely different from what you had always believed.

Big changes are afoot in Mercy's personal life. She finally chooses her man (view spoiler)[Adam (hide spoiler)] even though she's leery of losing the other man from her life. And Mercy more than doubles the number of people to worry about when an ominous image of crossed bones is painted on her garage door. Even her police friend observes that the crossed bones remind him of Mafia hits. In her early 30s, Mercy decides that a temporary retreat may be the better part of valor.

People who know other people’s secrets can’t afford to do things that impair their ability to control their mouths.

She visits an old college acquaintance who claims that her house in Spokane has a ghost bothering her son. Although why Mercy chooses this destination given her own instincts about coincidences seems a touch naive. The scoop is that Spokane's only supernatural presence is one vampire. What's also odd is that paranoid Adam lets her leave town without any bodyguards. Surely, Mercy couldn't get into any trouble...

But if Mercy does, she still has resources. Mercy may have questioned Stefan, despite their long friendship, after the events in Blood Bound, but Stefan is not abandoning her. And a magical walking stick of Fae origin persists in following Mercy.

I'm enjoying this series, but I have a quibble. One thing I don't like in an UF is when the main protagonist conveniently acquires superpowers over the course of the series. Briggs is doing a variation on this by giving the unusual powers to "established" supernatural villains. In Briggs' case, it means vampires that differ from the norm - such as the supercharged demon-ridden vampire from book #2 and the vampire villain and vampire magic used at the Fae tavern in this installment. Because the Fae category extends over many varieties, it would seem likelier to me that the Fae, more so than vampires, have the magical superpowers.


#0.3 Homecoming 3 ☆
#1 Moon Called 3.5 ☆
#2 Blood Bound 4 ☆
#3 Iron Kissed 4 ☆
#5 Silver Borne 3.5 ☆
#6 River Marked 4 ☆
#7 Frost Burned 3.5 ☆
#7.5 Hopcross Jilly 3.5 ☆
#8 Night Broken 4 ☆
#9 Fire Touched 3.5 ☆
#10 Silence Fallen almost 4☆
#11 Storm Cursed 4 ☆
#12 Smoke Bitten 3 ☆