Cry Wolf

Well, a few minutes ago I finished Cry Wolf, book 1 of the Alpha & Omega series by Patricia Briggs. I have to say, I was surprised. I went into this book thinking that this series was just going to be another Mercy Thompson book with different characters and I could not possibly have been more wrong.

In the Mercy Thompson series, we are familiar with the Adam & Mercy dynamic. Quite frankly, they’re meant for each other. But Mercy is a stubborn shit who doesn’t want that kind of control over her (as Adam is his pack’s alpha). She’s not a wolf and having been raised by the Marrok, she’s no stranger to pack politics. And she wants none of it. Well, the magnetic pull that she and Adam have with each other is undeniable. However, it’s not sexually based. They are yin and yang. Perfect puzzle pieces just meant to go together (Get your mind out of the gutter, ladies! That wasn’t meant to be dirty!). Forget sparks. These two have fireworks!!

Now we meet Anna and Charles. Charles is the Marrok’s son. Well, one of them Samuel is the other, who we are familiar with from the Mercy books. Charles is soooooooo not Sam. He’s quiet. He’s reserved. He’s like a big teddy bear. A big teddy bear that happens to be the Marrok’s enforcer/hit man. When he gets sent to Chicago to take care of a little problem with one of their packs, he meets Anna and his wolf instantly picks hers as his mate. Slight problem there, though. Anna is damaged in a big way. Thanks to her dick head pack members, she believes that pack life is much different than it really is – involving way to much violence and even rape.

Because his wolf has picked her wolf as mate, Charles is hooked. He doesn’t have much choice in the matter. He’s on a mission to protect her from ever being hurt again. By anyone. Where Mercy and Adam had fireworks, Anna and Charles have a soft warm glow that grows more and more intense as the book progresses. However, it always remains a warm glow. Their story is sweet.

Anna is one of the most fragile characters I have ever read. I am not normally the coddling type but after reading what she went through in On the Prowl (Alpha and Omega prequel – see below to read my review) and then further explanation in this book, I fell so in love with her character. I could totally understand why Charles wanted to protect her so badly. Half way through this book, if I could have, I would happily have curled up on a couch with her and just let her cry on my shoulder. Her story is just heart breaking and watching poor Charles struggle through trying to make her understand that she’s in no danger is kind of tough to read. That man deserves a frikkin cookie!

And of course, it couldn’t be a Patricia Briggs novel without a good mystery to back it. I don’t want to get into any detail about the mystery part of it because anything I say will give away a piece of the answer. I will say that although the mystery to this book has great back story, it was losing my interest a bit towards the end. It just felt very dragged out. However, once you get over that hump at the tale end of the mystery, the book has a wonderful ending that you won’t want to miss!

Even with my little hang up at the end of this installment, I will most definitely be proceeding with the series. The sweetness of the Anna and Charles story is enough to make me come back for more. I am interested in seeing their relationship grow. I am also very intrigued by some of the goings on with the Marrok. We learn a LOT more about Bran in this book than we ever did in the Mercy books and I am VERY intrigued.

Overall, I am giving Cry Wolf 4 stars! A good solid book that was very entertaining!

I love every book I’ve read by Patricia Briggs. This is no exception.

Patricia Briggs is the queen of character. When people talk about character-driven stories, her books are what I think of. In Cry Wolf, she focuses on Anna and Charles, two werewolves that I met briefly in Briggs’ Mercy Thompson series. Charles is an alpha wolf, and the enforcer for his father’s pack (his father being the leader of all werewolves in North America). Anna is an Omega, which seems to mean she is somehow outside the pack hierarchy and has the ability to calm any werewolf’s tendency toward violence. Cry Wolf is basically the story of how Anna and Charles hook up, which, in my mind, shifts the book more to the paranormal romance side of things than the urban fantasy I’m used to from Briggs’ other series.

The book starts in medias res, in the middle of a story. In some ways I like that kind of opening because it gets you right into things, but this one was a little too far in. It felt like the book started right after the climax of a missing story of which we gain bits and pieces through backstory as Anna deals with the aftermath. There were enough unexplained references that it left me a little off-balance, like I’d somehow picked up the second book in the series without noticing. (I didn’t, I checked. Twice.)

The plot was straightforward enough, Charles and Anna hunt a rogue werewolf together but find something even more dangerous. Briggs used the environment to great effect, isolating the characters in an unforgiving winter wilderness. As always, Briggs does a marvelous job of showing rather than telling, and proves she knows her craft well. The whole story was woven through with details that revealed the personalities and backstories of the characters in such a way that I was burning through pages. Having met some of the characters from Briggs’ other series, I was eager to learn more about them, especially Bran, but I think even someone picking the book up cold would have no problem connecting with the characters. My favorite character was actually Walter, who I’d never met before.

I liked that Anna and Charles were both working through issues, but found it odd that they were required to be together from the very beginning and were just trying to figure out how to make it work. It was very different from the clash of personalities that eventually turn into passion I’m more used to. I also felt a little cheated at the climax, things just fell into place a little too easily. That’s not to say I didn’t enjoy it, I just think more could have been done with it. The resolution didn’t leave me with much tension, so I didn’t get that itch to run out and buy the next book I often experience at the end of a story. That said, I’ll happily read the next one if I come across it.

I’d recommend this book for anyone who likes paranormal romance and fans of Mercy Thompson.

So I’ve started reading On the Prowl and Cry Wolf after I’ve read the Mercy Thompson series and comparing it to Mercy Thompson, which in my opinion is an amazing series, I’ll have to say that I liked Cry Wolf even better. Not that it’s anything wrong with Mercy Thompson, like I’ve said, it’s an amazing series of books and I love it a lot. But Cry Wolf (including On the Prowl) however is much more fast paced and starts right of filled with romance. And who doesn’t love romance?

In the Mercy Thompson series we get to meet a lot of the characters like Charles, Bran, Asil and even a few mentions of Anna, but we never really get the chance to learn or follow any of these character much. Luckily, the awesome author Patricia Briggs felt sorry enough for us to start with the Alpha and Omega series and thank god for that! In these books we get to follow all of these character, learn their relationships and watch them develop. I’m especially happy with the romance and drama we got from the book, since the Mercy Thompson series don’t have as much of that and is a bit slower until we actually get it. On the Prowl and Cry Wolf starts of pretty much right away with it as soon as Charles and Anna meet. What makes it even better is the drama; the baggage Anna caries that she and Charles has to get past together and all their twists and turns. It’s just makes their relationship more realistic and way more exciting!

Since Cry Wolf is a series based on Mercy Thompson I recommend that you read Mercy Thompson first, because in my experience it makes this book better, when you recognize and are more familiar characters, places and facts (in this case werewolf facts) from the first series. Of course you can start with this series as well without reading Mercy Thompson, since it holds up greatly on its own. It is after all just loosely based on the first series.

This book was so difficult to read. Barely 20% in and I was introduced an innumerable quantity of characters. While the story got better, it seemed as if the author had trouble getting her thoughts to gel. There is one sex scene but it’s not very graphic. Those interesting in less steam would appreciate this read but if you don’t like “busy” stories skip thru to maybe 50%? It eventually gets a little better.

I love this series! Such a good book!

I loved it the first time I read it and a few years later I went back and read it again. Perfect!

I really enjoyed this book and the others in this series.

An early aloha-omega book. Worth reading if you’re into that series

Every book of hers is an adventure