Patricia Briggs: Silver Borne

• ISBN-13: 9780441019960
• Publisher: Penguin Group (USA)
• Publication date: 1/25/2011
• Series: Mercy Thompson Series , #5
• Format: Mass Market Paperback
• Pages: 304

 When Mercy Thompson, mechanic and shape-shifter, attempts to return a powerful fae book she previously borrowed in an act of desperation, she finds the bookstore locked up and closed down. 
 It seems the book contains secrets - and the fae will do just about anything to keep it out of the wrong hands. And if that doesn't take enough of Mercy's attention, her friend Samuel is struggling with his wolf side - leaving Mercy to cover for him lest his own father declare Samuel's life forfeit. 
 All in all, Mercy has had better days. And if she isn't careful, she may not have many more... 
 Mercy Thompson is, hands down, one of my favorite heroines of all time. OF ALL TIME. She's badass, she's brave, she's independent. But in this book she learns something else that we haven't really seen from her yet: she learns that it's okay to lean on someone else and be the weak one for a while. Having spent the last four months immersed in Supernatural, I find this message particularly meaningful after watching Dean Winchester struggle to take all the blame and responsibility of the world on his own shoulders and sacrifice himself for others time and again. OKAY that went where it wasn't meant to go, but the point is, I appreciated Mercy's development all the more because of my Supernatural feels.
 In this installment of her saga, Mercy's dealing with pack and fae bullshit. The pack, being a bunch of mostly old-fashioned dogs, essentially, are having a little trouble accepting a coyote shifter as their Alpha's mate. Since Adam and Mercy are still on precarious ground after her rape of two novels ago, they haven't really taken the time to figure out the dynamics of the magical pack bond that Mercy now has to deal with. Prime time for messing with Mercy's head. Throw in Samuel's mental breakdown (he's very old and very lonely) and you have a recipe for oh-man. And a major plot twist for our favorite white wolf toward the end.
 Also, the fae are after her, again. Although it's not the Gray Lords and it's not a group of fae so much as it's one fae in particular throwing a wretch of a wrench into her life, so that's a plus. Zee's son, Tad, asks Mercy to check in on a mutual friend, and hijinks naturally ensue.
 As I've already kind of intimated, the developing relationship between Mercy and Adam is my favorite part of this novel. Every time something happens to Mercy, Adam climbs the walls and has a freak out, and I, damsel at heart that I am, love to see a man lose his cool when his love is in danger. And since he's a wolf, that means a whole lot more. He has a few this novel, mostly because of the issues with the pack bond, but Mercy handles them supremely and actually talks it out with him, which is a major step in any relationship. So rah-rah on that front. AND BRAN AND CHARLES. They show up briefly and basically any chance to see Bran has me cheering from the rafters.
 Overall: A
 It wasn't as completely action packed as the other novels, but it definitely kept me on the edge of my seat with a ton of "will-he-or-won't-he" situations. Or she. There were a lot. The mystery also had an interesting twist.