Shifting Shadows
by Patricia Briggs
★★★★★
Expectation
I’ve taken my time reading this short story collection. For years I owned it I only read two stories and one of those I did read I kept coming back to more than once. Every time I read a new Mercyverse book I get really excited and want to read more. Sadly my waiting time between the books sometimes extends for over a year since I buy mass market paperback editions with US publisher covers. This can sometimes influence my reading interest. Last Mercyverse book I’ve read was earlier this year – Burn Bright of the Alpha & Omega book series.
Summary
This time I decided to read all the stories from the first one. The first story kinda gave me trouble since it set the pace for all the others. In comparison to the other stories, this one is a longer and kinda darker. All the stories have some heartwarming elements among the darker themes and characters, but the first one ended a bit frustratingly to me. And this I believe is the reason I had trouble to keep reading the stories in order. The stories are also set in a timeline with the book series. They mostly follow characters that don’t get to tell the stories from their point of view in the both book series – Mercedes Thompson book series and Alpha & Omega book series. Notable exceptions are: Alpha and Omega story that is an introduction to Alpha & Omega book series and the Hollow story which is a short story with Mercy as the main character.
- Silver – Melancholy but worth it! This short insight into Bran and Samuel’s past raised more questions than it actually answered.
- Fairy Gifts – I loved the angsty feel of this story. The characters had a very short page time but seemed so alive to me. It was short and sweet.
- Grey – Loved it. Kinda romantic vampire theme. Awesome read for October and November!
- Seeing Eye – This story reminded me how much I enjoy the author’s writing style. The story was full of anticipation for me. I had forgotten how these characters fit into the Mercy Thompson universe. Their intro story was bittersweet. I loved it. I would love to read more on them.
- Alpha and Omega – I first read this story in On the Prowl collection years ago. It was an amazing introduction to a new series. Since then I’ve came back to reading this story many times. There is something about it that makes it special for me. For a very long time this story has been an only story I’ve read in Shifting Shadows collection.
- The Star of David – I sometimes forget that the world the author created is so rich in supernatural elements and the Wizard in this story took me a little by surprise. The story was kinda melancholy but full of positivity.
- Roses in Winter – I’m glad that Kara got some spotlight but reading about Asil was a pleasure in on itself. It was an experience to revisit Asil as a character especially since he’s been having more appearances in Alpha and Omega series as well. It has also been great to see how Bran runs the packs.
- In red, with pearls – Warren is such a lovable character. This story had me expecting some noir detective plot. I thought the story was very intriguing.
- Redemption – There are so many opposites about Ben and how his character reacts. I enjoyed this story. The IT theme was cool and I loved it.
- Hollow – From all the stories this one seemed a bit unpolished. I guess all the other characters were so much engaging to read since they were presented form a different perspective. This is the only story that has a character of Mercy as a leading character. I guess I expect longer and more complicated stories when Mercy is involved.
Two bonus scenes:
Silver Borne bonus with Samuel and Ariana was a pleasure to read. I kinda missed not being able to read more about them getting together again. A background info on them just going off on a honeymoon was definitely not enough.
Night Broken bonus with Adam and Coyote with Mercy in the hospital was unbelievably sweet!
Conclusion
It took me by surprise how easily I can get into these stories and how a completely unknown character can seem so close. These characters are so easy to relate to and to understand their motivation. I think this collection serves to make a rich supernatural world the author has built even better and more layered. It is great to see how much effort the author puts in all her characters. I loved this short story collection and I’m glad I finally read it! Another thing that surprised me that I loved all the stories!
I have two new books from Mercyverse to look forward to:
Storm Cursed ( Mercy Thompson Series book 11)
Smoke Bitten ( Mercy Thompson Series book 12)
I’ve pre-ordered Storm Cursed and the mass market edition I go for is coming out in by the end of January next year. Smoke Bitten is being published in March as a hardcover edition and I will be waiting for it to come out as a mass market paperback probably sometime next year…
anastasiaadamov 