Storm Cursed is the eleventh book in the Mercy Thompson series and can only be read as part of the saga. Too much character and world building take place in earlier novels for this story to make sense to anyone who hasn’t read those tales. You have to really like a series to read that far into it, along with the adjacent narratives  (Alpha & Omega) that make up the Mercyverse and their various short stories.  I have read everything, which makes this a review by a fan for other fans. My grade reflects that.This review will contain spoilers for the books that came before it, as well as a tiny bit of information about a new crossover taking place between the Mercy Thompson series and the Alpha & Omega books.Ever since Mercy proclaimed the Tri-Cities under the protection of the pack, the werewolves have been called upon by the area’s denizens to handle all sorts of strange supernatural problems. Today’s difficulty is a bit out of the ordinary but still typical enough not to raise too many concerns: a goblin has moved into a local barn and of course the farmer wants it gone. Backed by two trusty lieutenants, fan favorites Mary Jo and Ben, and with a large assist from Goblin King Larry, Mercy is able to roust the annoying, murderous creature from its hidey-hole and advise the barn owner the area has been cleared. There’s more going on here but I’ll leave the reader to discover that for themselves.Just as she’s finishing tidying up that case Mercy receives another call: the Benton County Sheriff’s office is having trouble dealing with a marauding pack of miniature zombie goats. Mary Jo and Mercy head out to deal with this problem and discover it’s hiding a way bigger difficulty. A nasty band of witches have decided to come to town, bringing their cruel and appalling practice of black magic with them. They expect the pack to just let them take over, which shows just how little they understand about Mercy and her mate Adam.Fans of the series will remember that an important group of witches played a role in the last Alpha & Omega novel, Burn Bright. In this one, we learn a lot more about that coven and watch Mercy, Adam and the Columbia Basin Pack tangle with this new enemy. We also take a joyous - not! - walk through ongoing political struggles between the U.S. Government and the Gray Lords, and discover a new talent Mercy has been waiting for just the right moment to use.This story will make fans happy. We get to see our heroes kick paranormal butt, we hang out with old friends like Stefan, Sherwood, Zee, Tad, and Uncle Mike and old frenemies like Wulfe. We’ve got a nasty new enemy to hate and we find out about a new (to this series) mythical creature. Briggs’ world building is phenomenal and the universe she has created totally riveting. As always, I enjoyed the time I spent there.The full conundrum the wolves and their allies have to deal with is intriguing and engrossing. I was completely engaged by what was happening and absorbed by trying to figure out just how a resolution would be reached. Naturally, I was equally invested in figuring out how various ongoing threads in the Mercyverse were progressing. It was all thoroughly engaging and I ripped through the book in a day.Which means that the only reason this novel hasn’t received a higher grade is a problem that has cropped up in the last few books. They aren’t DIK novels. Don’t get me wrong, they are good stories and frankly, they are wonderful series books. Ms. Briggs has spent thirteen years creating an exceptional paranormal realm and peopling it with awesome characters and fascinating creatures. However, if Storm Cursed had been the first book in the series rather than the eleventh, I would have been far less impressed than I was by my initial encounter with the Mercyverse. These newer narratives just aren’t quite as compelling as the earlier works. That they are as terrific as they are is a testament to the author’s amazing talent but I just don’t feel the last few have been DIK quality. And again, this far into a series, I am not expecting that and am deeply thankful that they are as great and as much fun as they have been.Additionally, Mercy is becoming too much of a Mary Sue. There is no challenge she and her friends can’t rise to, no enemy too great for them to defeat. The discovery of a new talent of Mercy’s  is just one of the recent  deus ex machina devices the author has resorted to in order to remind us how awesome our heroine is. I don’t need a character to be Wonder Woman for me to love her and I wish we were seeing more growth in other aspects of Mercy’s personality rather than just her awesome fighting capabilities and magical talents.Storm Cursed is a must read for its intended audience, and will be a page-turning pleasure for fans. As stated before, it is definitely not the place to begin if you aren’t familiar with the series – that would be book one, the outstanding Moon Called – but I promise by the time you work your way through the excellent beginning novels and get to this one, you will be quite delighted with Storm Cursed.Buy it at: Amazon/Apple Books/Barnes & Noble/KoboVisit our Amazon Storefront

Another great installment in the Mercy Thompson series. You would think that it might be hard to get into it as the last one was 2 years ago but it was fairly easy. Action, adventure, good and evil and a little romance thrown in for flavor.

Zombie miniature goats, black magic witches...and another exciting adventure with Mercy Thompson. Always a fun series, and a very fast read. Many thanks to NetGalley and Ace Books for the opportunity to read the eARC.

I AM SCREAMING

That is all.

That's the review.

Okay, I'll give it a couple more—this picks up from Silence Fallen and is just as twisty fantastic, and proves that Mercy Thompson is one of the few series that only continues to deliver—and deliver hard with each installation. There's more danger, more creepy scariness from human and not-human, and Mercy almost dies (as per usual). I really can't say anything else without it having be one giant spoiler, but maybe I can leave a couple vague words.

Here be witches.

Miniature zombie goats.

Or is it miniature goat zombies?

Either way, they were both creepy and adorable.

I received this ARC from NetGalley for an honest review.

Storm Cursed by Patricia Briggs
I absolutely loved this installment of the Mercy Thompson Series! Mercy and Adam are working to mediate a meeting between the human government and the Gray Lords. While Adam's company provides security, Mercy is to find a location that will make both parties happy. Meanwhile, a coven of witches works to stop them and take over their territory. I loved getting to see many of the familiar characters again. Ben (and his potty mouth), Zee and Tad, Stefan and Marsilia, and even Wulfe and his craziness. I laughed several times during this story and the action was satisfying. Another great adventure by Patricia Briggs and I can't wait for more!

I just have one question. What did Coyote mean at the end of Storm Cursed?

Arg, I wish I understood him. He's such a mystery. He's powerful, a trickster, very smart and he loves his daughter, Mercy, even though he has a weird way of showing it.

The Mercyverse is one of my favorite places to go back to. I adore Mercy and Adam. After this many years, Patricia Briggs has demonstrated that a couple can be together and still attract readers without the need for an unnecessary love triangle. To this day, Iron Kissed is still one of my favorite books.

Also, I love the side characters like Stephan, Zee, Sherwood Post, Tad, Joel, Ben, Wulfe, Larry (Goblin King), etc. I wish we could spend more time with each of them. They are fantastic! Mercy keeps on bringing on strays that make her life so much more interesting (and deadly..LOL).

When I start a new Mercy book, I always wonder where Mrs. Briggs is going to take her this time. Yes, Mercy has been hurt and almost killed so many times but she's fast, resourceful and she has learned to trust her mate and friends to help her out. She continues to grow as a character. She's my girl crush.

Storm Cursed is mostly about witches. Bad witches. Black Magic witches. Mercy is not a fan. She knows they are trouble and she must intervene. She must do it. Her job is to help the humans and the Fae meet without the witches killing them all.

I hated those Bad. Bad. Witches.

Storm Cursed is full of action, intrigue, suspense, and amazing characters. Unputtable down. The stories are only getting better.

Cliffhanger: no

4.5/5 Fangs

Another epic installment from Patrica Briggs. I love this series. More often than not, a series gets old after a few books and they're not worth reading anymore, but This series just keeps getting better. Another adventure under my belt.

Mercy has to deal with some pretty powerful witches this time. A witch that can raise an army of zombie goats... Yes, you heard me right. When a book starts off with zombie goats it has to be good. We follow our favorite main character as she tries to find out who the witch is and what they want. Of course there is a lot of paranormal creatures to make the story interesting and Mercy does her usual butt kicking. You will need to read this one.

Received an advance reader copy in exchange for a fair review.

Patricia Briggs always brings great story telling to her Mercy Thompson series.

Storm Cursed begins not too long after the events of Silence Fallen. Elizavetta has not yet returned from Europe and another coven of witches is moving in on her territory. This is all happening just as Mercy, Adam and the pack are being brought in to help set up the negotiations between the Fae and the U.S. Government.

As a reminder, in Fire Touched not only have the Fae realized their mistake in retreating to their reservations. As a group that it not too happy with their own kind, dragging them together into tight quarters isn’t working out for them very well and they want to return to their old lives among the humans, they just can’t afford to lose face or power to the Government.

That was also the story where Mercy declared, in front of TV cameras, that the Tri-Cities and everyone who lived in it were under the protection of the Columbia Basin Pack. It is one of the reasons both the Fae and the Government want to have their negotiations in Adam’s territory.

Also in Fire Touched, Mercy’s garage burned down and the new garage has finally been completed. I was very excited to see Zee and Tad back in the garage with Mercy. I really like Zee.

Back to the witches, this is same faction of witches which we also saw in the last Alpha & Omega book, Burn Bright. They are creating zombies just outside of the pack’s territory. Whether this is a test to see if the pack will come out to take care of things or to get them away from Elizevetta’s coven, or simply a power play against the Pack that would declare its city a safe harbor, is a good question.

No question that between the zombies which keep popping up and trying the placate the Government bigwigs and the Fae Gray Lords, and trying to get back to work at the garage, Mercy (and the pack) are too busy to realize that there is more to the zombie-making witches then simply trying to keep the talks from happening. By the time they realize that these witches are making a power play against Elizavetta, they have already been sucking a great deal of magical power out of Elizavetta’s witches.

We also hear constantly that as Coyote’s daughter, chaos always finds Mercy but in book after book (except for the last one were Mercy is abducted), it is Mercy who seems to come to the wolf-pack’s rescue. Just saying.

Witches, zombies, fae, werewolves and the government — there is a lot going on here to keep the excitement level high, we also get to spend time with some of our favorite characters, such as Zee and Stefan. I loved that Mercy is forced to seek help from the one person she avoids most in the Tri-Cities and how the happenings of this story will definitely effect future stories. I can’t wait to see what happens in the next one.

I love both the Mercy Thompson and the Alpha & Omega series and simply can’t get enough of either of them.

I really enjoyed this entry in the Mercedes Thompson series which delves more into the world of witches. While I've enjoyed others in the series this particular addition felt more like a stand alone (even though there are many elements that you need to have read the rest of the series to understand). This felt more like a complete tale than others.

As always this series left me easily spellbound.

The book’s 384 pages flew by like nothing. With the author’s customary skill of weaving captivating stories, Storm Cursed was a thrilling ride from beginning to end.

While reading Storm Cursed, I was again reminded of how much I enjoy the author’s use of old and beloved characters instead of introducing a slew of new ones. Last book’s stint in Europe didn’t give me enough pack interaction, I’m happy to say Storm Cursed delivered in spades.

Indene adventurous event spilled over into the next one. Mercy had barely time to take a breath before she was called on again. It was endearing how Mercy always picked different pack members and allies to help her with her daily escapades. There wasn’t a boring minute in this book.

The overall storyline about the peace treaty between human and fae, with the werewolf pack as neutral ground, moved somewhat forward but there is still so much to be resolved. Especially since with each book new questions arise. Nevertheless I’m getting more intrigued with each book.

My favorite parts were a few wonderful scenes between Adam and Mercy – they just underscored how well those two are doing as a couple.

As always the book was well written, and I enjoyed the author’s smart and witty dialogues. The novel had some laugh out loud moments, and made it easy to be read in one sitting (actually two, evening and morning, but who is counting – lol).

One of the reasons why I love UF series so much, is the way they allow the reader to connect with the main couple for more than just one book. A series that focuses on one couple allows the characters to develop over time, as well as relationships, like Adam and Mercy’s – which a single book just couldn’t do it justice. Just to think of how far Mercy has come. Having Adam as a mate, having a pack and family – she has come a long way.

This is an excellent addition to the Mercy Thompson series and starts tying together pieces from both of the werewolf series. I enjoyed this one so much, I reread it almost immediately. Briggs is not afraid to throw in some great plot twists or say goodbye to long term characters. The worst thing about this book was realizing how long I have to wait until the next book comes along.

I devoured this book in two days, and it would have been sooner if I didn’t have to go to work!

I have given all of Patricia Briggs books in the Mercy Thompson series, five stars (except for book 10, which was four stars), but with book 11, she is back to writing in her fast, action packed style, that I love.

You would think with a book, and series, that I enjoy so much, I would go on and on about this book, but I don’t want to give any spoilers away if you’re a fan of this series. And if you’ve never read this series before, you really should start with the first one, Moon Called. But buy this one right now to help with author sales, so the series is able to continue!!!

Briggs does so much fantastic character development, that by starting with the first book, you can enjoy what an amazing job she does. And by starting with Moon Called, you’ll also be able to relish the wonderful world of werewolves, vampires, witches, and fae that she builds.

I will squee about one thing though, baby goat zombies.

Briggs stepped up her game and brought an action-packed tale as witches descend on the Tri-Cities and before all is said and done Mercy will discover another of her abilities.

Action-packed and plot-driven, Storm Cursed by Patricia Briggs grabbed me and never let go.

Full review will post @ Caffeinated Reviewer on May 6th. I will share it on social media, Goodreads and Amazon. Link provided below.

Look, I like Mercy a lot. And this was a fairly enjoyable adventure. It's just that... what I like in fantasy is world-building and character development and the later installments of this series have jumped from huge plot event from huge plot event with no downtime. I was interested in some of the revelations in this book, particularly toward the end, and I think it sets up some potentially cool plot developments for future installments but it definitely felt less like a stand-alone story than I prefer from series I read.

Nearly a dozen books in, readers might expect to be rehashing the same old stuff, but not so for Patricia Briggs's latest installment in the Mercy Thompson series. Storm Cursed is busy with things that have just been on the fringe of Mercy's radar before: witches and politics. While Adam is busy handling an important supposedly-secret meeting between the American government and the fae, Mercy is on the trail of a band of black witches who are turning loose zombies in the area that she has claimed--albeit inadvisably--as her own. When the two things overlap, the mystery grows even weirder.

Fans of Laurell K. Hamilton will see a great deal of similarity to her books in Storm Cursed, though minus the sexploits. Mercy spends a lot of time in her own head and drawing the admiration of all and sundry while she inefficiently handles the things that go bump in the night. Appropriately enough, she even drives the Scooby van for what is reminiscent of an episode of Scooby Doo--only for Mercy, the monsters are real.

Patricia Briggs books inhabit that area of the library stacks that I infrequently visit. But I have to say that I may be becoming a fan. Her characters, vampires, werewolves, witches and trolls etc. seem fresh in this story of loyalty, betrayal, acceptance, and bigotry. The author keeps things moving briskly, scenes of battle are well executed. She tells her latest story without losing the fledgling reader with too much inside info. or over describing previous events. Her supernatural characters and situations really just read as natural and real, just folk trying to live their lives under somewhat un-natural circumstances. I think that it makes her story all the more engaging.

Wow, this latest book about our favourite Coyote, was intense and full of action. I really enjoyed it. The plot concerns the packs involvement in the meetings between the human government and the Fae, with trouble being brewed by dark witches. I highly recommend it!

What an on-the-edge of the seat book! A fantastic entry in this long-running series that follows Mercy Thompson and her run-ins with witches, fae, and politicians (oh my!). The action stays close to home and it moves fast. It was wonderful visiting Mercy, Adam, the rest of the Columbia Basin pack, and their good friends.

Stormed Cursed by Patricia Briggs was one of my most highly awaited books this year and she did not disappoint. As always, her writing style amazed me with its attention to details that describe both characters’ body language and emotions in a way that makes them easily relatable or disliked as intended by the author. What stands out the most is this attention to writing with a psychological mindedness that is absent from many books I have read.

Mercy Thompson is taking on witches in the latest book in this series and I couldn’t put this book down due to the action and suspense. I always love to see the development of Patricia Briggs characters and she never fails in that aspect, especially when it comes to revealing more and more about what makes Mercy Thompson a force to be reckoned with.

And if that isn’t enough, the world that Mercy has built has become one that I often wished I lived in. I love her unique perspective on the interaction between species and the political play between them. I feel as if I can both see and hear the world she built when I read each book and the imagery is something my mind can’t help but yearn to be a part of.

The only criticism I have for this book is that I wish it never ended.

If I had never picked up a Patricia Briggs book, I would still grab this one because the artwork on the cover is stunning. I look forward to seeing and reading the next book in this series.

Every time I start a new Mercy Thompson title I am never disappointed. After all these years, Mercy is still utterly relatable. And her relationship with Adam - AMAZING! Every books makes me care even more deeply for them. This installment was about black magic witches, and I could not have been more excited about it! And there were zombie goats - what more does a story need! But really, this was a great story that makes readers examine the corruptibility of humans, and how betrayal can cut deeper than we can imagine. I highly recommend this series to all my fellow urban fantasy lovers, and i hope it continues for years to come.