Cover Image: Wild Sign

Wild Sign

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Another fantastic read. I always feel sorry for the book I read after Ms. Briggs books. I enjoy the relationship between Charles and Anna. I also liked finding out more about Bran and Leah's relationship and how they got together. Charles and Anna do of course solve the issue that confronts them in this book.

Thank you to the author, publisher and NetGalley for my eARC in exchange for an honest review. - This is one of the best authors writing!

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Another stellar installment in the Alpha & Omega series! Charles, Anna, Tag, Bran, and Leah are all heavily featured with interesting developments abounding.

If you are a fan of this series you must read this now.
If you haven't read either this series or her Mercy Thompson books, but you *are* a fan of well-written modern fantasy that takes realistic consequences into account, what have you been waiting for? Prepare to empty your wallet or really exercise your library card now!

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Reading a Briggs book always feels like a warm hug.

This is one of my favorite urban fantasy series. And it’s one of the rare few that I don’t complain about the story being dragged out too long. Each novel (both Mercy and Alpha & Omega) adds just a little more depth to the series. The new supernatural beings introduced in each book are always fun to read about, but the real draw is any new information we learn about the Marrok and his pack. There are so many great characters to expand on, it’s easy to see how this series has been able to sustain itself for so long.

In Wild Sign we got to explore the past of Leah, a character who has been a complete enigma up to this point. Her backstory was fascinating and I love that I can go forward knowing a little more about what makes her tick. By extension, we also learned more about Bran in this novel which is a huge bonus. It’s actually kind of funny that I’m so exited about the revelations for these two characters considering they weren’t even the stars of the show.

I heard Patricia Briggs talk about how she comes up with stories at an author signing (which, by the way, was the single best author interaction I’ve ever had. If you have a chance to make one of her events, go! She’s so kind). She starts by giving the characters a problem, then stays in tune with them as she writes to see how they’re going to solve it. In this case the problem was something making the residents of Wild Sign disappear… I’ll leave it at that. I always love the mystery element in her stories. It makes for an engaging, page-turning experience as the characters reason things out and make discoveries. And something about the settings lately have been giving me a modern-day western vibe, which is fun.

This particular book had some cool revelation, but it didn’t advance the plot of the overall series to any significant degree. It did, however, provide some good foreshadowing of what’s to come, for which I’m excited.

Recommendations: this is one of my favorite urban fantasy series for a reason. They’re fun, engaging books with great characters, good mysteries, and decent action, adding more depth with each book. I’d strongly recommend reading Mercy Thompson and Alpha & Omega in tandem by publication date, as the overall arc of the series progresses in both series.

Niki Hawkes - The Obsessive Bookseller

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It started with a song. A song Leah was humming under her breath. A song she couldn't remember and yet couldn't forget. And then the pack was alerted by the FBI to the disappearance of an entire community that was living off the grid in Northern California. They named themselves "Wild Sign" and happened to be squatting on land owned by the Marrok's pack. Land that has a connection to Leah. It was in that very area when mourning Charles's mother that Bran first found Leah and made her his mate. Therefore they will be the ones to look into "Wild Sign." It is decided that Charles, Anna, and another werewolf, Tag, will go and investigate. Thanks to some supernatural locals that Tag knew they hear how that entire area was avoided by their kind. There are runes carved into the trees. Warning signs. Signs the community should have heeded once Charles and Anna make the discovery that the community was made up of witches. Which makes their complete disappearance even more disconcerting. These people weren't defenseless. These people were powerful. Any idea that they just got up one day and left is soon dismissed. The items they left behind, powerful magical objects, would not have been abandoned. This was no longer a rescue mission. The inhabitants of "Wild Sign" were dead. Now it was time to find out what exactly happened to them so their deaths could be avenged. Anna is the first to fall under the oppressive force within the forest. It starts out with a song and soon strips her of her present and traps her in the past. A past more horrible than most people have to deal with. But this evil knows what it's doing. It knows what it wants. And Charles, Anna, and Tag don't have the first clue. But Leah does.

Patricia Briggs is my ride or die. I adore her series. But I'm not blindly following her praising everything she's written, as an artist myself that's not constructive or conducive to getting better so if I wouldn't want to be treated as such and I will never treat another in that way. So there's occasionally a book by Patty that doesn't reach the heights of the others. I find this most common in her Alpha and Omega series. There's no middle ground here. Unlike the steady terrain of Mercy Thompson I either adore or dislike the Alpha and Omega books. It's the two ends of the spectrum, love or hate, and of all Patty's books, I've loved some of Anna and Charles's adventures more than any other books out there. I mean, Burn Bright!?! Damn! But this, right here, this is the price. A book I don't like. And yes, at times I did hate it, but oddly enough this time it's to do with me. In fact my dislike of Dead Heat might be down to me too... I just can't deal with those creepy little children that are dressed like western themed pageant kids, pink rhinestones and all, riding their horses. Shudder. So yes, it might all be me. I know it is this time. My problems with Wild Sign are all to do with the suffering I've had to deal with this past year. In fact I had to forewarn one of my friends who is a fellow Patty devotee before I posted my rating of Wild Sign because I thought she'd go into shock. Because I was a little shocked myself. But she got it. She understood that in the past year I'd lost my mother and I'd lost my home and because of this there's just some things I can't handle. My mother spent years in a skilled nursing home because of her Parkinson's, and seeing as I don't want to spoil anything for you, just know that my experiences because of this made me unable to handle certain plot points. Like seriously unable to. I almost felt like I needed a trigger warning and I'm usually not that kind of person. I know one day I will enjoy this book, it has so many wonderful reveals we devoted fans have waited years for, I gasped at some of them, but for the moment, this book just isn't for me.

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I received a copy for review from Netgalley. If you are new to Patricia Briggs, I would not recommend this as the starting point. This book is very much a continuation of events that occurred in previous books, and if you have not read the rest of the series (or haven't read them for a while), you will spend the first quarter of the book lost. It has been at least a year since I'd read the book before this, and I had no memory of the events they referenced, which did take me out of the story. However, once I got past that point, it was very easy to sink into this story. Anna and Charles are a formidable pair, and I've enjoyed seeing their relationship deepen over the years. They worked very well together during their investigation into the missing town, and Tag was a good foil for the pair, Without spoilers, I was excited to finally get the backstory of a character who had been in the series from the beginning, and it was about darn time. There were some moments of suspense, and discussion of Anna's past traumas, so trigger warnings are needed. Overall, this was an enjoyable and well written entry into the Alpha and Omega series. If you are a fan, I would recommend a quick review of previous books first, but this would definitely be worth the effort.

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I always enjoy Charles and Anna's adventures. This one I liked because we finally get a little background detail about Leah and Bran's relationship/history. Leah has always been an unknown, mostly. This is basically her origin story. It also brings an understanding to her relationship with Bran. We even get a glimpse into Sherwood's history. The creature in this story is perhaps the most difficult one Charles and Anna have ever had to face. They may not come out of it the same. Brother Wolf is out in force in this book, as Anna is vulnerable and in great danger. He is always an interesting character to behold. Fans will even get a tiny glimpse of Mercy. The ending promises a whole new adventure in itself. Can't wait to see what will happen next. Overall, I enjoyed this edition to the series.

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Anna and Charles accompanied by Tag drive down to California to find out what happened to a group that set up a town in the wilds on land belonging to Leah Cornick, the mate of Bran, the Marrock. Along the way, Leah's backstory is partially revealed, plenty of witches are encountered along with Sasquatches, and a would-be-god to fight and destroy. Coyote plays a part in the last chore, before answering a few questions. Then came to kicker of an ending. The next books are going to be very interesting!

Thanks Netgalley for allowing me to read this title!

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This was a great addition to the series. Charles and Anna constantly reaffirm the luck they had finding each other.

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Similar with Patricia Briggs's Mercy Thompson books, I think starting from the beginning of the Alpha & Omega series is vital; the novella from On the Prowl introduces you to Anna and Charles, and lays a lot of the groundwork for the physical and emotional trauma that plagued Anna's life in Chicago. Wild Sign is the sixth book in the series, and both our leads have changed and grown tremendously in the intervening books.

The Alpha & Omega books usually focus on Anna and Charles solving a mystery, usually not in Montana but still related somehow to the Aspen Creek pack. In Wild Sign they're sent off to California to investigate the disappearance of an off-grid community that just happened to live on land significant to Leah Cornick's backstory.

There was a bit more of a horror element in this one, with characters referencing/comparing things to a certain psychological horror film from the 1960s. Briggs's recent books have featured either fae or black witches as the villains, so I was glad to see the return of something more primordial and native to the US. (I really enjoyed the Native American elements in River Marked.) However, I could have done without the addition of more black witches, because I'm tired of them. We also meet Sasquatches, which were delightful.

Six books in, Anna and Charles's characters are rather fixed at this point--while some spooky stuff on the part of the villain has Anna revisiting her past, I feel like she's grown and matured beyond her past at this point. She's in a happy relationship, she's a pivotal part of her community, so there's not as much interpersonal drama.

But beginning in Burn Bright, Briggs has been fleshing out the character of Leah. I know some readers will never forgive her for the way she treated Mercy, but I find Leah more intriguing as we learn more about her. We finally get the full story of her past, and it is...A LOT. The epilogue also set some things in motion for the next book, so it'll be interesting to see where Briggs takes the series next.

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You know how Patricia Briggs likes to tung on your heart in some way in everyone one of her books, but some of them take it to a whole other level? This is one of those. It is a story that is hard to put down as always and Briggs is finally making Leah more of a fully fleshed-out character. Bonus points for more Tag in this book. Major trigger warning for sexual assault.

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I loved this book, folks. I'm sure, many of my fellow fans of the author noticed how Mercy Thompson series ran out of steam in the last few books. Luckily, Patricia Briggs started Alpha & Omega series just in time to revive our interest.

In many ways, this is a return to the simpler, stronger urban fantasy I fell in love with in the first place. It's all pure drive and fierce emotion. Also, Coyote, whom I adore, makes a cameo here.

Charles, Anna, and Tag, a berserker wolf, who behaves like a playful puppy around Anna follow the request of the FBI and Bran to look into the disappearance of a whole off-grid town somewhere in the mountains where Bran's mate, Leah, was turned centuries ago.

More than anything, this book is a glimpse into Leah, her emotions, history, and character. She always was a bit of a cold and aloof figure through Mercy's eyes but this book made me see her in a different light.

Charles, Anna, and Tag's teamwork is effortless, and it's exhilarating to see them dealing with Wild Sign sinister, eery mysteries. There is palpable tension and urgency in their investigation, especially when Anna becomes the latest target of whatever haunts Wild Sign.

It's a breezy, comfortable read with a tight plot and great character development. The ending is a teaser of massive changes yet to come. I really enjoyed it, and recommend it without any hesitation. A great addition to the series.

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Another great addition to this series with a cliff-hanger that leaves you wanting more. Anna and Charles are off to investigate another mystery, with this one linking to Leah. I love how Briggs' characters always feel true to themselves and are fully fleshed out.

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Wild Sign by Patricia Briggs is the 6th book in her Alpha & Omega series. The Alpha & Omega series is another fascinating werewolf storyline that takes place in the world of Mercy Thompson. Only this series revolves around Charles Cornick, who is the enforcer for Bran (his Alpha father), and his wife Anna, who is an Omega wolf. I love this series and our heroes, Charles and Anna; the chemistry between these two is electric and the way they balance one another out is amazing.

Two FBI agents visit Charles and Anna’s home to request help on a land owned by the pack; as they explain something strange is going on there; the entire town of Wild Sign, is missing. Bran tells Charles to take Anna and another pack member, Tag to investigate what is happening. Turns out that the land is actually owned by Leah, which we will learn more about when she was last there, and rescued by Bran.

When Charles, Anna and Tag arrive they can tell something very bad happened, and each of them can feel evil spirits and supernatural at work. Was this the work of evil black witches? They do find letters, as well as means of magic. This will lead to finding the woman who wrote those letters, and to a convalescent home, where Charles recognizes an old nemesis, who is currently under the control of witches that run the home. They discover more information, during his lucid time, and Anna learns from Charles and Tag how evil this man was or is.

Charles becomes concerned, as does his wolf, when Anna begins to come under control of something evil when listening to a song, that pushes her to the past. Leah, plays a bigger part, especially the last half of the book, as her own past brings her back to Wild Sign. We do learn more about what happened years ago, when Bran brought her into the pack. Leah was never likable in this series, but she steps up in this horrific situation.
What follows is an intense, scary, exciting adventure, where multiple times Anna will find herself very much under the infuuence of this evil. Charles and his wolf will do all they can to protect Anna, as well as Leah nearer to the end. To tell too much more would be spoilers, which would ruin the story. I will say the last third of the book was crazy, wild as we raced to the climatic finish, which had me holding my breath, as there were numerous twists and turns; not to mention this monstrous creature was stronger than them combined, and over the years was immortal. Can they kill the evil being?

Wild Sign was a great story, very intense and so well written by Patricia Briggs. What I love about our heroes, is their love for each other; as Anna, as an Omega, is not only smart, strong, she also keeps Charles sane. I also love Brother Wolf talking to Charles, as well as Anna; they made a great couple (threesome with Charles’s wolf). Wild Sign was an exciting, pulse pounding, fast paced, captivating story.

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I love this series and every book it gets better. Stayed up way to late to finish this book but it was totally worth it. If you are not reading both this series and the Mercy Thompson series, go start them now.

When the FBI ends up on Charles and Anna's doorstep with a town full of missing people, they end up in northern California to find out what happened. Along with the werewolf Tag, they find that something has been awakened in the mountains that has ties to Leah and Bran and stopping it might be impossible.

I adored this book. The mystery has a strong horror vibe to it which added a different twist. Charles and Anna have a great dynamic and they work together really well. I also like watching their relationship grow, especially as some trauma gets brought back up again.

In [book:Burn Bright|35839437] we got a better glimpse into Leah. Wild Sign widens that crack. I didn't know it but I have been waiting for this book! I think I can appreciate Leah. She will never be my favorite but she's deeper than I thought. Also Bran reveals very little as usual but those little bits are wow. And that epilogue ... hang on to your pants.

Tag was a bright spot that was awesome. There were several cameos that made me happy. This book made me happy!

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A town of magical squatters disappears from land that belongs to Anna and Charles' family--and, more precisely, is located in the same area where the Marrok's mate was rescued two hundred years before. Instantly realizing the likely connection, Bran sends Anna and Charles to investigate--and hopefully to uncover whatever it was that stole Leah's memory and her life so long before.

This was a fast-moving if somewhat predictable Alpha and Omega novel, and I adored it. Briggs always brings a sense of intimacy to her writing, and every character feels like family. The ending seemed rushed and the Leah angle is not very well tied up, but readers won't let that disappoint them too much.

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ARC received from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

I am so torn on this book that it is making it hard to decide on if to give it a 3 or a 4. Both Anna and Charles are two of my favorite characters in this world and I was so looking forward to this book. There were just some moments where I literally had to stop and message my friend going this really just happened in my book. The monster this time was just so icky to me that I left the book feeling like I had just rolled in mud. Patricia Briggs is one to never shy away from the harder things of life but this book was just on a whole other level that it amazes me. I really wish someone had told her that yes sasquatch are cool but this other monster is just no. I can seriously see this book turning away some readers. I am willing to come back for another book about Anna and Charles just because I love the two of them together but it better be a damn good book or I might never read one again.

TW:
Rape
Tentacles
Incest

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Patricia Briggs does it again with Wild Sign, an excellent addition to the Alpha and Omega series. This is a story of Charles and Anna and how or if they discover how a entire community has disappeared in Northern California. And there is also some background story of Leah, Bran's current wife. So good, I highly recommend this book.

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Briggs strikes again with another fast paced adventure! This time we get to delve into Leah's mysterious past as well as tag along with Tag and Charles and Anna as they race to uncover the disappearance of a community of witches.

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For a book with dark themes, I surprisingly loved this book! Now I have been reading Patricia Briggs for about a decade now so I have been through some serious ups, downs, and dark themes. But I feel this one takes the cake. It's not gory, or even that big of a mystery, but the depth of character you gain is stunning. Leah is a huge part of this book and my feelings for her have gone through a significant change as you finally learn her backstory and, quite frankly, her strength. I read this all in one day I just could not put it down! I don't want to give too much away but if you are the type of reader that needs trigger warnings- I suggest you look into it before picking up this book. or this series in general. But please don't let that stop you, because this world and these characters are completely worth it.

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Another great entry into the series. It’s always nice to catch up with Anna and Charles as they solve the latest mystery.

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