When I was approved for the arc for this book, I honest-to-god did a triumphant fist pump. I love the Mercy Thompson series, and if you’re a fan of urban fantasy, don’t let this one pass you by.

In Winter Lost, Mercy is still dealing with some pretty negative effects from the last book; her magic and her soul took a hefty beating and she’s not yet recovered. What she really needs is some time to rest, but when her half-brother shows up on the doorstep, cursed and freaking out, he takes priority. She and Adam drive up to Montana where Gary was staying to try to find the cause and remove the curse, only to be pulled into a winter storm that isn’t entirely natural. And this storm could have serious consequences for the entire world.

A series this long (14 books!) will have lots of backstory informing the plot. In between books it’s easy for the reader to forget things, which is why you often get a “previously on…” style infodump in the first few chapters. Briggs is great at getting you caught up without it feeling like a firehose of information, and doing it in an organic way that doesn’t take you out of the story. I cannot overstate how much I appreciate that and the skill it takes.

Winter Lost gives us more of the great bond between Mercy and Adam, a good plot balanced with emotional character beats, and new mythologies – Nordic this time! The rest of the pack isn’t very involved in this one; they get a little time early on, but the focus is really on Mercy and Adam, with a sprinkling of Gary.

We get resolution for a couple of big plot issues, but there’s still plenty to address in the next book. Overall I liked this book a bit more than the previous two, and it’s a fantastic addition to a beloved urban fantasy series.

Thank you to NetGalley and Berkley Publishing Group for the advanced copy! It made my day to get the chance to read and review this.
Winter Lost will be released on June 18. If you like urban fantasy, don’t miss out on this series!

Well it seems that Soul Taken was not the end of this story and it is continued in Winter Lost to a great extent. While the main plot is new the background plot that is left over from the previous book is not and both plots converge in the book for resolution and it was done masterfully by one of the better writers of fiction. There are bits of damage that Mercy took from the Soul Taker in the last book and a supernatural "Winter King" that is going to kill everyone if he cannot get back an item that was stolen from him. Trying to solve both problems and a bit of whodunnit along the way make for an exciting story and I had to stop everything else I was doing for the last 25% of the book since things were happening at a rapid pace.

Bottom Line: An exceptional story done by a master but make sure you read Soul Taken first or you may be a bit confused as to what is going on.

If you can count on one thing is that Patricia Briggs is going to write a fast-paced fantastic book. In this volume, Mercy's brother gets into some trouble (shocker!) and Mercy has to go with Adam to figure out what happened. They have graduated to nordic gods which is so much fun because I love nordic mythology. We also get a great new array of new characters and some reoccurring ones. I'm not going to lie, I was a little worried that we were leaving the Tri-Cities because it felt like something Anna and Charles would do but the story totally makes sense. I also really enjoyed switching POVs between different characters. It really allowed you to understand their motivations and made the book feel really fresh even if we are deep in the series. I wish I was as good a writer as Patricia Briggs to truly explain it but it was so so good! Anyone who knows m or follows me knows I love these books so much and I will re-read them constantly so know that I'm being serious when I say that this is one of my favorites and I think it would read great even as a standalone. I highly recommend!


Thank you to NetGalley, Berkley Publishing Group, Ace, and Patricia Briggs for giving me the amazing opportunity to review this book as an ARC. All opinions are my own.

The good. We get to see what has been going on since Soul Taker and the repercussions Mercy has been facing. We also get to visit some of our favorite characters and get their point of view as well. The not so good. I'm conflicted. While I did enjoy this book, I felt like there were too many points of view. I did love getting Adam's, but I feel like some of them were not needed or wanted. I put this novel down multiple times, which has never happened with a Mercedes Thompson novel! I have read this series so many times over the years. It's one of my favorite worlds to revisit. Overall, I did enjoy the novel, but I do hope the next one will hold my attention better.

A new Mercy book is almost always a good time. Mercy and Adam have but a few of their known allies to call on in this one, but it works well. Definitely recommended for lovers of the series. New readers, go back to the beginning and start there!

Winter Lost was an adventure from beginning to end. It takes place shortly after the events of the previous book, Soul Taken - where Mercy is suffering from the effects of the artifact. Now, Gary - her half brother needs assistance that only Mercy can provide. Through Ms.Briggs' mysterious and twisting storytelling - you'll find out what's going on at the heart of the storm in Winter Lost. Your favorite ensemble cast of characters appear, but this book primarily focuses on the mission in Montana, along with some new viewpoints from other characters we've yet to see. A great addition to the Mercy Thompson collection and one that is furthering the grand game of the Mercy-verse.

Another wonderful book in the Mercy Thompson universe! Our usual cast of characters is dealing with old and new enemies in a chilly new novel that has Mercy defending her family once again; with Coyote making a surprising appearance.

Eeek! I absolutely LOVE Mercy Thompson!! and Patricia Briggs is one of my absolute favorite authors!
This book was just amazing! Diving back into the world of Mercy and Adam with their pack was amazing!

We see some lingering after “effects” from Soul Taken and some favorites (I’m looking at you Zee) but with a new problem to tackle!
We get multiple POVs throughout this book which was interesting to see, getting to see everything that was happening in everyone’s POV gave us more to the story!

It was an interesting addition to the Mercy Thompson universe but I cannot wait for what’s next!

Winter Lost is the 14th book in the Mercy Thompson series by Patricia Briggs and the 20th in her Mercyverse. I have read all of them. I am not sure that I have read any other long running series where not a single book is average or below. Briggs has another winner with this book.

Because so much of Mercy's world is saturated with myth and fairy tales, there are always a lot of information and hints dropped that might be important for future books. Knowing this, I re-read the previous book, Soul Taken, prior to starting this one. One probably could jump into the series without reading the prior books, but it would put the reader at a disadvantage and why pass up 13 other excellent books.

The book begins with Mercy still reverberating from the effects of the Soul Taker and trying to get back to daily living with a damaged soul. But, being Coyote's daughter, nothing stays calm for long. When her brother Gary turns up unable to speak, Mercy and Adam set out to discover why and see if they can fix it. I like when Adam figures prominently in Mercy's adventure because it gives the reader more insight into their relationship as they work together to solve a problem. Together they head to Montana in the storm of a century to discover what a Frost Giant wants with Coyote's son. While other members of the pack are present in the book, this is primarily Mercy and Adam's story with some unexpected characters from previous books woven in. We learn the answer to one pressing question and another is left unresolved for a future book.

If you are a Patricia Briggs fan, be assured she hit another one out of the ballpark.

*Many thanks to Net Galley and Berkley/Ace for the eARC in exchange for an honest review.

I love Mercy.

I am always overwhelmed by how Mercy manages as a near human in this paranormal world. In Winter Lost, Mercy is still (LITERALLY) suffering the effects of the artifact known as the Soul Taker from the last story. She is has terrible headaches and her “soul is wide open” calling to all kinds of bad creatures and her natural magics have been twisted. Yet when her brother Gary shows up at her door with nearly all his senses dampened and no ability to speak, Mercy puts aside her own troubles to find out what happened to Gary.

Mercy and Adam travel to Montana where Gary had been caring for a ranch. Since nothing is ever easy, they are driving there during a snow storm that is turning into the blizzard of the century (I wonder if that is the same storm where Charles gets a visit from his brother, Samuel, at the end of Wild Signs. Hmmm?) I was cold and stressed out during that entire trip. (Note: Do not read this story in the winter)

Mercy and Adam are almost to the ranch when they are stopped by a frost giant, one who is creating this storm of the century and like an episode of The Mandalorian, Mercy and Adam need to do a favor for the frost giant before he will tell them what he knows about what happened to Gary. Someone stole the frost giant’s lyre (see book cover) and has taken it down the road to the Hot Springs resort which is a natural holy place where the frost giant can’t go. Mercy and Adam need to get the lyre back since the frost giant has already declared that everyone at the resort will die unless he gets his property back and he can’t go back on his word. It’s a fae thing.

The biggest problem is that this Resort is about the host a wedding. A binding which must occur ever 144 years to prevent the end of the world. With a blizzard making travel dangerous, the groom hasn’t yet arrived. So, yeah, no pressure.

THOUGHTS:
I love these stories but they stress me out too. Mercy–and everything that makes her different than the regular paranormals–is the axis of this story. It is what binds all of these different factions together where they normally wouldn’t work together. But Mercy is far more breakable than vampires or werewolves and the like and she goes from one bashing to the next with barely time to recover. You could feel her pain and suffering still from what the soul taker did to her in the prior story. And she spent a lot of time in this story in the snow either naked or in wet clothes–so this whole story made me cold.

And we can’t forget that Bonarata is still playing cat and mouse with Mercy and Adam. How come we haven’t seen Stefan is the last, I don’t know, 10 novels?

One issue I do have is that there were two goings on that weren’t needed to move this story forward and I don’t know if the author decided not to pursue them further or if maybe they are foreshadowing for the next story? One is the Sherwood gets into a car accident, which didn’t blow into anything and the second is that Darryl and his wife went to New Mexico to deal with an attack on a building that Adam’s security company was guarding. I do know that part of the New Mexico thing was that Adam sent Darryl to handle it so that he could go with Mercy — showing that Adam’s only true loyalty is with Mercy. Other than that, we really didn’t need to go back to it. Focusing on things that don’t need to be part of the story make me nuts.

In a narration viewpoint, Patricia Briggs changed up the usual first person POV and broke up the story with Interludes–which featured different characters and goings on (see above) and we also got several Adam viewpoint chapters.

I always love every Patricia Briggs book, I love getting to spend time again with Mercedes & her band of friends (& enemies). I enjoyed that this book prioritized keeping Mercy & Adam together & I enjoyed how characters from short stories were woven in. I love the recent addition of multiple POV, & the interlude chapters were a great inclusion. With all that said, though, I did not feel this was the strongest entry in the series, it felt a bit unfocused & stretched a bit thin. It actually felt like 2-3 different story ideas were fighting with each other. For example there are so many characters but few are given enough page time for me to feel like I fully understood them & their purpose in the story. The gardener, the vampire, the ghost, the spider, the giant from uncle Mike’s, the fiancés, the grooms parents, the trolls (gnomes? I don’t remember what they were), mercy’s brother, the owner of the harp, the hood dog, etc all seem to be treated like very important characters but they all have so little page time that I felt like it was sped through. Some plot lines felt the same way, mentioned a lot but not fully explored too. The book functions more like an introduction of a bunch of plot lines that will be impacting the future of the series than it does a full story on its own. I kept feeling like I was given tastes of dishes but never allowed to eat the full meal.

But I still enjoyed it, so 🤷🏻‍♀️

Love Mercy Thompson and this latest entry doesn’t disappoint. The plot thickens with new, old magic and an increasingly fantastical cast of characters.

Last year I read all of the Mercy Thompson books. It's such a fun series! I was super excited about the newest installment! This installment has some fun Norse mythology influence which was fun.

One thing I love about this series is how interesting the characters and world are! I love how the magic connects the pack and all of the members are such interesting characters. Patrica Briggs doesn't shy away from writing characters that are hard to like and you can tell she has a strong sense of who each of her characters is. We saw less of the pack in this story than in some others and I did miss them a bit. While I love Adam and Mercy, their relationship is pretty stable at this point so I like reading about the different relationships in the pack.

The magic in this series is fascinating! I love how a number of mythologies and religious traditions are combined in a way that makes sense. We get types of paranormals we are familiar with like vampires and werewolves but they are each their own really interesting version of paranormals with a whole set of rules. The length of the series allows for really complex magical creatures and rules without world-building being overwhelming.

This series is one you want to start from the beginning. I had forgotten some of the details of the last book and was able to figure out what I had forgotten but you would lose the depth of the characters and be confused about how things worked if you tried to jump in part way.

This world is so interesting and I really enjoyed the addition of this installment! It wasn't my favorite of the series but I still enjoyed being back in the world with characters I love. I will say that it feels pretty wintery for a book coming out in June so if you are a reader who really likes seasonally congruent reads I might save it for a few months.

🌶️ - There is one steamy scene in this book but while it doesn't fade to black there is almost no detail. I think it could have been in a YA book with no issue. However, that is not the case for some of the earlier books for those who are considering trying the series.

If it's a Mercy Thompson Novel, I will read it. Like Immediately. I love the world of Mercy and her wolves and fae and whoever else.

But this story felt like a transition story? I felt like there were a few loose ends they needed to tie off from previous stories and set up a few new ones. But Im ok with that because it is always a good time when it comes to a Patricia Briggs book in this world. The time jumps were new for me and the different points of views from characters we weren't familiar with kind of threw off the book for me just a bit. It all came together in the end and Im sure some of that will end up in a future book, but still.

Not my favorite of the series, but like i said, i felt like it tied off some loose ends from other books and set us up for something new too.

This one gets a 3.5/5 from me.

I am beyond grateful to the publisher for an advanced copy of this one, it is probably my favorite and most anticipated advanced reader copy I’ve ever gotten since starting reviewing. Mercy Thompson is one of my favorite characters and series and this has been one of my most anticipated books of 2024 and it did not disappoint at all. This book takes off pretty much where the last one ended. Mercy isn’t the same or going back to normal after what the Soul Taker did to her. She’s stubbornly hiding the worst of the symptoms and her loved ones are sneakily researching how to help heal her. Mercy and Adam have to go to Montana to find out what happened to Gary after he showed up cursed and unable to communicate and of course there are some surprises awaiting them. This is book 14 in Mercy’s series (book 20 in this world) and you definitely should read these ones in order.

If it's a Patricia Briggs book about Mercy Thompson, I'm gonna read it. Any chance I get to immerse myself back into the lives of Mercy and her world, I'm there. It's like visiting old friends, catching up.
That being said, this wasn't my favorite of Mercy stories. It felt like this book was mainly to set up future stories and adventures, which, honestly, I'm okay with. It makes me excited to see what happens down the road!

If you're a regular reader and fan, you might as well pre-order this. You'll love to see some things "resolved" as well as more of the old "favorite" characters playing "nice". Yes, I need a lot of quotation marks for this review. If you know Mercy's world, you'll understand.

I have been reading the Mercy Thompson series for years at this point and while I still mostly enjoy the books, the storylines are starting to get too repetitive for me. Like many urban fantasy series, the timeline is incredibly compressed (it's only been a few years in universe it seems like). The book opens with Mercy's brother Gary in need of help, he's been cursed and cannot effectively communicate but knew enough to somehow drive to Adam's house. In order to heal her brother, Mercy and Adam head on a road-trip to Montana. A few side characters make an appearance (we briefly see Tad and Zee for example) but the bulk of the story is Mercy and Adam along with a cast of new characters. Patricia Briggs, in an attempt perhaps to keep things fresh has various interludes, so we do occasionally go back to the Tri Cities which honestly might have been a more interesting story than the one we got with Adam and Mercy. Overall, it was a decent read but not truly exciting and nothing much seemed to happen with the overarching plot (which actually there may not be an overarching plot for the series).

Okay, it looks like this is an unpopular opinion at the moment, but this one didn't do much for me. I love this series, and I'm so happy that I got an ARC. This particular installment was disappointing for me. It didn't really pick up until the second half, and there are so many secondary characters, distracting side stories, and time jumps that by the time I *was* invested, I was also confused, and the high stakes fell flat. Three stars up from 2.5.
Thank you very much to the publisher and NetGalley for the ARC!

I have been a huge fan of the Mercy Thompson series since listening to the first book so I was very excited to see Winter Lost available as an ARC. The quality of writing, characters, and story continue to exceed expectations. What I appreciate most about this series is that each book balances continuing plot with the story unique to each book. The characters and their relationship to each other and their world grow in every book. Winter Lost was no exception. The rich world building keeps me coming back for every book. I can't wait to hear the audio version.