Reviewer: Tracy Burn Bright by Patricia Briggs
Series: Alpha & Omega #5
Also in this series: Burn Bright, Alpha & Omega, Cry Wolf, Burn Bright, Dead Heat, Hunting Ground, Fair Game, Wild Sign
Publisher: Ace
Publication Date: March 6th 2018
Format: eARC
Genres: Urban Fantasy
Pages: 336
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They are the wild and the broken. The werewolves too damaged to live safely among their own kind. For their own good, they have been exiled to the outskirts of Aspen Creek, Montana. Close enough to the Marrok’s pack to have its support; far enough away to not cause any harm.
With their Alpha out of the country, Charles and Anna are on call when an SOS comes in from the fae mate of one such wildling. Heading into the mountainous wilderness, they interrupt the abduction of the wolf–but can’t stop blood from being shed. Now Charles and Anna must use their skills–his as enforcer, hers as peacemaker–to track down the attackers, reopening a painful chapter in the past that springs from the darkest magic of the witchborn…
Charles and Anna are in charge of the Aspen Creek pack while Bran is away. When Charles gets a cryptic call from one of the pack they call “the wildlings” he and Anna head off to discover what the issue is. When they arrive they find Jonesy, the husband of one of their wolves beside himself as his wife Hester has been kidnapped and is being held in a cage awaiting transport. Charles and Anna manage to free the wife, but her captors end up killing her anyway and her husband follows her into death. While the pack is cleaning up they discover major surveillance on Hester and Jonesy’s home and figure out that someone is after the wildlings. They also figure out that someone in the pack is a traitor.
Charles, Ann, and a few others head out in pairs to warn the wildlings about Hester and Jonesy’s deaths and the fact that people may be coming for them. Of course they don’t know if the traitor is a wildling so it’s all pretty sensitive.
I wish that I could give you a bit more information about this book but anything further I tell you would be giving things away and believe me when I tell you that part of the greatness of this book is watching things unfold little by little. Just an aside: This book runs pretty concurrently with the Mercy Thompson series so if you read that series as well you’ll know exactly when this book takes place as you’re reading.
In Burn Bright, not only do we get wonderful Charles and Anna time, and their werewolf awesomeness, but we also get to see a lot of the pack dynamic at work – especially with Bran gone. With Charles and Anna we get to see, once again, the incredible bond that has been created between these two and the ease with which they now live. I loved seeing these two work their magic with each other. Briggs did an amazing thing when she thought up this pair and she’s not let us down yet.
We also got to see some great pack dynamics and how those worked. We got a big dose of Asil, which is always good, and I even started to like Leah (Bran’s mate) a tiny, tiny bit. Lol She still has a long way to go. 🙂
Overall this was a really good read and once I started it, I couldn’t put it down. Hopefully we won’t have to wait quite as long for the next C & A book.
Rating 4 out of 5
Alpha & Omega
I enjoyed this, too, but I’d have liked even more Charles and Anna time. I was surprised by the identity of the traitor. You?
Kareni, I wasn’t completely shocked as I had a few thoughts about who it was. IDK, something that was said early in the book made me look at that person a little closer. (My daughter hates watching crime shows with me because I can always tell within the first 5-10 minutes who the bad guy is. :))
Now I’m thinking I should re-read the book, Tracy, to see if I can locate that “something” early in the book that made you suspicious. So, have you ever read a book/seen a movie that totally surprised you as regards the bad guy?
Kareni – Of course, I just can’t think of what they are now. lol With shows it’s easy to read facial expressions, etc., it’s a little harder in books. I read The Mountain Between Us recently. I thought it was good but I was completely surprised at the ending – I did NOT expect some of the information that was revealed. (The movie is COMPLETELY different and there was no surprise revealed at the end.)
I read The Mountain Between Us (haven’t seen the movie) last year. In that case, I wasn’t surprised by the ending as I’d had an inkling of what might come. Funny that our experiences were reversed in these two cases!