Author Archives: lindalouslife

Linda Lou’s Library: The Mercy Thompson series by Patricia Briggs

I’m still in an urban fantasy phase with my reading, so I decided to re-read the Mercy Thompson series by Patricia Briggs. Ms. Briggs has built a wonderful world and I love her character development; even her minor characters are well written and memorable. I’m partial to Mercy because she is my sister from another mister. Like me, Mercy has a problem with being ordered around. Ask politely and she will bend over backwards to help you. She will consider a suggestion, depending on the tone in which it was made. Telling her what to do? That’s going to backfire in a hurry. Kenn says anger is my go-to emotion, and Mercy has a tendency to get angry when scared or hurt or relieved… You get the picture. I spend a lot of time giggling when Mercy reacts to a situation the way I would and reading excerpts of the books to Kenn. (Kenn wants to know how long Ms. Briggs has been spying on me, LOL.)

Mercy is a VW mechanic, and yes, she has heard all of the jokes about Mercedes, the VW mechanic. Thanks to her late father, Joe Old Coyote, Mercy is a walker – a Native American shapeshifter who shifts into a coyote at will. When Mercy’s seventeen-year-old mom found a coyote pup in Mercy’s crib when Mercy was three months old, she realized she was in over her head; Mercy was then sent to live with a werewolf pack who raised her until she was sixteen. Now, in her early thirties, Mercy is happy with the independent, if slightly lonely, life she has built for herself.

According to the books, Mercy has a coyote paw print tattooed on her abdomen and a “couple of other” tattoos on her arms. The arm tattoos are only mentioned once. The book covers show Mercy with full-sleeve tattoos, chest and back tattoos, and a tramp stamp. Mercy would probably roll her eyes at the covers, LOL. Another thing to know about Mercy is that she has usually had the crap beat out of her by the end of every book; this seems to be what happens when a coyote shifter starts playing in the magical creature big leagues. There are currently fourteen books in the series. These are a some of the primary characters:

  • Mercedes Athena Thompson, aka Mercy: walker, shifts into a coyote
  • Adam Hauptman: werewolf, Alpha of the Columbia Basin pack, control freak (as werewolves tend to be), Mercy’s back yard neighbor, crazy about Mercy
  • Warren: werewolf, third in Adam’s pack, Mercy’s best friend
  • Jesse Hauptman: Adam’s fully human teenage daughter
  • Siebold “Zee” Adlebertsmiter: iron-kissed fae, taught Mercy how to work on cars, Mercy’s extremely dangerous friend
  • Tad Adlebertsmiter: Zee’s half-fae son, Mercy thinks of him as her little brother
  • Stefan: vampire with a penchant for Scooby Doo, Mercy’s friend, more than halfway in love with Mercy
  • Wulfe: vampire, bat-crap crazy, obsessed with Mercy in a creepy stalker sort of way
  • Larry: king of the goblins; even though Larry doesn’t appear until later in the series, he is worth the wait
  • Moon Called – At the beginning of the series, Mercy is working in the garage she bought from Zee and talking martial arts lessons. Run-ins with Adam not withstanding, she is happy to ignore and be ignored by the members of the other paranormal races. The appearance of a young, untrained werewolf at her shop changes everything.
  • Blood Bound – As if regular vampires aren’t bad enough, demon-possessed vampires are worse.
  • Iron Kissed – This one is a rough one, y’all. This time, Mercy doesn’t just get hurt, she gets raped. As hard as it is to read, I think it was handled well, and leads to learning more about another character. The PTSD Mercy develops as a result of the rape is also handled well in subsequent books.
  • Bone Crossed – Vampires, and ghosts, and coyotes, oh, my!
  • Silver Borne – The Gray Lords, the rulers of the fae, set Zee up to take the fall for something he didn’t do. Mercy isn’t about to let them get away with it, no matter how powerful the Gray Lords are.
  • River Marked – Poor Mercy can’t even go on her honeymoon without ending up in a wheelchair by the end of the book.
  • Frost Burned – Car wrecks, kidnapping, and a necromancer. Just another day in the life of your local VW mechanic.
  • Night Broken – This book contains the first appearance by Christy, Adam’s ex-wife. I detest Christy. I’ve dealt with Christys and Ms. Briggs does an excellent job of writing a manipulative character.
  • Fire Touched – Leave it to Mercy to make a declaration making life easier for the residents of the Tri-Cities area while simultaneously making things harder for the pack.
  • Silence Fallen – This book goes international with various characters in Italy and Prague. When Mercy almost dies at the beginning of the book, you know you’re in for a ride. This book also includes a wonderful twist that I usually forget between read-throughs. This time, I remembered, LOL.
  • Storm Cursed – Miniature zombie goats provide some levity. Otherwise, it’s another good story that’s a hard read. It’s always disappointing when a character – even a secondary one – betrays the others. I will admit to ugly crying over the kitten. Not when he was found, but when you find out why he survived.😭
  • Smoke Bitten – Christy strikes again! The woman may be pure human, but her ability to cause problems is almost magical.
  • Soul Taken – A creature from a horror movie comes to life and stalks the Tri-Cities. Also, as the owner of a Subaru Outback, the part with Mercy, Warren, and Warren’s Subaru Outback was priceless.🤣
  • Winter Lost – Never trust a frost giant.

If you have read this series, I’d love to know what you think. If you have any urban fantasy recommendations, I’d love to hear them!

Round and round we go…

When our state began implementing traffic circles (or roundabouts if you prefer) I didn’t see the point. Part of the problem was that the first traffic circles we encountered with any regularity were in the middle of absolutely nowhere. I’m talking intersections where if two vehicles reach the intersection at the same time at any point in the day, it’s a traffic jam. Once we moved to The Cabin and we began navigating the traffic circle that’s a little over a mile from our house – we got it. The traffic circle is so much better than the four-way stop it replaced. Around six months ago, a second traffic circle opened about a half mile from the first one.

There are basically two roads to take when leaving our house. One has the two traffic circles discussed above. Now, a new traffic circle is being installed (implemented? constructed?) on the other road, about a mile from our house. I’m excited about this one. I navigated this intersection frequently; especially on days I worked. Through traffic on the road doesn’t stop so certain times of day, the traffic entering from the side roads backs up, especially when someone needs to turn left. The pavement in one area was really in need of repair as well. With other traffic circles in the area, the roads were kept open during construction. This time, the roadway is closed and the contractor has thirty-five days to complete the project; so, it should be completed around the Forth of July.

Image from depositphotos.com

Now, when I say the roads leading to the traffic-circle-in-process are closed, there is no doubt that the roads are. closed. There are big signs barricading the roads and plenty of bright orange detour signs. However, this apparently isn’t enough to stop some people – including my husband.🙄 Kenn came home one day about a week after the closure and casually mentioned that he had driven down to check on the progress of the project. Upon questioning, yes, he had driven around the barricades. No, he didn’t think it was a big deal. I begged to differ, but, whatever dude. Then, a little over a week ago, Kenn came home from his Saturday morning errands and confessed that he, along with the drivers of two or three other vehicles, had driven around the barricades. However, this time, the police were waiting on them. So, my dear hubby came home with a ticket and a court date. I told him he may as well not try to talk his way out of it because he doesn’t have a leg to stand on. Kenn agreed and also promised that he will not be violating the barricades again. I also explained to him the definition of FAFO – the non-PC version of “play stupid games and win stupid prizes.”

So, what do you call these: traffic circles or roundabouts? Or, maybe something completely different? (One of my former coworkers calls them “roundy-rounds.”)

There’s bad news and good news.

In my last post, I wrote about how I planned to replace the bird house the bluebirds were nesting in as soon as the babies left home. I didn’t have a chance. I went outside Tuesday and glanced at the bird house like I always do and… it was gone. The only thing attached to the hook it hung from was the roof. The rest of the house was on the seat of the swing. I checked inside; the nest was intact, and I didn’t see any baby bluebird corpses. However, when I checked the ground, there was a shattered egg.😢 I was heartbroken. Nature can be harsh, so I’m well aware that things happen to nests in the wild, but this one should have been safe.

The bird house was wooden and I was keeping an eye on it because the bottom was warped, causing a gap between the base and the rest of the house. There was no indication that there was a problem with the roof, so I was shocked at the complete failure of the structure. I immediately ordered the two houses I mentioned in my last post. The replacements arrived Thursday and Kenn put them up on Friday. (According to nestwatch.org, bluebird houses should be 300 feet apart.) Since the broken birdhouse was in a popular location, we placed one of the new ones there. However, the new one is firmly attached to a post, not hanging.

Saturday, the day after the new houses were put up, I got a couple of texts from Kenn.

A couple of hours later, I looked out the window and saw this.

House Hunters, bluebird style!

Based on the activity we’ve seen, this couple is busily creating a new nest. I look forward to watching the development of the new family. Their new home is well built and made of recycled plastic, so it should hold up for several years. It’s also easy to clean out, unlike the one that failed.

Kenn also built a house for the Carolina wrens and mounted it on the carport post near the location of one of the earlier nests. Once again, according to nestwatch.org, we are in the height of Carolina wren nesting season, so it will be interesting to see if it will get used.

Here’s hoping for happier bird watching in the days and weeks ahead!