Abandoned by Booklikes

So. I initially was just going to give this three stars and move along. However, after thinking it through this morning, this book honestly doesn't deserve 3 stars (okay). This book's pacing was off, there was about zero character development, too much repetition, and I think at one point I even said to myself that this book was just filler. It's a book to bridge to the next Alpha/Omega book or the next Mercy Thompson. The book synopsis on this one sounded so bad ass and it had me convinced to go ahead and buy/read this even though the last Alpha/Omega book left a bitter taste in my mouth. Now I am just mad that I didn't suck it up and wait for it via my library. I don't know constant readers if this series is meant to go on. Maybe if Briggs decides to do some books set pre-Mercy that follow some of the interesting events mentioned in this and other books. I feel like the Mercy/Adam thing is getting boring and I am just so done with the black witches plots.

"Storm Cursed" follows after not only the last Mercy Thompson book, but also Alpha/Omega. Mercy is now training with a cutlass (I maybe laughed a few times not in glee about this) and carries it with her everywhere. After being kidnapped in the last book, apparently the cutlass has everyone calm about her protecting herself. I don't know, it makes no sense to me. Due to Mercy and her proclamation of sanctuary she and the Pack are involved with more disputes. And now Adam and the Pack are being asked to give security to a delegation including the United States government and also the fae. However, per usual, someone wants to throw a wrench in there and stop this meeting from going down. Supernatural things occur. The end.

The characters in this one were all over the place. I can tell you right now that I would have been happy to not read that Adam is most likely a Republican and voted for a President that sounds similar to Donald Trump. I just cannot today right now.

So Mercy. I don't get why at this point she doesn't start to punch the next werewolf that talks crap about her compared to Adam's first wife. I loathed the character of Christy and the fact that the Pack had the nerve to treat Mercy like an outsider when she popped back up in "Night Broken" (Mercy Thompson #8) still ticks me off. And yet Briggs has the character of Mary freaking Jo bring up again how Mercy is not good enough for Adam and he needs someone delicate like Christy. Hey you all remember how Adam put out that whole I will kill the next person who disrespects my mate in "Fire Touched"? Well it's nice that it's referenced, but ignored in this one. At this point I would not weep if Mary Jo had a bad end. I am over Mercy trying to get these idiots on her side. We also don't have Mercy really interacting with any of the long time favorites in this one besides Adam. We get brief appearances of Ben, Warren, (we hear about Kyle), I don't recall Jessie being around, etc. She meets up with Stephen and once again I don't want to hear about the bond or any of that crap anymore. Either Mercy does something about it, or just moves on from it. I swear we spent too much time inner monologuing with Mercy in this one. There's not a lot of development with Mercy though in this one besides one or two things that may be interesting in future books. I just wish she got more female friends and started to actually push back when people treat her badly. It's getting old.

Adam. See above.

Secondary characters we have followed get some more screen time in this one. We have a lot of focus on Zee and Tad which was welcomed. However, I call BS on a whole subplot dealing with Zee having to face repercussions from the Gray Lords if he helped Mercy. Either follow through or quit bringing it up.

Stephen reappears in this one and also Marsilla (via phone) as I said, it's crazy to me how so many scenes dealt with Mercy talking to someone via phone, text, etc. Yet we get about 20 mentions of this stupid Pirate game all of the werewolves love.

We have mentions of Bran (shudder) and Charles, but no appearances and that makes zero sense after the events in the last book. What irks me is that Briggs tries to write around this by saying that no one can know that Bran is still really connected to the Pack cause he cares about Mercy. Yeah but based on the plot in this book and the last Alpha/Omega book there's no freaking way that they would not have called at least Charles. It's beyond stupid. There's also a throwaway line about Bran's traitor that made me roll my eyes.

Speaking of traitors...is this going to be a thing every book? Long time characters we have gotten to know totally pop up not being who they have been through 11 freaking books? I won't spoil, but I hated this entire plot and thought it was not well thought out at all.

And I just realized that Samuel has been missing for like 5 books. I guess he's just gone now. Along with Mercy's supposed female friends and half sisters.

Also there's a whole character that is introduced in this one who is apparently a gay woman who is married and has the nerve to call the Pack and fae abominations and how they are against Christianity and how no one didn't just hold up a mirror to her face and walk away from her is beyond me. I know people are this clueless in real life, but it made zero sense. There's also some language about ICE and how those with brown skin are being treated. If Briggs wants to touch upon the terribleness of the US government now that's fine, but the fact she turned Adam into a Republican. I am now rooting for him to get taken out by a rogue witch or werewolf.

Seriously though, this book was just not great. The pacing was so bad from beginning to end. I saw a lot of reviewers complaining about how slow it was. It wasn't just that in my opinion. We have Mercy and Adam going over everything regarding the events in Frost Burned (Mercy Thompson #7) and I just didn't want to relive all of that. It was beyond tedious and the reasoning and linkages did not make a lot of sense and I saw a couple dozen plot holes. At one point I was tempted to quit at 40 percent due to nothing really happening yet.

The world building in the Mercy Thompson series has always been one of its biggest strengths. I have to say though after what happened in "Burn Bright" I no longer want to hear about how werewolves can detect a lie. We already know that's not true and even in one scene again the werewolves that Mercy were with didn't catch the falsehood. So let's stop repeating it in every book.

The whole thing with witch-born people. Look it matters cause of Bran and Charles and all, but woo boy at this point we know that they have different reactions to magic. It's the 11th book. I don't need to have to keep reading how magic doesn't work on Mercy the way it does on others. If you somehow stumbled onto this as your first Mercy Thompson book that's not my fault. The author should realize that she's writing for long time readers, not pop-ins.

The ending was just a mess. It doesn't seem like this series is going to have a good stopping point and I wonder if there is a way to course-correct.