Audiobook: Bone Crossed by Patricia Briggs

Bone Crossed
Author: Patricia Briggs
Narrator: Lorelei King
Publication: Penguin Audio (Feb. 5, 2009)
Length: 9 hours and 7 minutes

Description: In a world where "witches, vampires, werewolves, and shape-shifters live beside ordinary people" (Booklist), it takes a very unusual woman to call it home. By day, Mercy Thompson is a car mechanic in Eastern Washington. By night, she explores her preternatural side. As a shape-shifter with some unusual talents, Mercy's found herself maintaining a tenuous harmony between the human and the not-so- human on more than one occasion. This time she may get more than she bargained for.

My Thoughts: Mercy is trying to get over being raped (and having the attack videotaped) and then killing her assailant. She is also trying to come to terms with her new mating bond with Adam who has taken her into his pack - something that she didn't think was possible given that she's a coyote and not a wolf.

Beyond that, the vampires are unhappy with her and Stefan. She's had a symbol painted on her garage indicating that she is a traitor to the vampires and which leaves her open to all sorts of attacks by other paranormals. She also learns that Stefan had been tortured and starved by Marsilia when his very dessicated body is dropped into her living room requiring feeding by a number of Adam's wolves.

And if that wasn't bad enough, Amber, an old frenemy from college, comes to urge her to visit her home in Spokane where her son is being haunted by a vengeful ghost. Adam and Stefan both urge her to go to Spokane to get her away from Marsilia's revenge. After all, there is only one vampire in Spokane. So Mercy should be safe.

What Mercy doesn't know is that the only vampire in Spokane has hired Amber's husband to be his lawyer. Mercy wakes up two mornings in a row with bite marks on her neck. She also bonds with Amber's deaf son Chad when she proves that he is being haunted by some sort of vengeful ghost and she manages to convince Chad's father that the ghost is real.

Mercy doesn't know how to get rid of the ghost and heads back to the Tri-Cities to get away from the vampire and try to find out how to get rid of the ghost. There she learns that the vampire in Spokane could have some power over her because he likely forced her to make a blood exchange even if she doesn't remember it. Stefan offers to break that bond but the only way to do it is to form a bond of his own. That seems like the lesser of two evils and Mercy agrees after being sure that the bond won't make the wolves in Adam's pack vulnerable.

Mercy has a bad reaction to the mating bond since her idiosyncratic magic isn't letting her control the bond. It is while she is burned out and unable to contact Adam that she is kidnapped by Amber's husband who is the vampire's unwilling minion and returned to Spokane. As a coyote, she could get away but goes along in the hopes of rescuing Chad.

This was an exciting and fast-paced story with all kinds of twists and turns. Mercy has a lot to deal with but manages all the issues with grace, courage, and humor.

I bought this one. You can buy your copy here.