Bea Reviews Silence Fallen by Patricia Briggs

Series: Mercy Thompson #10
Publisher: Ace  
Source: the publisher in exchange for an honest review
Release Date: March 7th, 2017
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Blurb from goodreads:

In the #1 New York Times bestselling Mercy Thompson novels, the coyote shapeshifter has found her voice in the werewolf pack. But when Mercy's bond with the pack and her mate is broken, she'll learn what it truly means to be alone...

Attacked and abducted in her home territory, Mercy finds herself in the clutches of the most powerful vampire in the world, taken as a weapon to use against alpha werewolf Adam and the ruler of the Tri-Cities vampires. In coyote form, Mercy escapes only to find herself without money, without clothing, and alone in the heart of Europe...

Unable to contact Adam and the rest of the pack, Mercy has allies to find and enemies to fight, and she needs to figure out which is which. Ancient powers stir, and Mercy must be her agile best to avoid causing a war between vampires and werewolves, and between werewolves and werewolves. And in the heart of the ancient city of Prague, old ghosts rise.

My Thoughts:

"There have been a lot of people, monsters, and other things who have tried to kill Mercedes Thompson Hauptmann, and most of them died in the attempt. She is not helpless, nor is she weak." 

This, this could be Mercy's tagline though I would add that she is not stupid. But this quote from Marsilia sums up Mercy pretty well.

 "Silence Fallen", while not one of my favorites in this series, was a good story. Mercy is kidnapped and taken to Europe where she escapes. She's on her own, away from her home territory and her friends and family. But she's smart and resourceful and oh so stubborn.

The story is told in alternating POVs - first person from Mercy and third person via Adam. The chapters with their POVs don't necessarily line up which can get a little confusing but the beginning of each chapter tells when it's occurring. It can be a little jarring but for the most part, it works. The story starts off with a bang, moves at a good clip, slows down a bit, then picks up, slows down again, and picks up again.

Briggs gives us an abundance of detail about Prague, further develops Mercy's abilities, conspiracies within conspiracies, a nod to Dr. Who, shows off Honey and Marsilia, and oh, Honey is one bad ass woman. We also meet the goblin king, Larry and he's funny:

"We don't call ourselves that," said Larry dryly. "That was just that one movie. I mean, "Larry the Goblin King" just doesn't have the right ring to it."

And ,

"Witches are bitches and they'll burn your britches sure as kittens have itches if you give 'em half a chance."

I admit, I missed Mercy having the backup, and the interactions, with her friends and peers. Given the set up, we are missing many of  the usual cast and I did miss them. However, I did enjoy seeing Adam interact with Honey, another werewolf named Matt, the goblins, and various vampires, both friendly and unfriendly. We really get to see his love for Mercy, his understanding of her and what he's willing to do for her.

While the story isn't fast paced, there is lots of action, interspersed with supernatural politics, humor, some history lessons, and a bit of romance. Towards the end I was tearing up a bit, but no worries, they were happy tears. As I said, not one of my favorites stories in this series but I did enjoy it. In fact, when I re-read it, I enjoyed it more the second time around. If you are behind on the series, or haven't started yet, you really need to read the earlier books first. Events from the previous book, "Fire Touched" are particularly crucial to this story.

Have you read this one yet? What did you think?

Some favorite quotes:

I really wasn't myself. I am generally very good about accommodating megalomaniacs and waiting until it was safe to torment them. I had grown up doing that. But my head hurt, and he was creeping me out. 

"Epic failure," I told him. "I'll have you know that I expect my archenemies to be competent."

"Bran could not love Mercy more if she were his own daughter. He's funny about family. The last person who hurt one of his children was his own mother...you do know the story of Beowulf?...If Mercy dies because of you, there is not a hole deep enough for you to hide from him."

"If Bran behaves aggressively toward me without cause, he will force a war between the vampires and the werewolves," Bonarata said. 

"He won't care," said Adam, his voice sure and certain.

  "My love," he said, his voice intent. "You are welcome to all that I am, all that I have. I would destroy the planet for you. I was even diplomatic for you, which was a bigger sacrifice."

"I've been considering belly-dancing lessons," he told me in a serious voice. His arms were tight around me, and he pulled me hard into him. 'It would have given you something to watch. But I'm not sure if I could hold my head up around other Alpha werewolves if I did."