38. Fire Touched by Patricia Briggs (audio: Lorelei King) I’d originally skipped this one because none of my libraries had it. But it was fantastic, & I understand why Silence Fallen felt like a let down to some Great relationship/pack/family dynamics #bkbrk

— Ana Coqui (@anacoqui) April 28, 2018

The Mercy Thompson series is one of the series I depend on the library to read. The sticker price is just so expensive.  For some weird reason all the libraries I have access to did not own Fire Touched, so I skipped over it when I was working on catching up on the series since they did have Silence Fallen.

I scandalized quite a few Briggs fans by doing that, so I decided to use my next Audible credit to buy the audio. And they were right. The book was worth paying for and was full of fantastic Adam and Mercy time.  I can now understand  how Silence Fall felt like setback after seeing Adam, Mercy and the pack working so well together. I really loved the cognitive dissonance Mercy and Adam have to wrestle with as they get to know Aiden. He looks like a child, but is super old and dangerous. He has been abused and alone for a long-time, and in the end he needs Adam, Mercy and the pack just as much as all their wolves do. 

40. Steel’s Edge by Ilona Andrews A healer’s self-imposed exile in the Edge comes to an abrupt end when her found family/home is destroyed by Slavers hunting for the man she healed. Emotionally wrenching, Epilogue is so necessary #bkbrk #audiobook https://t.co/swMklBXNkn

— Ana Coqui (@anacoqui) May 15, 2018

This is a rare miss by Ilona Andrews. I usually love their books and while the Edge series has always been grim, dark and gory, I've never needed a Epilogue more. There was just so much wrenching emotionally tragic choices through out this book that just could not be wrapped up by the last page of the final chapter. Without the Epilogue and the extensive period of time in covered  this book would have been a tragedy.

Honestly I regret reading book because it was just so unrelentingly sad. I never quite recovered from the violent end suffered by a beloved supporting character in the series.

Powerful people using power to abuse, regular people letting things happen and good-hearted people making too many of the sacrifices.

CW: Heroine is infertile, her first husband left her because of it. She carries a lot of pain related to that.  There are also lots of references to sexual abuse, past and present to supporting characters.