BURN BRIGHT by Pat Briggs is Bright and Illuminating
BURN BRIGHT

Narrator: Holter Graham
Penguin Random House Audio | Imprint: Penguin Audio
Genre: Fiction – Fantasy – Romantic
Release Date: March 06, 2018 Available to pre-order
10 Hours
I voluntarily reviewed an advance readers copy of this book. No remuneration was exchanged and all opinions presented herein are my own except as noted.
In her bestselling Alpha and Omega series, Patricia Briggs “spins tales of werewolves, coyote shifters, and magic and, my, does she do it well” (USATODAY.com). Now mated werewolves Charles Cornick and Anna Latham face a threat like no other–one that lurks too close to home…
They are the wild and the broken. The werewolves too damaged to live safely among their own kind. For their own good, they have been exiled to the outskirts of Aspen Creek, Montana. Close enough to the Marrok’s pack to have its support; far enough away to not cause any harm.
With their Alpha out of the country, Charles and Anna are on call when an SOS comes in from the fae mate of one such wildling. Heading into the mountainous wilderness, they interrupt the abduction of the wolf–but can’t stop blood from being shed. Now Charles and Anna must use their skills–his as enforcer, hers as peacemaker–to track down the attackers, reopening a painful chapter in the past that springs from the darkest magic of the witchborn… http://www.penguinrandomhouseaudio.com/book/318262/burn-bright/
This is the first time I have listened to a book narrated by Holter Graham. His voice is pleasant but limited in the range of accents he created — Romance-Language, and Caribbean sounded the same. And, the male and female characters without accents were not easy to distinguish.
Briggs though, sparkles in writing within the world she’s built for her werewolves. Many writers with long term series (and there are two intertwined series here) at this number of volumes either get bored, run out of ideas or are just phoning it in. Briggs brings it: and her stories don’t disappoint and although I’ve only read three or four books in the series I can keep up. While I think I’d get more out of the series if I were to read them all, in order, with a rudimentary understanding of Briggs’s werewolf-world I am able to engage with this one.
The story line is fraught with tension, devotion, betrayal and whatever you want to think of “pack” as. In werewolf series the “pack” idea is almost always central. In Briggs’s world it is as well. Her pack feels like a combination of family and fraternity, or lodge. There’s darkness – usually based in bad magic like the Marok’s past, but there’s also the devotion of family, and the way the pack works to support each other even when they don’t like each other. It’s very engaging and relatable.
This plot is complicated, violent and brutal with an amazing twist.
I have always felt Briggs is an outstanding writer; she doesn’t churn out ten books a year but what she does write is choice! Check it out!
PUBLISHER: http://www.penguinrandomhouseaudio.com/book/318262/burn-bright/
AUTHOR: http://www.patriciabriggs.com/books/
AUDIBLE: https://www.audible.com/pd/Romance/Burn-Bright-Audiobook/B076VSNJSG
February 23, 2018 @ 1:08 AM
I like what I’ve red of Briggs. I’ve read the first Mercy and was intrigued enough t continue, but I have a long way to go! This related series looks good as well, and I like how you mention the pack dynamics. She does seem to capture that well
February 23, 2018 @ 6:14 AM
Hi Greg – Thanks for commenting. I love the Mercy series; I think Briggs really raises the quality bar for PNR and Urban Fantasy.
February 23, 2018 @ 10:53 AM
You are so right about how central pack is and about the dynamics of her pack concept. I actually started with the Alpha and Omega series before my first Mercy Thompson when I encountered the prequel novella ‘Alpha & Omega’ in the On the Prowl Antho. I loved Charles and Anna and the whole idea of pack even though Anna’s pack was broken in that story. And I’ve been a fan ever since of the combination of the two series. 🙂
February 23, 2018 @ 8:54 PM
It’s interesting how intertwined the series are – love it! Thanks for commenting.