Originally posted on Just Geeking by.

Content warnings:
This book contains scenes of blood, violence, gun violence, gore, dismemberment (off page), death (including the death of a child), transphobia, misgendering, phone harassment, obsession, mind control, sexual harassment, spiders, and a car accident (minor injuries, no deaths).

The day I don’t enjoy a Mercy Thompson book is going to be a very sad day indeed, and once again I thoroughly enjoyed this latest novel by Patricia Briggs. Winter Lost comes after the very dark Soul Taken, and all the characters are reeling from the events of that book. While Mercy, Adam, the Pack and their allies triumphed, and the Soul Taker was destroyed, Mercy was left with gaping wounds in her magic and soul. While she’s trying to deal with them in her own way, aka stubbornly hoping it will fix itself, she’s terrified that the situation is permanent and what that now means for her.

Meanwhile, Bonarata, the most powerful vampire in the world who kidnapped Mercy in Silence Fallen, is continuing his obsession. Already on edge, Mercy is forced to endure harassing phone calls and hanging up on Bonarata has deadly consequences. With the threat of him lurking and Mercy not at her best, the last thing Mercy and Adam need is her brother Gary turning up at their door, unable to communicate.

All paths lead to Montana, where Gary was last working on a ranch. Mercy and Adam head to the ranch to see what they can find, a massive storm hits, cutting them off from everyone and everything. They find themselves at a lodge with a group of strangers, and soon realise there’s more going on than they realised.

While Winter Lost connects to everything that has happened in previous books, what I liked about this one was it took a step back and gave Mercy and Adam some breathing space instead of piling on another huge Tri-Cities crisis. That’s not to say the stakes in Winter Lost aren’t big – they are! – but they’re focused on something specific rather than it being a continuation of the ongoing scenarios.

In this book, Briggs also introduces ‘interludes’ between Mercy and Adam’s chapters, and these are short scenes that include other characters and tell the reader about events that take place outside the current events and timeline. Some happen before the book’s events start or before a particular scene, while others show what is happening to The Pack while Mercy and Adam are in Montana.

In the last few books, the dynamics of the Pack have been changing, especially since Sherwood’s identity and memory were restored. In Winter Lost, Adam leaves some of the dominant wolves in charge, letting them work things out for themselves while also ensuring there’s a third wolf to act as a tie-break vote if needed. One of the interludes shows us how some of the characters got on without Adam, and it was a brilliant scene.

A lot is happening in this book, and Briggs’ fantastic world-building shines through as she weaves myth and urban fantasy together. There’s a great mixture of humour, quirky characters and witty dialogue as always, that balances the difficult hard-hitting topics. I’ve seen some readers complain about the way Briggs has been depicting Mercy in the most recent books, particularly her vulnerability, and how Mercy is trying to be more open with Adam. I’m all for it.

Relationships are hard work, especially long-term relationships, and you don’t just hit a certain milestone and go aha that’s X amount of years, we can communicate perfectly now! People change constantly, and in a world like Mercy and Adam’s with magic and Pack bonds, it’s even more complicated. It makes a lot of sense that at this stage in the series, and in their relationship, this is where Briggs is heading.

I mentioned that the stakes were big in Winter Lost, albeit differently, and I liked the way that Briggs played around with myth and belief. It was very much a case of ‘well this could happen and no one wants to find out if it’s true or not!’, rather than complicating things and saying for certain that it would happen. That was my read on it anyway, I’m sure each reader will have their own.

Briggs has never been one to shy away from representation, with one of her main characters being gay, and the issues other male werewolves have with that character discussed in previous books. In this one, it was great to see her feature a transgender character working for Adam, and there was also an inner dialogue about a character possibly being neurodivergent. While the character isn’t neurodivergent, I very rarely see authors have their characters acknowledge the possibility. Instead, it’s comments about being “slow” or “weird” which is what another character says, and this inner dialogue was used to correct that, which was extremely appreciated!

I enjoyed Winter Lost a lot, and there were many new characters that I hope we see again. I also hope that Briggs includes interludes in each book from now on, as they were very interesting and often hilarious.

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I will never be able to predict where Mercy's journey will take her next, and that is one of the enduring delights of this series. I can't say much without spoilers, but it is a wonderful continuation of the series, exactly what my heart desired, and in every way a satisfying read.

Advanced Reader's Copy provided by Edelweiss. ( )