No more vampires, which is a plus for me at least. Your milage may vary. Instead we get a mix of wolves and Fae, which in my opinion are the best parts of the Mercyverse worldbuilding.

The subplot with Samuel is interesting. One thing that many urban fantasies tend to sweep under the rug is exactly how hard it could be to live for century after century. Many will pay lip service to it, mentioning it from time to time, but the characters often still feel relatively young. Samuel has some of that as well, but there are at least hints of of it here that he is really an old wolf.

I’m not sure what I think exactly about the idea of werewolves being two ‘souls’ that each seem to be fully conscious being in their own right. It feels like something that really needs more exploration than it gets and is mostly ignored, but perhaps that comes from not having a werewolf protagonist.

So far as the Fae parts of the book goes, we get to see more of the best and the worst of the Fae, including some neat tricks that would best stay hidden from the public at large. The ending is neat too, even if it continues to suck to be Mercy at the end of these books. Briggs really does seem to love torturing her…

One of my favorite parts of the books is the section in the middle where Adam’s alpha status is challenged. It’s a messy situation politically and an interesting fight that is going to have (or at least should have) ramifications moving forwards in the series.

Random note: I’m amused/intrigued that Ariana (or arian) rather means silver in Welsh.