In some ways, Fire Touched manages to back down from the scale of the previous two books. We’re no longer fighting primordial spirits or gods, but rather “just” the Fae. Of course, as we see through the course of the book, there are some Fae who might as well be gods.

On the other hand, this book as many as any that came before will really change the shape of the future of the universe that Briggs is building. In a nutshell, the wolves are going politically toe to toe with the Fae. Anything more than that would be even more a spoiler, but it’s still another interesting bit of worldbuilding.

Speaking of world building, we get a fair bit more depth with the Fae, which seem to have been more or less lacking for the past few books. Getting to see a few more of the Gray Lords and other powerful Fae is a plus. Especially when you get to realize that Zee really is a badass.

Characterwise, I didn’t overly like Aden, especially at first, but I think that’s sort of the point. He’s a changeling and an odd combination of young boy and very very old. At the very least, he does serve well as a walking, talking MacGuffin, so that’s a thing.

Another interesting one is Joel the Tibicenas. He’s actually integrating surprisingly well. It’s kind of strange how well everyone is doing with that, compared to how little they originally liked Mercy around. Speaking of which… Let’s just say werewolves are weird. Adam finally blows up about how the pack has been treating Mercy and the ramifications are … interesting. Also, Mercy gets to kick some serious butt. Even if it’s not always of her own volition, it’s still mostly due to previous choices she made.

Overall, another solid book. One of the better ones, in my opinion. Of course, if you’ve made it this far in the series already, I doubt anything I saw would dissuade you or not from reading just one more.

The worst part though… The next one isn’t out until next year. Gah!