Iron Kissed Book Review

Major Spoilers are included in this book review. Please proceed with caution.

Before reading further, if you have not read my Moon Called or Blood Bound reviews, the links are here and here respectively. Now, let us continue:

Written in January 2008, the series centers around Mercy Thompson, an auto mechanic who lives in the Tri-Cities. She also happens to be a shape-shifter. In the third book, Mercy investigates a murder to clear her friend’s name and to find the real killer.

I almost want to stop reading the Mercy Thompson series. The third book made me uncomfortable with its ending. The love triangle was resolved in a weird manner, and the toxic masculinity was at its strongest with Adam, Tim, and Samuel. Yes, I have been noticing a trend with the first three books. The werewolves, Adam’s Pack, keep acting like they own Mercy like she’s their property, and I still cannot believe she lets them treat her that way.

However, the writing for most of the book was good… the mystery plot with Mercy’s friend Zee and the world-building with the Fae was the best part of the entire book. Fae are my least favorite supernatural species. I thought they weren’t done well in the Sookie Stackhouse series, or its TV counterpart, True Blood either. However, the mythology behind the Fae artifacts, how they connected to the mystery, and the overall species was surprisingly fascinating. I commend Patricia Briggs for making such a great world.

Mercy Thompson series have a solid formula that expands Mercy’s character and the world in natural ways. The ending practically ruined the entire book in my opinion. How Patricia Briggs used the rape writing trope was an injustice to her heroine. She used it to bypass developing her characters and plot.

Then, the love triangle choice was taken away from her. I was actually hoping Briggs would not implement the “one of them dies or leaves” trope to rob Mercy of choosing, and thank goodness she didn’t! However, the choice was still taken from Mercy. Let me explain this: Samuel chose to take himself out of the running because he was not interested anymore. This scene made me mad when Samuel said he’d talk to Adam about letting him have her… she is not their property to play with.

Stefan was also absent, and he's a fan-favorite because I literally see Stefan Salvatore from The Vampire Diaries.

Overall, the book started good like usual, then the love triangle made me lose interest for a few days, and then the ending was awful. I bought the next three books ahead of finishing, and kind-of regret it… I’ll be taking a break from this series.

Next? The Hero of Ages by Brandon Sanderson. Time to finish the Mistborn Trilogy.