I didn't realize he was a werewolf at first. My nose isn't at its best when surrounded by axle grease and burnt oil . . .'Mercedes Thompson runs a garage in the Tri-Cities. She's a mechanic, and a damn good one, who spends her spare time karate training and tinkering with a VW bus that happens to belong to a vampire. Her next-door neighbour is an alpha werewolf - literally, the leader of the pack. And Mercy herself is a shapeshifter, sister to coyotes. As such, she's tolerated by the 'wolves but definitely down the pecking order. As long as she keeps her eyes down and remembers her place, the pack will leave her in peace.

Listening Length

9 hours and 14 minutes
Author

Patricia Briggs
Narrator

Lorelei King
Audible release date

September 1, 2009
Language

English
Publisher

Penguin Audio
ASIN

B002NLSE5W
Version

Unabridged
Program Type

Audiobook
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Product details

Listening Length	9 hours and 14 minutes
Author	Patricia Briggs
Narrator	Lorelei King
Whispersync for Voice	Ready
Audible.com Release Date	September 01, 2009
Publisher	Penguin Audio
Program Type	Audiobook
Version	Unabridged
Language	English
ASIN	B002NLSE5W
Best Sellers Rank	#3,006 in Audible Books & Originals (See Top 100 in Audible Books & Originals) #40 in Urban Fantasy #49 in Paranormal Romance (Audible Books & Originals) #83 in Paranormal Fantasy

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Lewis D. MedeirosTop Contributor: Harry Potter

Coyotes and werewolves and vampires, oh my.

Reviewed in the United States on November 23, 2017

Verified Purchase

The first of the Mercy Thompson novels is quite an enjoyable introduction to Patricia Briggs's urban fantasy setting (although that term is semi-inappropriate for this story, as it takes place for the most part in what sounds like a suburban setting with a side order of mountain wilderness toward the middle). Told in the first person, this series follows the adventures of Mercedes Thompson ("Mercy" for short), who believes herself "no match for a werewolf" but has a tendency to prove herself capable of standing up to most of the dark things life throws at her from this book onward. A "walker," Mercy's magical superpower is the ability to shift into a coyote form, but what makes her interesting is the mundane set of talents and traits layered on top of that, many of which manifest her as one of a surprisingly small number of "strong, independent woman trope" characters who narratively make sure they earn that status in the eyes of the reader rather than just stepping up and assuming that a handful of vaguely defined positive strengths can carry a character arc. She's a tough character, but also tactful enough to maneuver around the troublesome dominance instincts of a werewolf to avoid angering them; she's independent in the most practical sense, by which I mean she runs and owns her own business and is good enough at what she does to be proud of that business. And while she may mentally acknowledge and occasionally acquiesce to the wishes of the protective Alpha males in her life, she never quite brings herself to give up sticking her nose in things and has the cunning, nerve, and deductive reasoning skills to stand out as a dark horse contributor to the adventures she takes part in. That Mercy is such a compelling character is important, because Mercy is what holds this series of books together. There is no single, continuous plot, there is only continuity and character development. The stories are largely self-contained within their own arcs apart from their building effect on the world in which Mercy lives and on her and the characters around her.

This first book, Moon Called, is a little bit shaky in some aspects. It has a strong beginning, and a strong latter half. But toward the middle it begins to meander a bit too much, focusing too much attention in too condensed a chunk of the book on "guy problems," by which I mean Mercy's guy problems and then, immediately after, the problems of her gay werewolf friend. None of this is bad, but it leaves the pacing feeling uneven and I couldn't help but think that, if there was going to be a protracted period of non-action so soon in the book, it should not have set such a tense, violence-soaked tone in the early portion of the book. And if it needed to do that, then the romantic tensions of the middle portion really ought to have been spread out and broken up by more plot-relevant events. Fortunately this book is short enough that the meandering middle didn't wear me out before the story got back to business, which is good. And maybe this portion of the book is just more popular with Briggs's intended demographic than I give it credit for. It's very obvious from the way Mercy narrates events that the story is being written with straight women who like chiseled muscles, alpha males, and romanticized "animal instinct" notions in their love stories, and I'm a straight 29-year-old GUY who likes athletic women with a bit of humor and attitude, while simulataneously finding "animal instinct" notions in love stories goddang annoying. So my perspective might be skewed. Although the "...but all these animal instincts are kind of a pain in everyone's butts" caveat undertone to the proceeding does tickle that latter tendency of mine too, which I guess is a sign of a darn good, well-rounded approach to that idea. So Patricia Briggs does deserve some props for catering to one demographic while not necessarily writing a story that would be repellant to all others.

Anyone coming into this series in the year 2017 might be thinking of the likes of Twilight and Fifty Shades of Grey when I talk about that kind of thing though, so rest assured: Patricia Briggs is a much, much, much much much better writer than Stephanie Meyer or E. L. James. Leagues better. The only writing issues I can pinpoint are the above-mentioned uneven pacing, occasional typos here and there that should have really been flagged and fixed during the editing process, and the character of Warren, who is defined too heavily on his introduction by his homosexuality to entirely become anything more by the end of this book than "Adam and Mercy's gay werewolf friend" and may not grow on readers until subsequent books as a result of that. The frustrating thing in that last one is that Mercy herself briefly relays an anecdote about something cool Warren did in the past that marked him as a hero and all around good guy in her eyes, but actually witnessing that event as a scene within the book's narrative rather than a vague summary of backstory would have established Warren so much more effectively and then the whole thing where Mercy meddled with his boyfriend would have just been... you know... character development, rather than the only thing we knew about the character for the majority of his "screen time."

Still, first novel in series, so some misteps are to be expected. Overall it was still very enjoyable. It never really elevated itself beyond the level of pulp fiction popcorn entertainment, but as those kinds of novels go, this is one of the good ones. It gets my wholehearted recommendation, and I'm already reading the second one as I write this.

Final note: formatting in both the Mass Market Paperback and the Kindle edition are largely identical and fine. Paperback's small but sturdy and feels pretty good in the hand, but is not built for antiquity. If you're looking to COLLECT physical copies of these books, find hardcovers.

87 people found this helpful

Helpful

Do not stop...just go buy this!

Reviewed in the United States on December 29, 2020

Verified Purchase

First in the Mercy Thompson paranormal fantasy series and revolving around Mercedes, a VW mechanic in the Tri-Cities in Washington state.

My Take
I was surprised to see that I still haven't reviewed Moon Called, especially since I've been reading the series, over and over, for the past ten years!!

Yeah, I really like this series. I adore Mercy and that wicked sense of humor she's got. She's only one of the engaging characters in the series...I do like Adam and adore Warren. Kyle is an absolute crackup with a wicked wit. As for Zee...hmmm, I do want to know more about this growly fae. As for Bran, Samuel, and Charles...oh, yeah, I definitely want to know more!

Moon Called is brimming over with subplots and action that Briggs uses so well to introduce us to Mercy's entire world — the circumstances that resulted in her being fostered by the pack she grew up with; her relationships with the Marrok, her mother, and the pack she lives among now; and, her work life and the variety of people that come within that orbit. And that's barely dipping into all these interactions 'cause we can't forget the betrayals, the kidnappings, rescues, and more!

That Briggs is darned sneaky. I loved the scene where she introduces us to Medea and pokes fun at Adam for how he handles kitty and his annoyance with Mercy's trailer just across the fence of his backyard. A great way to avoid the dreaded info dump!

It's all first person protagonist point-of-view from Mercy's perspective. Thank god. Because I don't think we'd know a quarter as much...or Briggs would need one heckuva lot more pages! With the focus on Mercy, we quickly learn that her character arc over the series is one of finding a home, a place where she belongs and is accepted. I love that Briggs does this so well that I'm not wanting to smack Mercy upside the head..!

I'm with Mercy in her choice between a crucifix and her lamb. A much more positive choice to represent the Lamb of God.

Seems the Puritans weren't the only ones fleeing persecution for the New World.

Oh, lol, I did enjoy Zee's description of trolls: they "like money and extortion, a lot of them go into banking". Hmmm, or politics??

It's an easy read with so much going on that you'd better have Blood Bound , 2 (4) on hand! I should probably note that Briggs' Alpha & Omega series intertwines with Mercy Thompson (I call the combination the Mercyverse) BUT you don't need to read them both at the same time.

Hmm, there's a brief scene that mentions Charles' journey to Chicago with a result that's different from what's in this story, Shifting Shadows: "Alpha & Omega", 0.5 (Mercyverse, 1.1).

The whole series is about doing what's right and sticking up for the powerless. Briggs also gets in a major dig at bigotry and the idiots who fall into it. It just goes to show that you don't need to be strong...just sneaky, lol.

The Story
As a walker, Mercy has a sharp nose and an ability to sense magic, so she knows who, or rather what, Mac is when he approaches her, asking for work. It's that compassion of hers that is the inciting incident.

Mac had escaped from a cruel experiment, and then his captors show up looking for him. It's a battle that convinces Mercy that she has to introduce Mac to the local Alpha.

Before you can say “from the frying pan into the fire”, things go awry and Mercy finds and just barely manages to flee with a wounded Adam to the Marrok, the leader of all the North American werewolves, whose son Samuel is the man whom Mercy once loved and lost.

Meanwhile, Adam's fifteen-year-old daughter Jesse has been kidnapped by the same people who came after Mac.

Mercy must contend not only with all the fae, vampires, other werewolves, and a witch or two, but also with Adam's and Samuel's interest in her and the territorial contentiousness that results from it.

The Characters
Mercedes "Mercy" Thompson runs a one-woman garage, specializing in German cars. Yeah, yeah, she's heard all the jokes... She's also a walker, a Native American shapeshifter who turns into a coyote. Thankfully, she's also studying Shi Sei Kai Kan, a style of karate. Medea is the Manx cat (who adores anyone who'll pet her) who lives with Mercy in her trailer in Finley. Tad had been her faithful office boy and tool rustler...gone off to college on a minority scholarship. Gabriel Sandoval will be Tad's replacement...and work off those car repairs.

Zee, a.k.a. Siebold Adelbertsmiter, calls himself a gremlin after being forced to reveal himself five or six years ago. He's actually a Metallzauber who can handle all sorts of metals. He owned the garage that Mercy bought from him. Tad is his half-fae, half-human son.

The Columbia Basin Pack is...
...in the Tri-Cities and ruled by Adam Hauptman, the Alpha, a former Special Forces Ranger who was turned back in Vietnam, who owns a security company. The cheeky Jesse Hauptman is his fifteen-year-old daughter who loves to color her hair. Moms will freak, lol. Adam is divorced from her selfish flake of a mother, who lives in Eugene.

His wolves include Dr Darryl Zao, his second and an engineer at the Pacific Northwest Laboratories, whose wife, Auriele, is a chemistry teacher at Richland High. The gay Warren is Adam's third and a good friend. Kyle is Warren's friend, a very successful, gay divorce lawyer, who likes to make bigots squirm. Ben is a recent member, banished from England to get out from under a series of crimes. Mary Jo is a firefighter in Kennewick. John Cavanaugh is a realtor.

"Mac", a.k.a. Alan MacKenzie Frazier, is a starving, desperate werewolf who knows nothing. Joe is his brother. Meg had been Mac's girlfriend. Leo James is one of two of the Chicago Alphas. Elizaveta Arkadyenva Vyshnevetskaya is a very powerful Russian, almost black witch, under contract to Adam's pack. Robert is her grandson.

The Marrok is...
...the Alpha of all Alphas, in charge of North America. He's Bran Cornick, based in Aspen Creek, Montana, and very, very old — he came to Montana with David Thompson, a Welsh cartographer in the late 1700s. Dr Samuel Cornick, another werewolf, is Bran's oldest son (born when Bran was still human) who had tried to elope with Mercy years ago. Charles Cornick, born around 1813, is Bran's younger son and a genius with finance. He's also the Marrok's Enforcer. (He's about to head out to Chicago, Shifting Shadows: "Alpha & Omega"). Charles' mother had been a Salish woman with magic of her own. Leah is Bran's nasty mate, who hates Mercy.

Bryan, a werewolf, and his mate had been Mercy's foster parents. Lisa Stoval helps run the motel in Aspen Creek along with Carl and Marlie. Marlie's brother, Lee, was one of those who didn't survive the Change. Dr Carter Wallace is the Aspen Creek veterinarian. His son, Gerry, is a werewolf and the Marrok's liaison with packless wolves. George Brown, another werewolf, breeds award-winning mastiffs.

The Fae...
...came out thirty years ago. The Gray Lords are the powerful who rule the fae. Kieran McBridge is the garden sprite gardener accused of murdering Harlan Kincaid, a billionaire. Carin Kincaid had been his gorgeous actress wife.

The Mid-Columbia seethe is...
...the local vampires and are led by the depressed Signora Marsilia, a.k.a. the Mistress, who had been banished from the side of her love, the Lord of Night, the Master of Milan in Italy. Stefan Uccello, a vampire who loves Scooby Doo and has his own Mystery Machine, is friendly with Mercy. Lilly is a mentally challenged vampire with a gift for the piano. Estelle and Andre are more of Marsilia's vampires. The vampires extort protection money from every supernatural doing business in the area. Except for the Pack.

Tony is an undercover detective who is totally flummoxed as to how Mercy always recognizes him. He's in love with Sylvia Sandoval, a widow with a ton of kids, who is a police dispatcher who refuses to date a cop.

Margi is Mercy's overwhelming mother; Curt is her stepfather, a dentist. Mercy's biological father had been a Blackfoot rodeo rider, Joe Old Coyote. A great-grandfather's uncle turned out to be a werewolf.

Dennis (a retired pipefitter) and Anna (a retired nurse) Cather are Mercy's neighbors. McCue and David Christiansen had been part of Adam's fated unit. David has grandsons now: Connor, John-Julian, and Shawn. Geordi appears to be a rival for Kyle. Ally is Kyle's sympathetic sister. The Fairy Mound in Walla Walla is the fae bar for tourists. Uncle Mike's is a fae bar in Pasco, that is strictly for the fae. Karen had been one of Mercy's college roommates.

The Cover and Title
The cover is a range of blacks starting with that foggy gray background, a full moon centered at the top and a wrought iron gate with two baying wolves framing its center. In front of the gate is a cocky Mercy in hip hugger jeans, her hands framing the coyote print tattoo below her belly button. Her head is cocked, her long dark hair blowing across her face with one feathered earring visible. She's wearing a black leather cropped, sleeveless top with a jewel neckline that shows off her tattooed sleeves (not sure why as Mercy only has the one tattoo in the story). All the text is in white starting with the info blurb at the very top with the author's name below that. A testimonial is to the right of Mercy's upper arm with the title at the bottom.

The title is a reference to the werewolves, for they are Moon Called.

6 people found this helpful

Helpful

Moon Called by Patricia Briggs

Reviewed in the United States on January 20, 2018

Verified Purchase

I must have read this book a minimum of ten times at this point. Yet, I have never officially reviewed it. When I picked it up (yet again) I was worried that I would have become bored with reading it. I mean I know EVERYTHING that is going to happen. I was thrilled that I enjoyed it just as much as the first time that I picked it up. Although, I did find myself making a lot of connections with plots further on in the series. It was pretty cool to see the continuity in the series.

This book is pretty amazing. There is extremely impressive character building, the world that Briggs developed is fascinating, and the writing is superb. Reading this book makes me happy. Which, if you really think about it is kind of weird. It is not really a happy everything is well type of book. Yet I still pick up this book to relax away from the world.

This is an amazing start to what I consider to be my absolute favorite urban fantasy series. If you are even remotely interested then you should absolutely, without a doubt, check out this book.

20 people found this helpful

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Top reviews from other countries

S Payne

Not really for me I guess

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on June 10, 2022

Verified Purchase

I had never read anything by Patricia Briggs before but the reviews looked great, I generally enjoy this type of book and wanted a quick read so I started reading.

Our main character is Mercy, a supernatural mechanic who just wants to keep her head down and get on with her life. When a teenage werewolf walks into her garage looking for work she finds herself pulled into situations she’d rather have avoided. We follow her journey and learn more about all the different supernatural characters she has in their life and the complicated way that they all exist alongside each other.

Based on all the great reviews, I had high hopes for this book so maybe that was why I was left so disappointed. This wasn’t a bad read actually, it was just really slow. We start off by learning a lot about Mercy and her life and just when we meet more characters and think it’ll get interesting…it just doesn’t. There is no real love action but there is a lot of action action. I found myself not really connecting with the characters and I know the first book is usually mostly world-building but there just wasn’t enough of anything else here to keep me reading the rest of the series.

Poetic Puppy

Very enjoyable

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on March 16, 2018

Verified Purchase

Mercy is a supernatural mechanic who just wants to keep her head down and get on with her life. When a teenage werewolf walks into her garage looking for work however, she’ll soon find herself pulled into situations she’d rather have avoided.

I have to say I’ve not read this author before and was surprised to find myself attached to the characters so quickly. It’s probably for this reason that the death of one of the characters early on hit me quite hard. That moment was bitter sweet for me as I’ve not experienced that before. I could say that Mercy is your typical feisty female but she’s more than just that and I particularly love the way she handles Adam; her forms of revenge/rebellion are quite unique. Adam pretty much is your typical alpha male, but it’s his backstory that makes him stand out for me. I’m used to shifters having true mates, so it’s unusual to see a shifter that’s been in a relationship that was serious enough to produce a child. His daughter adds another element to the story and the character dynamics that I find interesting though, so that’s good. It’s the unique little twists that I look for in my favourite books and this one has a fair few of them; though if you’re expecting everything to be wrapped up in a neat little bow by the end of ‘Moon Called’ you’ll find yourself disappointed. Personally, I’m looking forward to discovering the reasons behind a certain picture in someone’s bedroom and the specifics behind a certain agreement, etc. in the subsequent novels.

Cautionary element(s): Contains a kidnapping and the threat of rape.

5 people found this helpful

Kindle Customer

An entrancing start to a fabulous series

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on September 22, 2021

Verified Purchase

I think I must have borrowed this book the first time I read it, so I was delighted to get it to keep for my Kindle.
This is the start of the series and it draws us in from the start with intriguing glimpses of some of the characters who will be developed even more as the series progresses.
We dive straight in to see Mercy in action and find out about her world. I love that she meets the big bad wolf and ends up rescuing him from bad guys. Mercy knows her strengths and is humble enough to know her weaknesses and to ask for help when she needs it - though usually to help other people rather than herself.
Another strength of this world is that it's all about the shades of grey. We don't generally have villains and goodies; we have individuals trying to survive and thrive in a world which isn't always aware of their nature. This makes for much more interesting reading. Thank you Ms Briggs!

Bookworm 262

Brilliant start to the series

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on February 13, 2020

Verified Purchase

First book in the excellent Mercy Thompson series. I first read this years ago and I have been reading the series ever since. I recently bought this version for my kindle as its a book I can reread.

It sets the scene of a world that holds more than just humans in it. As well as werewolves there are fae, vampires and even some native American creatures like Mercy who can change into a coyote. Most of these creatures stay hidden but many are in a race against modern technology that can uncover them at any time.

The fae chose to expose themselves and we get to see history repeating itself as they are marginalised and put onto reservations for their own safety. The time is coming soon for the werewolves to show themselves but of course there are always conflicts when this is suggested.

So we meet a whole cast of interesting characters including Mercy who is as crafty as her coyote alter ego. In any good book the ingredients include humour and tears and conflict and reconciliation. This book has it all and I loved it.

One person found this helpful

Wendy

Worth reading

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on May 10, 2019

Verified Purchase

I haven't read any books by this author when this series caught my eye. I loved the concept of the story and the plot was fast paced. However, there was more than one thread of the plot unfolding and it did get a bit confusing at times. I had to keep going back as I thought I must have missed something. The characters names got mixed up to, Mercy would refer to someone by their last name then switch to their first, and you're like "hang on who she on about"?
Loved Mercy's character, sensible, brave, loyal and kick arse. Strange that the Alpha suddenly made a play for her when there was no "sexual" ;or romantic thing prior spoke about. Not sure if I will carry on with any more in the series.

2 people found this helpful

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