Book Review: Moon-Called

TITLE: Moon-Called
Book 1 in the Mercy Thompson series
AUTHOR: Patricia Briggs
PUBLISHED: 2006
CATEGORY: Adult
GENRE: Urban fantasy, werewolves
PREMISE: Mercy is a were-coyote who does her best keep her head low in the world of the werewolves/fae/vampires. But when her Alpha werewolf neighbor Adam gets attacked she has no choice but to be drawn into the world again...
MY REVIEW: Once again, I must say, not a terribly original idea. Is no one creative anymore? I mean this series is pretty much Sookie Stackhouse redone with an emphasis on werewolves. Nothing new, nothing I haven't seen before.
Now please don't take this to mean I didn't like the book. I actually did like it. Possibly a bit more then Sookie Stackhouse because the plot is more organized and Mercy isn't as frustrating a character as Sookie can be. But still...not original. But that aside it's a good interesting book. I found the look into pack life interesting and liked her world building. In fact, other then the originality my only other complaint is the covers of these books. It's well done artistic wise, don't get me wrong (although her boobs look fake), I'm just a tad bit confused about why Mercy is dressed like a slut on the cover. I'm not a prude, it's just a little annoying because I didn't read one instance in the book where she's dressed like that. From what I read she was mostly a t-shirt/jeans sort of a gal. Yet all the covers have her bearing her middriff and looking like she's auditioning for a driveing porno or something. It gives the wrong impression about not only her character but what the books are about and probably makes a lot of women hesitate to pick up the books (I did for awhile because of the cover myself). I just think it's a poor decision on the part of the publishers to do that as it kind misrepresents what the books are about.
Other then the annoying cover and lack of originality, I liked the book. Mercy is an awesome character that I'm looking forward to reading more about and learning more about this interesting world that Briggs created. I highly reccomend it to urban fantasy fans. Please, don't be put off by the cover like I was for the longest time. These are decent books.
WHO SHOULD READ: Werewolf fans, Sookie Stackhouse fans, Kelley Armstrong fans, Twilight fans
MY RATING: Four out of Five cars

FOR THE FOLLOWING CHALLENGES:
12 by 12 in October
One Hundred Plus Books
First in a series