The girl is a necromancer--not the sexiest supernatural power to have, and kind of scary until you figure out what's what. After an incident at her performing arts high school, protagonist Chloe finds herself remanded to a group home for troubled teens.
After how much I enjoyed Brigg's last Alpha and Omega novel, I was disappointed that this one was more like the first full-length novel in the series, in that the author seemed to be more in love with the idea of the dynamic of the relationship than in telling a story.
You may recall that I was disappointed with the first full-length installment in Briggs's Alpha and Omega series. Well, PtL the second novel was up to the high standard Briggs set with her Mercy Thompson books.
I was stoked to pick this up at the library after waiting several weeks for it and after having read the short story that launched the Alpha and Omega series. I bet you know where I'm going with this. Cry Wolf was a disappointment. It did a lot more telling than showing and was overly impressed with the Omega wolf magic of radiating calm. I've found Briggs to be a creative and intelligent writer, but this one felt like her apprentice wrote it based on Briggs' outline and characters.
Part 4 in the Mortal Instruments series is compelling like the rest of them, but the ending annoyed me, and that the whole thing seems more focused on the romance than the paranormal bugs me, too. That's not to say you shouldn't read it.
"Alpha and Omega" is the first in this collection of paranormal romance novellas, and the only one I cared for. I could get into "Inhuman" and "Mona Lisa Betwining" at all, but I did read about half of "Buying Trouble" before giving up. A & O, while yeah, a romance, has more going for it than just kissery. The protagonist is a semi-recent wolf whose pack hasn't done right by her, and as it turns out has been behaving badly enough to attract the attention of the head werewolf in charge, who sends his hunky Flathead tribe son to bust some heads.
Even though I don't generally like them, I can handle an unreliable narrator. What I don't like is a manipulative author. Liar is an enjoyable read, but you end up irritated with it in the end. Therefore, I don't know whether to recommend it or not.
Pretty much the same review as for City of Bones.
For the most part I found City of Bones absorbing, yet predictable. There's one surprise I didn't see coming but should have, though. The protagonist, Clary, turns 16 during the course of the novel. I hope she catches onto things quicker as the series progresses and she gets older.
The Mercedes Thompson series may have joined the paranormal romance genre as Mercy joined with Alpha werewolf Adam Hauptman and took his name. Ugh. Really? I know there are lots of good reasons women take their husbands names, and I don't mean to diss them, but I just don't see this bad ass coyote shapeshifter auto mechanic having a drive to do so. Plus she's part American Indian, and aren't most tribes matrilineal?