Cry Wolf (Alpha and Omega, Book 1) | Patricia Briggs | A Wonderful Expansion of Brigg's Universe

Cry Wolf (Alpha and Omega, Book 1) | Patricia Briggs | Patricia Briggs Does It Again!

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Cry Wolf (Alpha an...

	Cry Wolf (Alpha and Omega, Book 1) Patricia Briggs Ace, 2008 - 320 pages average customer review:based on 83 reviews view larger image
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highly recommended

Now Briggs begins an extraordinary new series set in Mercy Thompson?s world?but with rules of its own.

INTRODUCING THE ALPHA AND OMEGA NOVELS...

Anna never knew werewolves existed until the night she survived a violent attack?and became one herself. After three years at the bottom of the pack, she?d learned to keep her head down and never, ever trust dominant males. But Anna is that rarest kind of werewolf: an Omega. And one of the most powerful werewolves in the country will recognize her value as a pack member?and as his mate.

A Wonderful Expansion of Brigg's Universe

Taking Charles Cornick, a minor character from the Mercedes Thompson universe, Patricia Briggs expands the werewolf community. On top of following Charles and Anna's relationship, the reader gets more history about Bran Cornick, the Marrok (aka current Werewolf King in North America), meets several characters in Aspen Creek, and learns more about the inner workings of a pack. Briggs uses a first person point of view, but switches between characters. She manages to make this not confusing, it actually adds depth as the reader sees small sections of the story from multiple POVs.

On the positive side, this story utilizes Anna's ignorance as a tool to educate the reader about the rules of the universe without making it too obvious. Briggs also gives information in brief sections, and avoids lectures. The story also flows well from one page to another.

On the negative side, Briggs wrote a short story that doesn't appear in this book, introducing Anna and her negative situation in Chicago. The reader doesn't have to read this, but the beginning of the novel feels as though it's missing some background information. Also, Briggs contradicts a few of her previously stated werewolf rules, but nothing too important.

On the whole, I recommend this book and author for anyone looking for an engaging read about werewolves and relationships.

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Patricia Briggs Does It Again!

Cry Wolf continues the story of Charles and Anna begun in the short story Alpha and Omega (from the On the Prowl Anthology). Anna is moving to Montana to live with Charles, and take her place in the Marrok's pack. However, when you live as long as werewolves do, you can make a lot of enemies. Before they have time to resolve the issues between them Charles and Anna are on the hunt for a rogue werewolf and a whole lot of history is about to smack them in the face.

I think Cry Wolf works best if you've read Alpha and Omega first, there is a catch up at the beginning of Cry Wolf but I think you'd get more out of the story if you read about Charles and Anna's first meeting and how Anna became a werewolf. This book also slots into the Mercy Thompson Universe following up some events that happened after Mercedes returned to the Tri-Cities.

I love Patricia Brigg's heroines. They're not superwomen, they're doing the best they can in difficult situations.

"She wondered that hope was so much harder than despair."

Anna is an Omega wolf. She's previously been told she's a submissive, the lowest of the low, but that just isn't the case. What we experience in Cry Wolf is Anna starting to learn exactly what it means to be an Omega. Charles and Bran will only help her so far, part of being in a werewolf pack means she has to find her own place.

Charles and Anna's relationship as humans is much more wary than their relationship as wolves. Their wolves have already decided they are mates, however their human halves have not. Kind of a unique situation in werewolf society as it usually happens the other way round, with the wolf being more wary.

Patricia Briggs has fleshed out the relationships between the various members of the Montana pack, how they work together as a unit, as a dysfunctional family. It's interesting that Anna thinks of the pack as a bunch of psychotics, in a way the Montana pack is a pack for werewolves who can't fit in anywhere else - they're too damaged, too set in their ways, too broken, but very interesting to read about.

Because Cry Wolf is written in third person rather than first. It also gives us the opportunity to see situations from more than one point of view. It's nice to be able to see what both Charles and Anna are thinking, and also be to see the way Bran thinks and to learn more of his history. There are more complex relationships being explored here rather than just that between Charles and Anna. We also have Bran & the pack, Asil & Bran, Asil & Sage. Each one unique and revealing something different.

I did find the middle of the book a little slow, however with this being the first book in the series, everything has to be set up here, so that didn't bother me too much. And as it seems only book will be released for this series a year, I have a long and impatient wait for the next book. Recommended.

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kind of disappointed

It pains me to give anything Patricia Briggs has written a poor review, so I'm going to keep this short.

I did not read the short story prequel before starting CRY WOLF, and that was a huge mistake. The short story tells us how Charles and Anna met and recognized one another as mates, and describes Anna's difficult history with her first pack. Not having read the short story, CRY WOLF often felt incomplete. I don't think it fully stands on its own.

This ought to be a minor problem, in the hands of an author as gifted as Briggs is. She should be able to drop me into the story and carry me forward, riveted, as she has in her other books. But the writing itself seemed sloppy to me - too much telling, not enough showing. I often felt like I was reading a plot summary instead of a novel. Characters in CRY WOLF rush from plot point to plot point while the author interrupts with long explanations of backstory and worldbuilding.

I love Patricia Briggs, not just the Mercy Hollings series but her more traditional fantasies, and I was pretty disappointed by CRY WOLF. But I have faith in the author, and I'll cross my fingers and hope that the next installment in the series is back up to her usual high standards.

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3.5 Stars

I am a huge fan of Patricia Briggs work as anyone who has read my reviews can see. However, this book had a slow and confusing start. The prologue begins with a character, Walter that is not introduced until a good bit later in the book and then the first two chapters were dedicated to confusing backstory and the tentativeness between Charles and Anna. The mating bond is slow to kick into place between the two of them. We do get to see a different side of Bran that I found fascinating.

The story later picks up and becomes just as good as the Mercy series, with a 200 year old witch as the villian and a new type of wolf, the omega. I ended up enjoying the book very much. I think that Briggs could have handled the intro much better, but she does get into her groove pretty quickly and then the story really flys. After a certain point I found that I didn't want to put the book down, but it took a few chapters to get there. I would recommend this book to anyone who likes the Mercy series simply because it is a part of that world.

3.5 stars

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