Blood Bound

Written by Patricia Briggs

Narrated by Lorelei King

Like most people who own their own business, I work long hours that start early in the morning. So when someone calls me in the middle of the night, they'd better be dying ...

Mechanic Mercy Thompson is woken at 3am by a vampire calling in a favour. He has to deliver a message to a fellow undead and needs a witness that won't be noticed—and Mercy's shapeshifting abilities make her the perfect candidate.

But the assignment turns into a bloodbath and Mercy attracts the attention of not just a powerful vampire, but the even more powerful demon possessing him. She can count on the supernatural community for protection—and alpha werewolf Adam would like her to rely on him in other ways too—but when it comes to being proactive, she's on her own.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Little, Brown (Hachette UK) Audio
• Release date: Jun 25, 2015
• ISBN: 9781405534093

Patricia Briggs

#1 New York Times bestselling author Patricia Briggs lives in Washington State with her husband, children, and a small herd of horses.

Reviews for Blood Bound

[library_breeder · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Since this is the second book in a long series and you might be wondering if you want to continue past the first one, and I have read the entire series multiple times - along with a TON of other books, I figured I would just give you the nitty gritty on what to expect on the whole rather than focus on this one book. This would be what I would be looking for when approaching an unknown series that I might be interested in reading past the first book, but was wondering if it will hold up or possibly continue in a vein that I didn't like in the first book. So, here is the down low.

This is a great series that doesn't devolve into smut, it keeps a solid PG to PG-13 rating.

However the lack of sexytimes doesn't go missing if you know they aren't happening, and as the series progresses it seems that they are getting a bit more "there". Instead of a couple of vague paragraphs starting in the future, the last couple of books had a couple of pages. It's as if the author had too many requests for more steam and gave a bit more to appease the masses.

However, there isn't a lack of smolder. In the beginning before the characters finally "get together" there are kissing and heated exhanges with some groping and "if we hadn't been interrupted I would have had you on your back" and "If you hadn't stopped, I would have let you." Our cast isn't prudish, they just have traditional views on sex and romance.

While it has tight storylines and a good amount of plot and scenes in each book. The lack of smut doesn't detract in anyway from the Romantic aspects.

Also, the characters grow naturally and stay true to their "main selves" there are no Mary Sues. The cast expands as the series progresses but for the most part each new character brought in that has any kind of role, tends to flesh out and may show up as a series regular.

Each book has a main story that turns into a mystery of some sort with multiple side trips to other tangental plot points. A lot happens in each book, and they seem to always end with a couple of chapters after the "wrap-up" and not just solving the mystery and closing fluff.

Each book is self contained but there since it has the same cast tht only grows as the series progresses there are a lot of dynamics and recalling of previous plot points that basically need to have been read to fully appreciate. With the exception of one book - "Silence Fallen" the series is written in the first person POV of our heroine, and that book is an alternating Hero/Heroine first POV.

They are not straight who-dun-it murder mysteries, but a mystery "happening" that needs solving to close it out, or solving to overcome an obstacle. This series can fall under Paranormal Fiction/Urban Fantasy - with Romantic Elements. It has Vampires, Werewolves and Fae as the main cast with Witches as second tier cast and a few ghosts thrown in here and there.

After reading a lot of other PNR/Paranormal/Fantasy/Urban Fantasy series and compared them to his I feel that this is a quality series that is free from the same tired tropes, characters and plot points that a lot of second and third tier Urban Fantasy/PNR books have.

This is a First Tier Series only slightly below Illona Andrews, Jeaniene Frost and Nalini Singh, but only by a half star margin. Those are the big three in my opionion. However, I rated it as a favorite and as you can see I have read it to death. If you have a library card then you can easily get it for your Kindle or e-reader online in both the ebook and audio versions - which are well narrated.

[jennybeast · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

read 3 times so far. The audio book versions are good, too!

[payday1999-430350 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

I really liked this book, not as great as Moon Called, but still a great book. This book has to deal with Stefan and him calling in a favor for Mercy to help with with a new vampire in town, who has brought a demon with him. With this book we get to see the vampire seethe and the local wolf pack be involved in dealing with this demon.

Another great book in Patricia Briggs series and I would recommend it to anybody.

[samnreader · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

I love this series pretty hard. Mercy is such a great combination of strength, courage, and vulnerability and doesn't let her many suitors get in her way.

Yes, she has many suitors it seems. Normally, this would aggravate me. Right now, it feels like it's legitimately explained through the relative dearth of females and the desire to keep things pretty close in the magic community.

I'm sure glad these covers aren't lying around though.

[kindleifier · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

I enjoyed this second outing for Mercy Thompson. Lorelei King is an excellent reader with good vocal characterisation. Despite this I did find myself losing track of who was who among the minor characters, which was distracting. But this might have been due to my state of mind at the time of listening. The main characters, Mercy (coyote shapeshifter), Stefan (vampire), Adam and Samuel (werewolves), are well drawn and engage your attention and interest. Werewolf culture has been given a lot of thought, much more so than the vampires who, with the notable exception of Stefan, are very traditionally drawn as uniformly evil. Definitely worth a listen.

[kmartin802_1 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

This is the second book in the urban fantasy series that stars Mercedes Thompson who is a VW mechanic and coyote shifter. When a vampire named Stefan calls in a favor, Mercy finds herself immersed in a complicated situation.Stefan asks her to go along as he meets a vampire who damaged a friend of his. He is surprised to find that the vampire is newly made and was made from a human who is also a sorcerer. When Stefan goes missing along with some of the werewolves in the pack next door to Mercy's house, the head of the local vampire seethe calls on Mercy to find the sorcerer vampire.The story was filled with excitement and action as Mercy searches for her missing friends before the sorcerer can kill them. I like Mercy's growing friendship/romance with Adam who is the head of the local pack. I like her wariness as she realizes that Adam can use his powers to overwhelm her if he chooses too and her growing trust that he won't. I also found her relationship with Stefan to be interesting and am eager to see where it goes in later books.The narration was well done and the voices distinct. The narrator had a great sense of timing and pace.

[chaoticbooklover · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

While I wasn’t expecting a whole heck of a lot of drama in the second book in this series. I was hoping for a little more towards the end.
Mercy, gets a call from her vamp “friend” Stephan to accompany him on a little field trip. He calls her because she can shift into coyote form and most magic works differently on her than others. So her a Stephan make a trip to visit another vampire whom has not asked for permission to be in the area. While there it is not a great time for Mercy or Stephan because it turns out that the vamp in question is a sorcerer and has semi control of a demon.
The Sorcerer vamp be-spells Stephan and makes him believe that he is the one that killed the maid in the room. Mercy is in a harness and leash and can not escape and ends up getting hurt by the demon ridden vamp.
Eventually Mercy is called to the Seethe by the vamp mistress and ends up sitting in a magical chair that with the help of Wulfe can tell truth from a lie. After the mistress hears what really happens she allows Stephan to hunt this sorcerer vamp and Stephan takes two wolves from Adam’s pack, Warren and Ben.
Ben and Stephan are captured by the Sorcerer vamp and Warren is badly wounded. Of course you know that Mercy is ticked and wants to hunt him, so when the vamp mistress asks for her help and gives her use of Andre ( vamp mistress’s left hand man), Mercy has no problem accepting the “challenge”.
Zee and Uncle Mike give Mercy a vamp killing kit that includes a medallion that will cause the vamp it is used on to go up in flames once Mercy speaks it’s name.
After a little research on her own and the fact that she can see ghosts, Mercy figures out the vicinity that the sorcerer vamp is in and then it occurs to her that someone had to make this vamp and she comes to the conclusion that it was Andre.
I won’t spoil the entire book, but in the end almost all is well and Mercy does something that in the long run could cost her her life.

[enyonam-13 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

The first book in the series, Moon Called, is mostly about werewolves; Blood Bound belongs to the vampires. I've read this book several times before, but it hasn't lost anything in the re-reading—if anything, I think I like it better after having read the rest of the series. Learning more about the vampires from the subsequent books actually makes this one better, because a lot of the vampire politics that Mercy didn't understand in this book become more clear. Not to mention that it has a great plot with a great protagonist.

[lauren2013_1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Blood Bound
4 Stars

Overall, the plot, world building and characters are very compelling although there are one or two elements that grate on the nerves.

Lets get these out of the way first. To begin with, the religious overtones are becoming more and more irritating. They were quite subtle in book #1 but become more overt in Blood Bound, and while I have great respect for people of faith and have my own beliefs, I dislike being preached to and Urban Fantasy is not an appropriate genre for espousing the Christian faith or anti-abortion rhetoric.

Moreover, the misogynistic facets are annoying. Yes, the werewolves are a patriarchal society and a woman's rank is determined by that of her mate but Mercy's attitude toward the women in the pack is not much better. On the surface, she seems to criticize and reject the chauvinistic elements but underneath it all is an implied acceptance of it. She has no female friends either within or without the pack and takes on a condescending and elitist tone when relating to other female characters, especially Honey. She also seems to enjoy the dominance of the male wolves and to accept the potential for submissiveness.

Nevertheless, Blood Bound is an entertaining book and the dynamics between the various supernatural groups and characters are very intriguing. Mercy is intelligent and likable enough although she is not as kick-ass as I would like (she definitely suffers in comparison to Kate Daniels). Her chemistry with Adam, the pack alpha, is one of the highlights of the story although I could do without the love quadrangle with Samuel and now Stefan (ick!)

The plot surrounding a demon possessed sorcerer who is also a rogue vampire makes for exciting reading. The insight into vampire culture, their strengths and weaknesses adds an extra layer to the world building as does the new information on pack politics.

All in all, the Mercy Thompson series has potential despite its shortfalls and I am interested enough in the world and the characters to continue.

[jetangen4571 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

It's hard enough being the owner/basically sole employee of a mechanic shop in a small town, but getting involved in vampire politics is even worse when you're a coyote shifter.

[les121 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

My Mercy Thompson reread continues! Blood Bound is an action-packed sequel that builds on the awesome characters, worldbuilding, and romantic tension established in the first book. I am loving these books just as much - if not more - the second time around. Highly recommended.

[bell7_1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Mercedes Thompson is asked by her friend Stefan, a vampire, if she will come with him as a witness to warn someone away from their territory. In coyote form, she sees a sorcerer vampire convince Stefan that he kills and feeds on a woman, and only Mercy knows what really happened. Will she and the werewolves be able to take care of this new threat before it's too late? The second book in the series was an interesting one, giving a little more idea of what Mercy's talents just might be.

[librarycin · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

This is book 2 of the series. Mercedes (Mercy) is a mechanic and a shapeshifter (coyote) who was raised by werewolves, so she knows them and their society well. There are also vampires in the area with whom she is acquainted. She owes Stefan, one of those vampires, a favour, so she accompanies him in her coyote form to see someone. When they arrive, Stefan is put under a spell while they watch a hotel maid murdered; other hotel employees have already been murdered this night. They discover that the guy who brought them there, and who did the murdering is a sorcerer-vampire, and Mercy is warned away while the vampires and werewolves try to hunt him down to destroy him before he murders more. I really liked this one. It especially picked up in the second half when Mercy (of course!) had to get more involved again. There was a particularly tense (i.e. scary!) scene, at one point (at least for me it was!). There are a lot of characters and I did get a few mixed up occasionally (Stefan/Samuel, Adam/Andre, and a few others who I just couldn’t remember if they were introduced in book 1 or if I “skimmed” a section where they were introduced earlier in this book). However, that didn’t diminish my enjoyment very much.

[tysonadams · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Never do a favour for something as it will come back to bite you.

Mercy Thompson is just your typical small business owner: fixing cars, keeping customers happy, seeing ghosts, dating werewolves, and being asked to do a vampire a favour. The favour involves helping Stephan with a vampire sorcerer, and that goes just as well as you'd expect. With the death-toll rising and even vampires and werewolves powerless against the sorcerer, it looks like Mercy is the only one who can stop evil.

Blood Bound is the second Mercy Thompson novel by Patricia Briggs. Where the first novel had more of a crime novel vibe, this is its own beast. Mercy may be the protagonist, but the world doesn't revolve around her, so many things happen without her, yet ultimately drag her into the fray. This makes the series quite refreshing and enjoyable for me. I'm looking forward to reading the next instalment.

[gayla.bassham · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

I enjoy this series much more than the Charlaine Harris books.

[deborahj2016 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Mercy seems to be collecting Male Admirer..erer...ers. Luckily, she understands that a lot of it is politics and power games- but she's creeping into MarySue territory here. I do like the fact that Mercy remains uninformed (and is pretty p'ed off about said lack of info) by the people who intend to use her ...unique... skill-set for their own rise into power.
Described by more than one character as the one most likely to fall on the grenade for the team, she's definitely in Shero territory, but her ultimate Shero status is still up in the air; in my opinion, anyway.

Good book, good characters, and good unfinished storylines to draw you to the next volume.

[carolesrandomlife · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

I have so much love for this series! This was my second time reading this book and I can honestly say that I liked it just as much as I did the first and maybe even a bit more. One thing that I enjoy about re-reading books in series that I love is seeing how many things have changed for the characters. I love how some of the groundwork for future events takes root in earlier books.The characters in this series are wonderful. Mercy is awesome. She has a wonderful sense of humor and she is tough. She knows that she is not as physically strong as many of the people she surrounds herself with but she more than makes up for it in mental toughness. She isn't afraid to take risks especially if it is the right thing to do. This book actually has a pretty big cast of characters and I really love them all. Adam and Sam are both great characters. The members of Adam's pack are all so well defined that they really stand out as individuals. I think it takes real skill to bring such a big group of characters to life.The world building in this series is phenomenal. Everything just fits perfectly. It seems like each book adds another layer to the whole picture with complete consistency. I love all of the pack politics and learning about how all of these different groups have learned to live with each other. There were moments in this book that were quite creepy and I loved every moment of it.I really enjoyed Lorelei King's narration. Her voice fits Mercy's character quiet well. It was really easy to follow and I thought she did a great job differentiating between all of the different characters. I also thought that she did a great job in displaying all of the different emotions of the story. I can't wait to continue this series in audio.I would highly recommend this series to others. I think that anyone who enjoys urban fiction or paranormal stories should check out this series. I am a huge Patricia Briggs fan and can't wait to see what she can come up with next.

[ibeth_2 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

More vampires and werewolves. The story was engaging and the characters well-drawn.

[theyodamom · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Tough mechanic and Walker, Mercy, who turns into a coyote has love trouble, vampire trouble, and demon trouble. Basically nothing but trouble. Were's and vamps are turning up dead, anyone that tries to save them, becomes a victim too. This is some unknown evil force that may take Mercy's loves out of her life. She is forced to fight along side a force she does not trust, one that may even kill her. She learns more of what she is and her gifts.
This second book in the series was very exciting,never a dull moment ! I love her interaction men. I am off to read the next book

[irrhapsodi · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Sigh, vampires... This book is a compelling follow-up to the first in the series, and I loved seeing all the characters again. Digging a little deeper into the supernatural life, and how much the supernaturals keep hidden from the mundane humans despite the Fae's 'coming out'. There's a long stretch of the story where most of the action happens off-screen--the main narrator/protagonist is very peripheral to the searching and...stuff. That pointed to the concept of community; not everything happens to or depends upon merely one character.

[2wondery_1 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

The circumstances involving vampire, Stephan, were a bit off putting this go-round; but I'm willing to give the next one a try.

[crazy4reading · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

This book was great. I am enjoying this series and know that I will be reading more of Mercy. Blood Bound has Mercy involved again with the vampires.Mercy still cracks some jokes that make you chuckle as you read the book. I loved the interaction among Mercy, the werewolves and the vampires. Again we meet Stefan, Adam, Samuel and the others. I love how she is a great kick ass heroine. She is so independent and yet in need. Mercy doesn't want to be controlled by anyone or so she thinks.

[rosetyper9 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

I felt the taste of Laurell K. Hamilton in this book as well, except better than her Anita series since there have still be no sex scenes, so much to the point that its about dang time that she gets to it, but, the first two Anita Blake books were sexless as well, we will see what the next one holds. I still really like the characters of this series, I can feel the personalities of each on the pages, and I love how Mercy remains to be a strong independent women, who knows how to kick ass and use her guns, even if she is just a coyote.

[anyaejo · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Read and loved in high school!

[phyllis2779 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Sequel to Moon Called. I'm really liking this series. It reminds of the Laurell Hamilton books before they were slim patches of dialog and plot in between long stretches of sex scenes and rationalizations about kinks and open relationships.

[bryndahlquis · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

So good. It's rare that I enjoy adult urban fantasy this much, but I really do love it. For one thing, it's just a nice break from reality and all of the "serious" literature I've been reading recently for school and stuff.I really like Mercy because she's not really a typical heroine. She's a mechanic and she turns into a coyote. Yes, she has a lot of love interests, but I have never been more please to say that she has absolutely zero sex with anyone in this book. There are some kisses exchanged, which made me a little disappointed, but still. The book really focuses on the plot rather than her love life, which I appreciate.Now, the plot. Very creepy stuff. Very nice plot twists. Very painful deaths. I got genuinely creeped out several times.Also, I think Mercy should ditch all her suitors and team up with Ben. I love that guy.And the ending is awesome. Love it.

[grapeapril75-1 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

The second book in the series does not disapoint!! I love Mercy and her whole kick butt attitude!! Well written, fun paced, entertaining read!!

[murderbydeath · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

This book was a tad darker than the books I usually enjoy, it sort of rides that edge of what I enjoy reading and what I'd rather put down and move on from. But, I really enjoyed it, in spite of it's slightly darker intensity. Most of that can be contributed to my 'bonding' with the characters in the first book, so I found myself really wanting to know what was going to happen to all of them this time around. I'm one who thinks you can never have too much humor, but there was enough throughout the dialog to keep things from becoming positively moribund.

The plotline of this one is definitely dark stuff and the author gets big kudo's from me for giving Mercy faith and using it as a strength, without becoming evangelical about it. She strikes a nice balance - Mercy is never, ever, preachy or superior, but she doesn't hesitate to use that faith as a tool in her arsenal. Well done. The climax was intense but I didn't find it overly done and it didn't drag out either. Following the sometimes labyrinthine vampire politics took some concentration, which at times I didn't always have (especially when I'm picking the book up after a long day at work), but it added a level of intrigue that kept the plot from being too obvious.

I had my doubts about a were-based series - they aren't my favorite paranormal subject matter, but I'm really liking Adam and Warren and Bran. I'm looking forward to picking up the third book.

[tom_wright-1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Great story. After reading this, I want to emulate Patricia Briggs' writing style.

[piper0820 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

The second book in the series was better than the first. Now that I'm familiar with the characters, they were easier for me to relate to. Looking forward to the next in the series.