Sophia Rose Reviews: Dead Heat by Patricia Briggs, narrated by Holter Graham

 

Dead Heat by Patricia Briggs, narrated by Holter Graham

#4 Alpha and Omega

Urban Fantasy

Publisher:  Brilliance Audio

Published:  3.3.15

Time:  11 hours 25 minutes

Rating: 4.5 stars

Format: audio

Source: purchased

Sellers:  Amazon

ADD TO: GoodReads

GoodReads Synopsis:
Praised as "the perfect blend of action, romance, suspense and paranormal" (Rex Robot Reviews), the Alpha and Omega novels transport listeners into the realm of the werewolf, where Charles Cornick and Anna Latham embody opposite sides of the shifter personality. Now a pleasure trip drops the couple into the middle of some bad supernatural business....
For once, mated werewolves Charles and Anna are not traveling because of Charles' role as his father's enforcer. This time their trip to Arizona is purely personal, as Charles plans to buy Anna a horse for her birthday. Or at least it starts out that way....
Charles and Anna soon discover that a dangerous Fae being is on the loose, replacing human children with simulacrums. The Fae's cold war with humanity is about to heat up - and Charles and Anna are in the cross fire.
©2015 Hurog, Inc. (P)2015 Brilliance Audio, all rights reserved.

Sophia Rose's Review:

 

The fae hold to an ominous silence and the werewolf reveal is settling somewhat so Charles agrees to visit his old human friend’s Arizona ranch ostensibly to choose a new horse for Anna.  Of course, their friendly visit turns dark and deadly when a fae curse hits Joseph’s family.  A familiar blend of action and relationship growth in a stunning urban fantasy world make Dead Heat a riveting listen.

Dead Heat is the fourth in the Alpha and Omega series and the #12 in the Mercy Thompson world.

Charles has put off visiting knowing his friend Joseph has grown old and not wanting to deal with the pain of seeing a friend die, but he also doesn’t want to miss Joseph’s last days so he and Anna go to Joseph’s family ranch outside Scottsdale, Arizona.  A fae who steals children cursed Joseph’s daughter in law and stole a child.  Charles and Anna along with the local wolf pack intervene.

Charles' participation in the hunt as a lethal alpha wolf with Native magic is understood, but the locals soon learn the power and strength of an Omega too when Anna wades in right beside her husband. She is there to strengthen and help Joseph's family and stand beside Charles as he is with his old friend in his last days. The mated pair also quietly embrace the comfort and love of each other while considering an important private matter of having children. But where fae are involved, things get dark, dangerous and startling so that it takes everyone working together to save the day.

There are descriptive moments when it comes to the social moors, legends, and myths of the Navaho culture, to the gaps filled in from Charles' past, the fantastic descriptions of the horse breeding, showing and training world and of course to further character and relationship development for Charles and Anna. They love and are in love. They are pondering a change in their relationship, but it is handled as adults who know and love each other- who trust and are giving. So refreshing, that.

I think another fascinating scene was when Charles was put into the tight spot of having to change a human to werewolf when she is dying and all the ramifications of that. For the first time there is an up close and personal of a person made a werewolf and holy snikies that is not something done lightly on both the part of the werewolf doing the change and the human undergoing it. Charles isn't easy in his choice and others definitely aren't so it was a moving thing.

Holter Graham is the fabulous voice of this series for me and I love the way he digs deep into the emotional size, but can still leave me holding my breath through the action and suspense scenes.  The voices are varied for a large cast and distinct with personality.

All in all a strong installment in the series that touched deep and made it hard for me to stop listening even when I had to get some sleep.  Definitely the best way to experience this series and I can’t recommend the books and audio enough.

Author Bio:

Patricia Briggs steadfastly refuses to write a biography. She considers them narcissistic, and besides, she’d rather write something interesting! But. . .that is what a husband and trusty assistant are for (and if she doesn’t like it, she can’t complain!)

Patricia is the #1 New York Times best selling author of the Mercy Thompson series and has written twenty four novels to date; she is currently writing novel number twenty five. She has short stories in several anthologies, as well as a series of comic books and graphic novels based on her Mercy Thompson and Alpha and Omega series. Patty began her career writing traditional high fantasy novels in 1993, and shifted gears in 2006 to write urban fantasy. Moon Called was the first of her signature series about Mercy; the non-stop adventure left readers wanting more and word of this exciting new urban fantasy series about a shape-shifting mechanic spread quickly. The series has continued to grow in popularity with the release of each book. Patty also writes the Alpha and Omega series, which are set in the same world as the Mercy Thompson novels; what began as a novella expanded into a full new series, all of which debuted on the NY Times bestsellers list as well.

Patty was born in Butte, Montana, back in 1965. If you’re good at math, you’ll have deduced that she’s currently twenty-nine. In fact, she’s been twenty-nine for a while and has no intention of getting any older. Fiction authors don’t obey the laws of space and time, they invent them. Don’t argue, or she’ll make up a dragon right behind you . . .

Patricia was born book-privileged. Her mother was a school librarian, and she shared a room with an older sister who loved to read. Long after they had been put to bed, her sister would use the small night light to read Patty stories; her early favorites were fairy tales. Knights and castles, fair maidens, and monsters of every ilk became their nighttime companions.

Soon, Patty learned to read, and whole worlds were hers to explore. She rode on the Black Stallion, and flew the skies of Pern on a dragon. Sometime during that period she stumbled onto a treasure trove. Her older sister had begun collecting comic books; pristine originals were place in cellophane sleeves and organized in cardboard boxes. When her sister was away, they were removed by grubby fingers smeared with peanut butter and jelly for a clandestine read, returning with a faint smudges and wrinkled pages from reading under the covers. To this day, her sister periodically calls Patty and tells her how much more her original copies of the X-Men would have been worth if left pristine in their sleeves. The number keeps going up.

Patty is a prevarication professional. She lies for a living, telling whoppers and fibs so outrageous that people pay her to fib some more. Her only concession to honesty is that she tells people she’s lying to them, which is what separates a fiction author from a politician. She loves to play with her imaginary friends, and meeting with readers who know her imaginary friends is a treat. Her biggest complaint with writing is that she has far more ideas for stories than time to write them.

Patty and her family reside in Eastern Washington near Tri-Cities, home of Mercy Thompson; yes, it's a real place! When not working on the next book, she can be found playing truant out in her horse pastures, playing with the newest babies.

Website:  https://www.patriciabriggs.com/

Sophia’s Bio:

Sophia is a quiet though curious gal who dabbles in cooking, book reviewing, piano-playing, and gardening. Road trips and campouts, museums and monuments, restaurants and theaters are her jam. Encouraged and supported by an incredible man and loving family. A Northern Californian transplant to the Great Lakes Region of the US. Lover of Jane Austen, Baseball, Cats, Scooby Doo, and Chocolate.

As a lifelong reader, it was inevitable that Sophia would discover book blogs and the joy of blog reviewing. Sophia is a prolific reader and audiobook listener which allows her to experience so many wonderful books, authors, and narrators. Few genres are outside her reading tastes, but her true love is fiction particularly history, mystery, sci-fi, and romance. Though, sorry, no horror or she will run like Shaggy and Scooby.

Facebook:  https://www.facebook.com/sophia.rose.7587

Twitter: https://twitter.com/sophiarose1816

GoodReads:  https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/13418187.Sophia_Rose