Not my favourite of the Mercy books but still a solid addition to the series. I liked how some old characters were brought back up and in an interesting way. I got a little bored near the middle but that "battle" at the end made it worth it. I love Wulfe as a character and am really happy we got to see him a little in this book. Plus seeing Zee and Tad working together made my heart really happy. I can't wait to see what kind of trouble Mercy gets into next. ( )

Things have changed around the Tri-Cities since Mercy took responsibility for the safety of citizens in Pack territory. Some evil characters think this means they will be safe from human law and try to set up house there. The big plots in this volume deal with a group of black witches moving in and wanting to take control and a major US Government and Fae meeting being set up to talk about how they will deal with each other. More background comes out about some of the major characters particularly Elizaveta and Sherwood. Wulfe shows up, and Coyote pops up in a scene or dream or two. And of course there is lots of blood shed, battles and a bit of humor before it is all over. Another great addition to the series. ( )

Storm Cursed furthers the wish of the Gray Lords of the fae to make a treaty with the United States Government. Thanks to Mercy's declaration in Night Broken, not only is the meeting place going to be in the tri-cities area of Washington State, Mercy gets to be the go-between representative.

If that's not bad enough, a couple of black witches from the Hardesty family of witches have come to the Tri-cities to take over Elizaveta Arkadyevna Vyshnevetskaya's territory. They have demands for the Columbia Basin Pack and Marsilia's vampire seethe. The Gray Lords want any direct confrontation with said witches to be handled by Mercy and the werewolves. How peachy. Coyote wants the witches dead, but, as he will explain in chapter 8, he can't do it. Instead, he wants Mercy to kill them. Well, Gary did warn Mercy about how Coyote reacts when his children survive a test. Gary passed up on freeing a spirit Coyote wanted freed and Mercy succeeded (see Book 10, Silence Fallen). I suspect that Coyote has elected Mercy his go-to descendant for difficult tasks he can't do himself. As a fan of this series might expect, Mercy's first response is hardly a, 'Yes sir! Will do, sir!'

We bid Cookie, Joel and Luisa's rescue dog an off-page farewell as she is taken to a new home, not incidentally saving Luisa's life.

Medea, Mercy's cat, gets mentioned, but doesn't get to do much. Jesse Hauptman has only one short scene.

On the other hand, we get to learn a bit more about some of the other werewolves in the pack and even meet a couple of wives and children. Sherwood Post shows some unexpected abilities his wolf remembers even when he doesn't. Mercy even gets Mary Jo to think about the latter's belief that Christy was a better wife for Adam than Mercy is. (It's about time!)

Senator Jake Campbell, who is very hostile to the fae, and whom the rogue Cantrip agents wanted the Columbia Basin Pack to assassinate (see book seven, Frost Burned), has reasonably big role in this book. I'm sure he would have preferred to skip some of that role. I like his assistant, Ruth Gillman, although I'm sure she'd have been thrilled to skip one of her scenes.

Uncle Mike and Stefan Uccello fans should be happy they show up here (the Mystery Machine as well!). Uncle Mike's role is bigger than Stefan's. Larry the Goblin King also has a role, though I am sorry for one part of it.

Note:

According to phrases.org.uk, 'as safe as houses' goes back to the first half of the 19th century. To quote the site 'So, while the current meaning of ‘as safe as houses’ is ‘secure; without risk’, to the Victorians it meant ‘certainly; without doubt’.' ( )

Much, much better than Silence Fallen. All the old elements that make this such a good Series are back. The only quibble I habe is the sudden appearance of “gray witches”. Always before it was black or white; now there’s gray? ( )

Good as the series gets, another installment involving all of the powers: fae, werewolves, vampires and the witches. The US gov is prepared to meet with the fae to discuss an amicable peace and of course Mercy's Tri-Cities is the ground chosen for this because it's supposedly neutral. However someone seems to be going out of their way to disrupt the talks and the number of suspects is quite large, ranging from disaffected humans all through to the fae factions themselves.

Mercey and crew discover that some other witch covens are also on the scene and while the miniature-goat zombies were amusing things rapidly get less so. For once it didn't feel like Mercy was in mortal danger, but several of her various companions for good or for ill and now no longer able to assist her. ( )