Blood Bound (Mercy Thompson Series, Book 2)

BLOOD BOUND draws Mercy into vampiric machinations when Stefan requests her as an unassuming witness during a visit to a strange vampire.

This does more worldbuilding for the vampires and the fae, similarly to how MOON CALLED focused on werewolves and had a secondary focus on the vampires. Sometime between the first book and this one the werewolves went public to a limited degree, and there's a minor side plot which involves this change. 

I don’t think this specifically wraps up anything left from the first book. It focuses on Stefan and the vampires who were introduced in MOON CALLED, and features many returning werewolves as well as a few new ones. The main antagonist and his murder spree is introduced and resolved in this book. I know from having read further in the series that it leaves something for later, but the actual text doesn't do anything to indicate it at the time. It does have hints of a series-long tangle of some kind surrounding Mercy’s love life. Mercy is still the narrator, with a very matter-of-fact style and a decent amount of insight into werewolves. It could make sense to start here, since most of the vampires are new in this book, but it would be better to have read MOON CALLED first. 

The plot involves a strange vampire and various attempts to stop him from killing indiscriminately and leaving ancillary violence in his wake. This book still feels like it's setting up the world and getting things ready for something big later. We're also introduced to Mercy's ability see and (sometimes) speak to ghosts, which is part of her abilities as a walker. This one has never been my favorite, as it feels like it's still moving pieces around and isn't nearly as good as some of the later books. I think part of why I dislike it is that (other than what Mercy borrows) it feels utterly inconsequential within the main series after it's been read once. 

Not terrible, not my favorite in the series, this one feels like a bottle episode (which is a weird vibe for the second book).

The story is straight forward -- not a lot of character development -- the book is too short. Usually those are damning traits. Maybe my expectations have settled down a bit for this series, because I actually enjoyed this second installment of Brigg's Mercy Thompson series.

A few months have passed since the conclusion of the first book. Werewolves are just beginning to come out of hiding, but this book hinges around the vampires of the Tri-City area. Again, Mercy lends a hand and is duly rewarded for her troubles.

Briggs doesn't seem to have a larger arc that spans beyond the "problem--solution" plot contained within individual books, which is a pity. If you enjoyed the first installment, then you will have fun with this one (and you probably didn't need this review to tell you that). If you haven't read the first one, don't start in the middle (though I've never known anyone to purposefully pick up book 2 or 3 in a series to get started).