I've always rather liked most of Patricia Briggs' books in general and the first two Mercy Thompsons in particular, so I was intrigued when Cry Wolf was announced. This novel's set in the same universe as the Mercy Thompsons, and in fact focuses more on the wolf pack that raised Mercy--and Charles, the son of the Marrok, who has taken a new mate. But Anna's not an ordinary werewolf; she's an Omega, which gives her a special place outside pack structure, and lets her have all the protective instincts of an Alpha without any of the violent impulses.

The beginning of the book is my major problem with it. It kicks in actually just after the meeting of Charles and Anna--a very violent meeting, in fact, that left Charles suffering from several wounds after he tore through the pack that had been abusing Anna. We only see the aftermath of this, and by then Charles and Anna have already met, and the beginnings of their mating bond have already been established. This felt very weird to me, as I was all "wait, what just happened here?" and felt like I was starting the story about three chapters too late.

I'm all for starting the story with a bang and all; here, however, we actually started just after the bang. It was I think an interesting editorial decision to start the story where it does, mind you; if I think about it I can actually see an argument that the story being told here is actually not the story of Anna's rescue from her previous pack. However, for me as a reader, it just felt weird. So.

Other than that, I was pretty happy with the story overall. Anna is a good example of how you can do a strong female character without necessarily having her have to be an attitudinal bitch. She's got her issues, oh my yes, but at no point do they ever really get in the way of her responding to the bigger plot situation. Mind you, she does come a bit close to Mary Sue land--she is after all the Special Werewolf, the Omega, and all the big nasty dominant boy wolves just go all puppy-mode around her. The part where this is most effective is where an old Vietnam vet--who's been hiding out in the woods for thirty years because of the war and who's recently been turned into a werewolf himself--quietly and prayerfully murmurs that in her presence, he thinks he might actually be able to sleep. I did however wince a bit at how she defused the big climax, though.

Anna's relationship with Charles is interesting, and I liked that even though she was very skittish around him, she was actually quite confident about having sex with him. Also, points for the one sex scene being not particularly over the top, and for it not magically cementing the mating bond between them.

All in all, a pretty solid read. Three stars.