Hunting Ground - Patricia Briggs

Hunting Ground is the second novel in the Alpha Omega series by the author of the extremely well loved Mercy Thompson books. Once again the series takes place in the same world where the Fae have come out but werewolves have not yet made their existence known. The Marrok is gathering all the Alphas to discuss his decision to come out and give them a chance to raise their concerns. Obviously not everyone is in favour of his decision.

This series is focused on Charles one of the Marrok's son's and his main enforcer and Charles' new mate the timid Omega wolf Anna. The meeting of the two and the rescue of Anna from her pack took place in a short story prior to Cry Wolf and in the first book she is an extremely timid creature. There is a sense by the end of Cry Wolf that Anna is going to be allowed to develop and become a stronger character, which is just as well really.

In the second novel Charles and Anna convince the Marrok that they should hold the meeting in his place and he eventually conceeds and allows the pair to head to seattle. It's not long before Anna is attacked and they find themselves trying to untangle the motivations of various players and figure out where the real threat lies.

Briggs has delivered another excellent book and Anna is really starting to come into her own. The pace and tone is a little different from the Mercy novels, because they are very different characters but as they develop and the series grows I am quickly becoming as attacehd to Charles and Anna as I have always been to Mercy and Adam. There is less snarkiness and humour in the Alpha Omega novels but they are still extremely entertaining. Even if you weren't enamoured of Cry Wolf, but you like Mercy, give this one a shot, as Anna is coming into her own she is humanising Charles and lightening the tone a little.

I would just add that although the UK cover (top) is a gorgeous UF cover I think the US cover (bottom) is prettier and more in keeping with the book. That goes for the Mercy Thompson books two. I love the US artwork much more than the cool style of my own UK versions.