Moon Called

"This is an urban fantasy series about a coyote shapeshifter named Mercy Thompson. She works as a mechanic in the Tri-Cities area of Washington state. These books initially straddle the line between open magic and secret magic. The fae are the only-non human group that is currently “out” as the series starts, but there are also vampires, werewolves, witches, and other magic creatures going bump in the night, so to speak. Mercy is a mechanic, both literally and figuratively speaking. She fixes cars—primarily Volkswagens—and solves paranormal problems between the various factions in this Tri-Cities area. In the first book, Mercy helps a werewolf who shows up at her shop looking for work. It turns out he is being chased by evil people who want to run experiments on him. Mercy’s neighbor, Adam, is one of the love interests. They have a contentious relationship. He is protective of her, and she disdains this. She’s always leaving her beater car in the backyard, where he has to look at it. He hates it because it’s ugly, and covered in graffiti, so she does this to mess with him. Adam is the leader of the local werewolf pack, which includes the kid who showed up to her house as a werewolf, so she asks Adam for help. She ends up being embroiled in this entire mess that has nothing to do with her. The rest of the series tends to follow the cozy mystery format of ‘Why am I involved in this?’ It does turn out to be intrinsic to her character, her friends, and her relationships. She’s an agent of chaos. Unlike the other series that we’ve talked about, this one starts with a love triangle. Love triangles are the devil’s geometry—I hate them. This one involves Mercy, Adam, and Mercy’s childhood sweetheart, Samuel, who’s also a werewolf. Mercy is much lower on the power scale than these guys are. She’s a mechanic, so she’s not in charge of anyone but herself. She does have hand-to-hand fighting skills. When she goes to martial arts lessons, she has to pull her punches because she’s stronger than humans, but she isn’t as strong as a werewolf or a vampire, and she doesn’t have the same toughness or supernatural healing abilities. She can sniff out magic, which is unique to her. She’s much better than others at running and hiding. In her little coyote form, she can snuggle into small places where a giant wolf wouldn’t be able to fit. Samuel’s centuries older and much more powerful than she is. He’s the son of the big boss werewolf of the whole country, but he’s a lone wolf. Although Adam is not as old or as powerful as Samuel, he’s a former soldier who runs a very successful private security company. He’s loaded, and he has government contacts, so he’s a big deal. “Love triangles are the devil’s geometry” Personally speaking, I’m not a big fan of age gap romances. When the gap is hundreds of years, it starts to get weird to me. I’m not trying to yuck anyone’s yum, but I don’t dig it too much. In this case, it means that Samuel has a lot of baggage that he has to deal with before he can have a healthy relationship. Adam, on the other hand, is also older than Mercy, but only by a couple of decades. They are closer to being on the same level, in terms of their upbringing and their experiences. To become a real battle couple, they have to prove that they can fight as a team, and they do. We see the same protective urges that tend to come out in these werewolf shapeshifter romances, but they have each other’s backs, they trust each other, they spar together, they go after their enemies together, and they treat each other as equals. They play to their respective strengths, while acknowledging that they have them. At no point is either one made to feel as if they don’t contribute to the relationship on an equal footing. I think that’s important when you have these kinds of battle couple dynamics."

"A full cast of creatures—including a shape-shifting coyote, werewolves, vampires, fae, the local witch, and humans—are depicted by a talented cast of voice actors. Most impressive is Khaya Fraites, who takes on the role of first-person narrator Mercy Thompson, a plucky 20-something mechanic and shape-shifter. Joyous yips, howls, and growls create a clever soundscape that also includes clicking claws and ethereal music. (6.75 hours)"