Hunting Ground by Patricia Briggs

Narrated by Holter Graham

I have been a Patricia Briggs fan since I first stumbled upon Moon Called and her Mercy Thompson series. I leapt at the chance to review the audio version of Hunting Ground and pushed the others on my review list to the back. It was my first Briggs audiobook and I had a lot of expectations (the way you do on the much-loved series that you have read and reread); I was not disappointed.

As a fantasy author, Patricia Briggs writes books with a strong undercurrent of attraction and romance featuring a number of different plot lines involving the gambit of supernatural creatures:  werewolves, dragons, witches, fae. Hunting Ground is actually the third in a series called Alpha and Omega, and the theme here is werewolves. This book can be read as your introduction to Patricia Briggs; she does a great job of giving you the background as she rolls out the plot, but you will have a much richer experience if you first read the preceding two in the series: the novella Alpha and Omega, followed by Cry Wolf.  Hunting Ground follows Cry Wolf immediately in time, but it had been awhile for me, so as I was listening to this audio, I was refreshing my memory with the aforementioned books along with the fourth in the series Fair Game. I was submerged in werewolves and lost a lot of sleep that week (but with a smile on my face), leaving me panting (get it? Panting?) for her newest release in the Mercy Thompson series, Night Broken, scheduled for simultaneous release in print and audio format on March 11th.

Spoiler Warning: Spoilers for the earlier titles in the Alpha and Omega series below. 

A little background first. Charles Cornick and his mate Anna are recent newlyweds, and are still trying to overcome the rushed mating forced on them by circumstance and attraction. While their respective wolf-selves are unquestioningly committed, both Charles and Anna are plagued by feelings of unworthiness. Anna is a rare creature in the wolf hierarchy and a prize in any pack; as a natural Omega, her very nature is driven to provide pack harmony using a little bit of wolf magic, the occasional tune, and a lot of ingenuity. An Omega is outside the normal definition of dominant/submissive hierarchy; Anna has the strength, speed, and intelligence of many dominant wolves but unlike all other wolves, is not driven to challenge or fight for a place in the pack. When faced with a dangerously angered wolf, Anna can mean the difference between violence or peace and life or death. This same nature made her a target of abuse in another pack where she was tortured and raped and, although Charles rescued her from her abusers and they subsequently mated and wed, both have to overcome previous lives of isolation – Charles because of his role in the Marrok pack as enforcer of pack law and the necessary separation that requires, and Anna after her abuse and resulting lack of trust.

In Hunting Game you find Charles on a mission for his alpha (his father, Bran), to attend and lead a global meeting of werewolves as they discuss the possibility of announcing their existence to humanity. Charles has the Native American blood of a shaman and his mother was a witch; his mystical instincts are telling him that if his father attends this conference it will lead to his death. Bran is finally convinced to let Charles attend and lead the gathering instead of the alpha, so the couple travel to the meeting site in Seattle, engaging the services of one of the world’s oldest fae as an impartial arbiter between competitive alphas during the meetings.  As Bran says, “Never trust a fae”.

What do you get when you hold a highly political meeting of the most powerful, high-testosterone alpha wolves in the world, give power to a canny and devious fae, and sprinkle with contract-killer vampires? Dead wolves, angry alphas, threatened Omegas, passion, and a lot of action. As Charles and Anna work through the mystery of who is behind the attacks, they also have to work through their intimacy issues (fortunately for the readers, with a lot of sexual tension). I love (and envy) the way Patricia Briggs can weave a variety of characters into a book, developing each and making you care about all of them. The multi-dimensional tugs of the different aspects of Anna and Charles keep them from being predictable and thereby avoid the trite drama in many of the fantasy novels today. Charles is ruthless and a killer – to everyone but Anna. Anna can be dismissed by some as submissive, and yet at the end of this book, she has the highest dead body count of any of our heroes (which causes her heartache, even as she is grateful that the direct result is to have saved those she loves).

The narration matched the skill of the author. I don’t know about you but I tend to begin each audiobook with a feeling of eager expectation. Although I might be listening with an ear for a future review, I am really listening to hear the story and enjoy the experience. I don’t get my pen ready and think critically as the story begins (unless it quickly becomes a dismal experience). My best audio listens are the ones where I am not distracted at all by the narrators’ characterizations, voices, or cadence and I just enjoy the story. Holter Graham is that kind of narrator for me – seamlessly effortless. His characters are all distinct and his transitions are smooth. His female characters sound feminine and yet not weak (even when stressed), which is not that easy for a male narrator to pull off. He performs a number of accents (French, British aristocracy, Spanish, Russian) and keeps them from blending.

I was always a fan of Patricia Briggs; I am now a fan of Holter Graham. Thanks to both for re-introducing me to the series (now, Patricia, if you would only work on a better love interest for Bran…)

Victoria

Narration:  A

Book Content:  A

Steam Factor:  Glad I had my earbuds in (you will keep the earbuds in the for violence, not the steam)

Violence:  Escalated fighting (although I don’t remember anything too graphic)

Genre:  Paranormal Romance

Publisher:  Penguin Audio

Hunting Ground was provided to AudioGals for review by Dreamscape Media.