Cry Wolf is the first book-length story in Patricia Briggs’s Alpha & Omega series, which is a spin-off to her Mercy Thompson series. The story follows on directly from the Alpha & Omega novella, and I would strongly recommend reading this before starting Cry Wolf. For background story on Samuel and Bran, I would also suggest reading Moon Called, the first of the Mercy Thompson books.
Charles Cornick is the son and main enforcer of the werewolf leader, Bran. After the events in Alpha & Omega, he returns to his pack in Montana with Anna, his new-found mate. He’s been gravely injured and requires expert medical treatment from his brother, Samuel, the pack’s doctor. Charles doesn’t have long to recuperate, however. Bran requires his and Anna’s assistance in tracking down a lone wolf who has been attacking people in the region.
Meanwhile, Anna is trying to overcome her brutal treatment at the hands of the Chicago pack. She must also come to terms with what she is: a rare and valuable Omega wolf. With Charles at her side, she slowly begins to regain her confidence and learns to use her newly discovered powers.
I must admit I struggled with Cry Wolf. As usual, Patricia Briggs writes wonderfully and manages to make the preternatural seem so real. Although the story itself is interesting, I spent much of the book irritated with Anna. She’s meek and mild and uninteresting. Her defining characteristic is her vulnerability and this needs to change in order for her to develop into an interesting heroine.
Charles is a stronger character than Anna, in every sense of the word. While he’s not as compelling as the charismatic Adam in the Mercy Thompson series, I enjoyed learning more about his past and his powers. Another strong point in this book is the back story on Bran.
While I didn’t enjoy Cry Wolf nearly as much as Patricia Briggs’s other books, I’m still interested to read more about Anna and Charles. I can only hope that Anna develops some backbone in future books. Grade: C+
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Here’s why I didn’t enjoy Cry Wolf as much as I expected.
I liked the concept of an alpha & omega coming together — it goes to the complexity of relationships that far exceed simple leader/follower dynamics. Sure Anna needs a backbone, but that may be a matter of learning more about what an omega is capable of. She’s young, not stupid. In a few years, she will be a much more compelling character.
So it wasn’t Anna that bothered me, it’s that the book was so little about the development of her relationship with Charles, her awakening to her powers as an omega, and the dynamics of her inclusion into a new pack. I didn’t much care which of those stories Briggs told, but I didn’t get any of them (let alone all of them) and that was disappointing. Instead, I got a very tepid thriller.
Bluntly, I have better authors I can go to for a thriller. I respect that Briggs can write compellingly about fantastic characters like werewolves (even if I’m still not sure I get the appeal), but it seems a shame that she had all the pieces of a really neat relationship/romance plot and abandoned them. It’s almost as though the fit between an alpha and omega that have bonded is supposed to be so automatic & awesome that she didn’t think there was any conflict there. Well, as noted, Anna is a character with a lot of potential for conflict, and cowering in fear didn’t advance her issues much.
I read this book because it had been highly touted on another review website. That’s okay; I didn’t hate reading it. I just wonder whether Briggs’ accomplishment in creating the notion of an omega (a wondrous creature indeed) is enough to justify those reviews. For me, in the end, it wasn’t.
I’m still undecided as to whether or not I’ll read this series as well as the Mercy Thompson series. It seems to get more mediocre reviews. Maybe I’ll wait until she’s written more of them and then decide.
@Magdalen Have you read the Mercedes Thompson series? It’s much stronger in my opinion. I also felt the romance was assumed and underdeveloped in this book. There was more emphasis on action than on character development, which is the major difference in tone between the Alpha & Omega stories and the Mercy Thompson ones.
@Meghan Although I loved the ‘Alpha & Omega’ novella, ‘Cry Wolf’ was not as strong. Perhaps Anna needs more time to grow into herself and her new role, but for the moment at least she’s a less compelling heroine than Mercy.
Uh-oh. I have this one in my TBR pile, but I’ve been avoiding it for some reason. It doesn’t sound terribly good.
I hate struggling through Brigg’s books because I have this certain expectation of her stories being completely engaging and readable. Well, I’ll get to it eventually I guess….
My reaction to ‘Cry Wolf’ was almost certainly due to the fact that I’ve enjoyed her other books so much. I felt this one was simply not up to her usual high standard.