Book Review ~ Dead Heat

Dead Heat (Alpha & Omega #4)

by Patricia Briggs
published by Ace
Genre: Adult, PNR, Fantasy, Shifters, Supernatural,

Summary (Goodreads): For once, mated werewolves Charles and Anna are not traveling because of Charles’s role as his father’s enforcer. This time, their trip to Arizona is purely personal, as Charles plans to buy Anna a horse for her birthday. Or at least it starts out that way...

Charles and Anna soon discover that a dangerous Fae being is on the loose, replacing human children with simulacrums. The Fae’s cold war with humanity is about to heat up—and Charles and Anna are in the cross fire.

My Thoughts: It's saying something that the author got me to tear up over a side character that we just met in this book. This has been one of my favorite series since they started and this story was a great addition to the set.
Anna grew on me more in this story. She was still the same Omega, doing what she needed to do to help. It seemed more fluid, to me, rather than just a defiance thing. My favorite thing about this story was learning more about Charles' past. It humanized him in a way that we haven't gotten in previous books. Learning that he had actual friends and almost another family outside of his father and brother.
I also got the one thing I wanted more of from the previous book, the FBI and Cantrip agents. I'm not sure how they can be kept in future books but I would definitely like them to be. This goes along with the fae making it clear that they are following their own rules and choices are going to have to be made.
The only thing that kept pulling me slightly out of the book was all the horse trivia. I very much felt like Anna and could not understand half of what was being said. That said, there were some great horses with great personalities that added to the overall plot.
*On a side note. I finished Vision in Silver by Anne Bishop just before this and really noticed (and loved) the difference in the authors' worlds. We have a story in this book (Dead Heat) about a werewolf who stays in his wolf form for months and the author makes a point of stating this is not good in her world. Where as in ViS the wolfs cannot stand to be in human form for even a full day at times. I always like when the authors lay down the rules for the supernatural/magic in their world and then stick to it.

Rating: 4