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Book Review: Soul Taken

Soul Taken, the #1 New York Times Bestselling novel, is the thirteenth book in the Mercy Thompson universe. Like any other Mercyverse novel, Soul Taken is focusing on Mercy Thompson, a female coyote mechanic, as the main female character. In Soul Taken, Mercy is still despising vampires, the beings that kill her father.

More specifically, Patricia Briggs as the author focuses more on Mercy’s encounters with vampires in this novel. The vampires don’t seem to stop murdering Mercy’s father; instead, they are now having some fun stalking Mercy. Also, the vampires in Soul Taken are deadlier and more insane and they incite fear from other characters and also the readers.

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Interestingly, the vampires are disappearing from the start of the chapters in Soul Taken novel. It is because someone unknown has stolen the locks of rooms and stores, picked up living beings randomly, and so on. Then, the pack where Mercy and her love interest, Adam, belongs, is blamed for the missing cases of the vampires.

From this point, Mercy’s adventure in protecting her pack by discovering who kidnaps the living beings start. Will she ever be successful in finding who takes all of them?

Part 1: Meet The Characters Of Soul Taken

Mercedes “Mercy” Athena Thompson

Mercy Thompson, a female mechanic who can shapeshift between a human and a coyote, becomes the main female character once again in Soul Taken book. In this thirteenth book of the Mercy Thompson universe (a.k.a “Mercyverse”), most of the settings are still involving Mercy’s garages through different perspectives.

Her relationships with her love interest, Adam, are still warm and sweet as ever. However, in Soul Taken, the author seems to focus more on Mercy’s developing relationships with Wulfe, the missing vampire.

The Vampires

Even though Soul Taken is filled with many mythical creatures, the vampires become the primary objects of the novel’s story. Wulfe is one of the vampires who is reported missing, and we know this part from reading the first few chapters of Soul Taken.

Other vampires in the novel include Vampire Queen Marsilia and Stefan. Vampire Queen Marsilia is the character who makes her first appearance in the first few chapters to report Wolfe’s missing, and Stefan is the vampire who becomes a source of information for both Adam and Mercy.

Part 2: Story Of Soul Taken

Like the rest of Mercy Thompson-verse books, the story of Soul Taken begins by telling us about Mercy Thompson and her love interest, Adam.

They enjoy being with each other around a fireplace at Uncle Mike’s residence until the Vampire Queen Marsilia appears before them to inform them that one of the vampires, Wulfe, is missing. Not stopping there, other creatures also have mysteriously disappeared.

When we read other Mercyverse books, we’ll know that Mercy hates vampires so much, since vampires are the creatures that kill her father. This time, the vampires have been eyeing Mercy so intensely.

Furthermore, her pack with Adam’s, the Tri-Cities pack or the Columbia Basin pack, will be held responsible for the missing case if Wulfe and other missing creatures couldn’t be found.

The Vampire Queen also sends war threats between werewolves and vampires if the couple can’t find the missing vampire.

From here, Adam and Mercy start gathering information from other creatures, including Stefan, one of the vampires, the Goblin King, and others. As the story of Soul Taken progresses, they start befriending other living creatures, at least for this time’s mission.

I love the ways Patricia Briggs, the author of Soul Taken, pictures the abilities that each creature possesses. Mercy and Adam’s relationships are still spicy as ever, yet, the romantic scenes are not as exaggerated as the “mission impossible” moments for vampires. Mercy’s chemistry with Stefan, Wulfe, and other vampires, is also great~

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Part 3: Meet The Author Of Soul Taken

Having started writing novels in 1993, it’s no wonder that Patricia “Patty” Briggs has extensive universes to contain her stories and characters inside the story. The Mercy Thompson universe, which is the universe where the Soul Taken novel belongs, is one of the most extensive universes in Briggsverse (that’s how Patty addresses her whole novel’s universe).

The Mercyverse, which is the alternative name for the Mercy Thompson universe by Patricia Briggs, has more book lists than other universes from the same author when we see them in the bibliography.

As for the Soul Taken novel, it is the newest-released novel in the Mercyverse. It was published on March 8, 2022, in the US, and people in the UK enjoyed the first publishes two days after the US release.

Patricia Briggs herself is one of the #1 New York Times Bestselling authors, and she has written novels since a few decades ago. So, we can read Soul Taken from various platforms, and we can read the updates from the author on the author’s official Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter pages.

I would say that Soul Taken is one of the greatest fantasy/mystery novels, ever! The mission descriptions are not so confusing, and the romantic relationship dynamics are not too cheesy while still retaining their sparks.

Part 4: Alternative To Soul Taken

Soul Taken is not only a novel with werewolves, vampires, goblins, and other mythical creatures. It is also a novel that involves a “mission impossible”, which means, a mission that the MC doesn’t typically like. So, are you looking for a Dreame novel with similar themes to the ones you read in Soul Taken?

If so, try reading A Hybrid’s Destiny. It follows a story about Tate Rawlins, a vampire and werewolf hybrid, who has the prophecy of being the only hope for mankind mapped since his birth times. Just as Tate’s going to figure out a way out from his so-called destiny, he finds that his sister and cousin are being taken away by a demon from the Underworld.

Summary of A Hybrid’s Destiny:

A Hybrid’s Destiny follows a story about its two MCs. The first MC is Tate Rawlins, an Alpha vampire and werewolf hybrid from Lava Moon pack in America who is currently living in Europe with his cousin, sister, and Lycan relatives. The second MC is Jaelyn Déchue, a woman who is still mourning over the loss of her dead husband.

As for Tate himself, a demon from the Underworld has kidnapped his sister and cousin while he was thinking about ways to get out from the mapped “end of the days” destiny since his birth. As Tate delves deeper into the Underworld to save his closest ones, Tate finds another destiny in him, and that destiny is to be a mate to Jaelyn.

For Tate, Jaelyn supports him in understanding what love is and inspires him to live his life, even though he has felt tiredness as he undergoes his “mission impossible”. However, Jaelyn doesn’t seem to be able to move on from her dead husband and trust love.

I would say that Dreame’s A Hybrid Destiny is not only similar to Soul Taken in terms of the story’s patterns. It also adds some spice to the romantic struggles between Tate and Jaelyn, which we don’t find much in Soul Taken novel.

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