I haven't read this one yet. But, definitely way past time Adam stands up for his wife. The last volume seemed more of an "adventure with Mercy set in same universe but not in same story arc" type of book -- paired with how (meekly for Mercy) she and Adam were handling the pack's treatment of her -- made me for the first time not have to preorder and immediately devour the next Mercy book.
No reflection on the writing. I do understand that of course a character changes now being a new stepmom -- but, I was starting to worry it was changing too much for me. Mercy trying to meek up and get along just seemed strange even for the kid's sake ... The first book as stepmom where most of the pack was openly bitchy to her and defying Adam's authority to side with the first wife who had actually betrayed and left the pack was really surreal and hard to swallow. By the characters and the worldbuilding to that point, I would expect Mercy to have taken some out, if not her then Adam -- at a minimum that he'd have kcjed them out of pack or drastically demoted their pack position, if not them then Charles or the Marok ...
Yeah the last book was a bit worrying with how the pack treated Mercy and how she basically took it laying down. This book definitely had me less frustrated and confused with the pack (and Mercy herself).
No reflection on the writing. I do understand that of course a character changes now being a new stepmom -- but, I was starting to worry it was changing too much for me. Mercy trying to meek up and get along just seemed strange even for the kid's sake ... The first book as stepmom where most of the pack was openly bitchy to her and defying Adam's authority to side with the first wife who had actually betrayed and left the pack was really surreal and hard to swallow. By the characters and the worldbuilding to that point, I would expect Mercy to have taken some out, if not her then Adam -- at a minimum that he'd have kcjed them out of pack or drastically demoted their pack position, if not them then Charles or the Marok ...