Patricia Briggs is an absolute rock star and I will read every book she writes.

With a newborn at home, it's difficult to do any pleasure reading. Now that I'm back to working full-time, too, I have no free time.

However, Patricia Briggs' books are always so awesome that I was willing to sacrifice a few nights of sleep to read this, and I regret nothing.

Ms. Briggs' heroines are always compelling and unique, and Anna Cornick is certainly both. As an omega wolf, she has no interest in domineering over anyone else and is equally disinterested in kowtowing to anyone, either. She's content to do what needs to be done and then go home and snuggle with her terrifying, yet kind and just, husband, Charles.

While acting as the de facto stand-in head of the wolves while his father Bran is mysteriously away, Charles receives a distress call from one of the wildlings, members of the pack so old and so powerful that they can no longer live peaceably around others. When Charles and Anna respond to the call, they uncover a murder plot that can only be treachery, a dangerous and old magic that is even too strong for Charles, and must suss out which of the pack members is to blame.

This is the fifth book in the Alpha & Omega series and it's not recommended to try and read this without reading the previous four. It's best to start with "Cry Wolf," the first book in the series. This is a spin-off series that takes place in the Mercy Thompson universe, and it's recommended to start with book one, "Moon Called," although not entirely necessary.

arc received from the publisher for review