Hunting Ground by Patricia Briggs

"Anna Latham didn't know how complicated life could get - until she became a werewolf. And now she's not just part of any pack, but under the direct supervision of Bran, leader of the North American werewolves. And her mate is his son Charles, the pack enforcer. With all the advances that have been made in forensics, the werewolves will not be able to hide their existence from humans much longer - and Bran wants their coming out party to be on his terms. But his European counterparts don't see things the same way. Anna and Charles are chosen to represent Bran at a key meeting. But when a French werewolf, one of Bran's most vocal opponents, is found murdered, Charles's reputation shoots him to the top of the suspect list. And among the wolves, there is one penalty for breaking the law: death. The killer must be found, or Charles will take the fall."

Hunting Ground is the second in the Alpha and Omega series, which is the spin off series to one of my favourites, Mercy Thompson. A&O follows Charles Cornick, son of the leader of all American wolves Bran, and his new mate Anna.

Anna and Charles have only been mated, and married, for a month, and they haven't known each other much longer than that. They're still trying to get to know each other, adjust to shaving their lives, and Anna is trying to get over the pain and fear that her first alpha inflicted on her for three years. But around the foreign wolves, Anna and Charles need to show unity, not weakness, so they're playing it by ear.

Anna is a rare thing among wolves, she's an Omega. And that makes her something of a trophy in the eyes of some of the foreign wolves. When Anna is attacked though, Charles realises that they may not be the only threat to her.

The most frustrating thing about this book is that the attack and murder mentioned on the blurb, doesn't happen until 3/4 through the book. So you know it's going to happen and the rest is really build up for it. Bad summery on part of the publishers would be my guess on that one. The other thing I found frustrating, was that I figured out who the killer was, pretty early on. So for me, the tension just wasn't there while Anna and Charles figured it out.

The development of Anna and Charles relationship was good though. The way they were learning about each other and didn't try to run from the other too much. although they both felt the need at times. It's good and sweet, but I didn't hang on it. For me to really get in to a relationship in a book, I really need to be able to fancy the guy, and with Charles, I just don't. So there isn't a whole lot of tension to their relationship like there could be.

Overall, a good story and well written. The different third person perspectives work really well with this series and give a great overall view of everything. But for me, it's no where near as good as the Mercy Thompson series. Still worth reading though.

Rating: 6/10