Eye Candy Friday is all about the heroes and heroines that I’m loving and wanting to spotlight right now. Sometimes I’ll do full-on gush fest posts on why I love these guys, sometimes I’ll post pictures of what I think they look like and that’s it but if they’re featured here, the one thing that will be constant is I loved the hell out of them and want everyone to know. Thanks for coming along for the ride.

An unexpected phone call heralds a new challenge for Mercy. Her mate Adam’s ex-wife is in trouble, on the run from a stalker. Adam isn’t the kind of man to turn away a person in need—and Mercy knows it. But with Christy holed up in Adam’s house, Mercy can’t shake the feeling that something about the situation isn’t right.

Soon her suspicions are confirmed when she learns that Christy has the furthest thing from good intentions. She wants Adam back, and she’s willing to do whatever it takes to get him, including turning Adam’s pack against Mercy.

Mercy isn’t about to step down without a fight, but there’s a more dangerous threat circling. Christy’s stalker is more than a bad man—in fact, he may not be human at all. As the bodies start piling up, Mercy must put her personal troubles aside to face a creature with the power to tear her whole world apart.

Today’s eye candy is Mercy Thompson from the Mercy Thompson series by Patricia Briggs. Mercy is the mate to the Alpha for the Columbia Basin Pack in Washington but she’s also so much more than just a regular VW mechanic. She’s unique in that she’s a walker so she can shift into a coyote but more than that, she was raised by the Marrok himself (the King of all of the Werewolves) and she is the lone Coyote in a werewolf pack. Things have never been easy for Mercy but one of the things that I admire the hell out of where she’s concerned is that she doesn’t shy away from what’s right. She never takes the easy way out of things, she’s smart and she’s strong. She would make a great Polynesian person because aiga (aiga means family in Samoan) is important to her and Mercy’s aiga isn’t just her pack. She’s got friends everywhere and those friends are part of her family. Nobody gets left behind with Mercy and it’s hard not to love and cheer for someone as awesome as she is.

“If she tried anything, she would be sorry. Adam was mine. She had thrown him away, thrown Jesse away—and I had snatched them up. Finders keepers.”

In Night Broken, my love and admiration for Mercy grew by heaps and bounds. She just kept right on being hurt by the people that are supposed to have her back but she pushed through and didn’t let her hurt get in the way of doing what was right for everyone involved…even the main person who was hurting her. My limits and my patience were tried in this book but my love for all things Mercy Thompson Hauptman grew and grew until I was damn near bursting with pride and love for her. She is honestly my favorite character of the year so far and I don’t see any other character coming close.

“Just be careful, Mary Jo. Be very careful. You’ve made mistakes. Everyone makes mistakes. One you should not make is to imagine that Christy will ever be Adam’s mate. He is mine, and unlike her, I don’t throw away people who are mine.”

Mercy is everything. She is the best. She is caring but more than anything, like my friend Holly said, she’s just a regular person trying to do her best. She’s small but she’s fierce and I completely get why everyone will protect her with all that they are because she would and probably already has done the same for them. Is it any wonder that she’s this week’s Eye Candy Friday?

Character Casting

Another thing that Mercy is…is gorgeous. This is how Mercy looks in my head when I’m reading these books. Isn’t she gorgeous?

Mercy Thompson Series

Have you read Night Broken by Patricia Briggs? Did you love Mercy as much as I did? Who is your favorite character this week?