Blind Date with a Werewolf (A Novel in Stories) by Patricia Briggs
Rating: 
Nothing is perfect, and as such, the reviews in this blog are chaotic. My main aim is to share my thoughts, joy and opinions on a book, not make a publication perfect review. This blog endorses authenticity, showing up and joy over perfection.
Disclaimer: Receiving a review copy from the publisher does not affect my opinion of the book. If you think I review it highly it is due to me knowing my taste well and therefore not requesting books I won’t enjoy. And I am not obligated to review the book if I do not like it, so you may not see bad reviews due to me preferring not to hype down a particular book. I only do reviews of books I disagreed with if I think it is worth bringing a topic or warning to light.
Probably not obvious but I am a big fan of Patricia Briggs, have been since I first read The Hob's Bargain (I should probably re-read it and review it properly here) back when I was a teenager. She was my introduction to urban fantasy (or paranormal or whatever you want to call it now, to me it will always be urban fantasy), and yes I am aware that the Hob's Bargain is not urban fantasy but that was the gateway and Mercy Thompson won my heart and I had a soft spot for her Alpha and Omega books too. So when Orbit (a while back) said they were publishing the collection of short stories about Asil's blind dates, I jumped at the chance (and then kinda moved house and lost the book and had no pictures and didn't review it until now, my bad). Asil is a deadly old werewolf, he's lived a long time and lives a reclusive life since he lost his own mate. But his friends are challenging him to go on five blind dates in the span of three weeks. They even made it easy and chose the people, everything is organised and perfectly scheduled, all he has to do is show up and be a good date. Now, these are five short stories, one per date, that make up a bigger one, but you don't need to technically read them all to know what's going on, and for me it had been a while since I had read the Alpha and Omega books, so I had a vague memory of the characters but couldn't recall everything. Despite having some blanks, this was pure fun. The dates are actually nicely planned with well meaning people and each one just gets more chaotic and more hilarious than the last, and yet they are also very serious and show you well that Asil is very true to himself through and through no matter the chaos. And there is a lot of chaos thrown at him. There's people feeling stood up or on a joke, and then there's big felines and other old magic flowing through and showing up at inconvenient times during the date. Honestly I breezed through this and it was such a joy to read, reminded me why I fell in love with urban fantasy and why I loved the Alpha & Omega series, but also why I enjoy Patricia Briggs' books so much. All I can say is that you should read them for a good time in chaos dates and an impeccable werewolf who is trying to do his best for this challenge of blind dates. There's a little bit of everything here for everyone. And if my books weren't packed, I would've just ignored everything and gone to binge read the Alpha and Omega series after finishing this book because it was a delightfully enjoyable read.