Patricia Briggs is in my top five favorite authors, so I greedily gobbled this collection of short stories up. Set in the “Mercy-verse,” BLIND DATE WITH A WEREWOLF is most closely tied to the Mercy Thompson series. (This is a paranormal fantasy series with plenty of romance amongst the werewolves, vampires, and witches that live amongst the humans.)

Three of these short stories have been previously published.

Happily, Briggs brings us two new short stories, as well as

some additional action that shuffles all five shorts into

chronological order and ties them up, intertwined with a bow.

Asil is a very old werewolf, known as The Moor, and feared

by all for his exceptional lethality. He had to execute his

last lover, Sage, for crimes against the pack several years

ago.

Some in Asil’s pack band together to shake him out of his

doldrums. He receives a letter saying,

Dear Asil:

We are worried about you. A werewolf alone is a sad thing,

especially at Christmastime. So we have a challenge for you:

Five dates in three weeks. We have taken the work out of it

and connected you with five people from online dating sites.

You should also know that we have informed the whole pack

and instigated a betting pool. Have fun!

Sincerely,

Your Concerned Friends

Each short story shows us one of the five highly quirky

dates. I love the many twists that Briggs applies to each

blind date. The first, “Unappreciated Gifts,” originally

appeared in the Fantastic Holiday anthology. The ball for

pretend vampires was interrupted by a real vampire whom Asil

must fight. The second brief date, "Must Love Cats:

Aftermath" is one of the two new short stories in the

collection. The timeline is jumbled, something Briggs seems

to love to play with.

The third, “Asil and the Not-Date” from the Fantastic Hope

anthology, is supposed to be a not-date with a platonic

conversation partner. Once again, unexpected paranormal

creatures interrupt the date, including a black witch and a

wyrm that Asil must battle. Asil and his intrepid date end

up rescuing some children.

The fourth is the story that introduced Ruby, "Dating

Terrors,” from the Heroic Hearts anthology. Asil's online

date turns dangerous (definitely the theme!) when the woman

he's meeting is bound by dark magic. Asil helps Ruby defeat

the being terrorizing her, and helps himself into a romance.

The last is the other new short story, "Sheherazade." This

one pulls in characters from the previous dates and also

ties back to treachery in Asil’s past for a most satisfying

tale.

Truly a werewolf sort of book, at least one creature dies on

each of the dates. Also, Asil gets to demonstrate his care

for endangered innocents in danger, so we see his softer

side. Asil has had an incredibly hard time over his many-

centuried life, and I am delighted that he finds a new mate

in BLIND DATE WITH A WEREWOLF. The "concerned friend"

reveal was also an especially fun surprise, and not who I

was suspecting! Briggs’ BLIND DATE WITH A WEREWOLF is a

captivating addition to this wonderful world.