Thanks to NetGalley, I received two ARCs (advanced reader copies) of upcoming novels by two of my favorite authors. Here be my short but heartfelt reviews of the first one I finished. It's out now, so you don't even have to wait!Smoke Bitten by Patricia Briggs.I expect most people interested in Smoke Bitten have read some or all of the preceding books. Smoke Bitten is the twelfth in an urban fantasy series about Mercy Thompson,  part-time coyote, full-time auto mechanic, Volkswagon owner, seer of ghosts, and neighbor to a werewolf alpha.So if you're checking reviews because this book looks interesting, you're right! It is!I always recommend starting at the beginning of any series as well=established as this one--or at least with a book closer to the beginning.  That said, if this is the only Mercy Thompson book you can find, it's a great chapter in the ongoing saga, and a decent introduction to the complex, entertaining dynamics between members of an ever-increasing cast.Honestly, any plot summary without spoilers would be either redundant or too vague to be useful. The important points. First, as with most other books in the series, the events in Smoke Bitten take place over a very short time frame.  Second, the action is local, and the stakes more personal than world-changing.The plot shines brightest when Mercy is dealing with her friends and family. Often she's making hard choices between people and rules, between principle and practicality. In this book, a problem arises from the solutions to problems resolved in previous books.It's a tangle of big personalities, old grudges, and buried mysteries, with all the emotionally satisfying, complicated I've come to expect from this author.