Masques – Patricia Briggs

Aralorn is the illegitimate daughter of a lord and a shapeshifter. Not wanting to be caught up in the court, she ends up being a mercenary. Wolf is her companion that she’s met along the way – a man that usually spends his time in the shape of a wolf, who has secrets that he’s gradually starting to reveal.

This was Briggs’ first book – I’ve got the revised 2010 edition. You can tell it’s an earlier book. The style is a bit rougher than her later books that I’ve read, and it’s not the freshest fantasy story. Still, I can see what I like about her characterizations in later books in the characters here, and it’s certainly a solid adventure. I just wouldn’t take it as the definitive example of Briggs’ work. Go to one of the Mercy Thompson books for that.