I was very excited to read the first few pages of River Marked. It appeared to me the whole cast was going to make their appearance (and hopefully find some trouble together) as Mercy banged on Stefan's door to make him rejoin the world of the living... well relatively speaking, of course. (He was conspiciously missing for me in the previous book with just a few one line references to his whereabouts.) 
 After Mercy sets Stefan on the right track, she takes her 'offical' position by Adam's side and gets married, white dress and all and yes, her mother was actually there and Mercy actually survived it. (Her mother and the wedding) 
 The first 60 pages of the book show a lot of bonding between Mercy and Adam. Some humor, some fun, some talk about sex, but no.. actual sex is depicted. Not even 'emotionally' do we get to follow them there, such as at the end of Silver Borne. I think had she not gone there before, I wouldn't have felt its very distinct lack now. I would have been happy with an emotional journey and really we only needed one such scene of this type for all of the rest of the 'sex' mentioning to not seem scapegoatish and instead remind us of the one we'd already read about. 
 Frankly, the first 60 pages were kind of boring, aside from the Stefan encounter and I found myself wondering when he'd drop in on Mercy on her honeymoon and stir things up. Well, things get stirred up, but not by Stefan and not by any of her other friends either. If Stefan isn't central to the story line in book 7 I might have a hissy fit.. I mean... it's the last in the series (as far as I know). 
 You do get to learn a bit about Mercy's heritage and about her father, as well, and the famous walking stick of the previous books makes another glorious reappearance. All in all, it was a pretty good story. What the first 60ish pages lacked in action the last 60 sure do make up for. It was vastly more satisfying than Silver Borne's almost anti-climatic ending. 
 I can't wait to see what book 7 brings. I'm not sure how Briggs will end the series and I wonder how she can possibly manage to end it while still not leaving me wanting far more. That type of satisfactory ending is fairly ellusive in my experience. 
 ** For those of you that haven't read the book (or the previous 5), you might not want to read further.** 
 I was sooo happy to barely see a mention of Samuel or Ariana in this book, frankly at the way things were handled last book I did expect they'd get some page time to show development and dreaded reading it. Sam's johnny-on-the-spot HEA was just too sunshine-and-butterflies sickening to me to be believable, even with their 'past' together. Had we met Ariana at the beginning of Silver Borne instead of the end and had she EARNED Sam's love throughout the book I'd have been more accepting, I think ... anyway, I digress. 
 Something River Marked did (that Silver Borne also did) was leave the majority of the cast on the sidelines. Bit parts for long standing characters are given, but they don't help Mercy solve the crisis in the end. I think this is... strange. In Silver Borne its Ariana, and she saves the squishies and leaves Mercy to... well the tender mercies of the bad guy. We don't get to know what those tender mercies were.. which is why it felt anticlimatic. And in River Marked, Mercy is left alone to fight the bad guy and its explained very well why no one else would do. 
 Obviously the book is about Mercy, so she needs to be central to the story. But what good are previously made allies and friendships if no one is ever allowed/can help? I'm not bashing on the cleverness of the author here, goodness knows she can write a damn good book... I just wonder if I'm the only one that felt that in the last couple books only new characters intro'd are really helping Mercy. And I wonder what that means. Did they all need to be preserved for the showdown in book 7 w/ Stefan and his seethe? Was it just to show expansion of the cast? Maybe its a good thing Briggs has me guessing and I'm just disgruntled cuz I have to wait till spring 2013 for the next book... I don't know, but I'm definitely highly anticipating where she's going in book 7. It had better knock my socks off.