Author: Rebecca Lim
Genre: Paranormal YA
Release Date:1 November 2010
Summary:
As an angel exiled from heaven and doomed to return repeatedly to Earth, Mercy is never sure whose life and body she will share each time. Her only clue to her forgotten past are the vivid dreams of her beloved Luc, who is both tender and terrible.
Mercy 'wakes' inside Carmen's body on a school bus bound for Paradise, a small town where everyone knows everyone else's business. Carmen is everything Mercy is sure she's not. Small, painfully self-conscious and plagued with eczema.
When Mercy meets Ryan, she is instantly drawn to him for his resemblance to Luc and his unwavering belief that his twin sister Lauren, who was kidnapped two years earlier, is still alive. Together Mercy and Ryan must unravel the mystery behind Lauren's kidnapping before another girl disappears and before Mercy's curse makes her 'wake' in someone else.
My Thoughts:
Let me start off by saying that I am not big on novels about fallen angels. Usually they tread on the very thin line between ecclesiastical and downright creepy. Having said that, Lim writes the way Lea Michele sings. Absolutely amazingly (sorry! had to get a Glee reference in there!). Her writing is almost like poetry and I found myself flying through the book, eager to find out what happened next, to the point where I forgot to have dinner.
The book itself is very fast paced, jumping into the action almost straight away. The budding romance between Mercy and Ryan is quite understated and this is a major positive because this is where other fallen angel books tend to slap it on a bit thick, thereby increasing the ick factor. Mercy's relationship with Luc is a little on the dramatic side and I tend to see it as less of a romance and more of a grapple for dominance which Luc is clearly winning at this point. I hope this changed in the second book.
The mystery of Lauren's disappearance lends a bit of well balanced intrigue to the plot and the obstacle of poor Carmen's bottom rung social status made me smile more than once. My only minor criticism is that the book is quite short and there were a few plot points that could have been fleshed out to make the story more believable. Like when Ryan sees Mercy glowing in the moonlight, she gives him some offhand explanation which he doesn't believe and then the scene cuts away and Ryan seems to suddenly accept that Mercy can do a full body ET??
On the whole though, I found Mercy to be thoroughly enjoyable and am very much looking forward to the sequel 'EXILE' which is next on my reading list.
Mercy isn't your average angel. I love that she is more than a little jaded and is so unlike the idea of a typical angel that she seems almost...human. Mercy is flawed, sarcastic, at times uncaring and I love her all the more for it. Ryan has the requisite good looks of a typical love interest and it's refreshing that he knows it. When he comes out with this gem: "Got a crush on me, have you? That was quick work. You'll get over it; plenty have," I knew he was a winner.
The book itself is very fast paced, jumping into the action almost straight away. The budding romance between Mercy and Ryan is quite understated and this is a major positive because this is where other fallen angel books tend to slap it on a bit thick, thereby increasing the ick factor. Mercy's relationship with Luc is a little on the dramatic side and I tend to see it as less of a romance and more of a grapple for dominance which Luc is clearly winning at this point. I hope this changed in the second book.
The mystery of Lauren's disappearance lends a bit of well balanced intrigue to the plot and the obstacle of poor Carmen's bottom rung social status made me smile more than once. My only minor criticism is that the book is quite short and there were a few plot points that could have been fleshed out to make the story more believable. Like when Ryan sees Mercy glowing in the moonlight, she gives him some offhand explanation which he doesn't believe and then the scene cuts away and Ryan seems to suddenly accept that Mercy can do a full body ET??
On the whole though, I found Mercy to be thoroughly enjoyable and am very much looking forward to the sequel 'EXILE' which is next on my reading list.
Hi, and welcome to the book blogosphere!! Thanks so much for visiting Book Labyrinth. =)
ReplyDeleteRyan sounds a bit Jace-like, which is always entertaining, and long as the character is a bit original.
Anyway, I'm so glad you enjoyed this one! It's always great when a book is a bit original compared to many in the genre it's in.
This sounds like a good read. I have it on my list. I'm glad to see the MC is a different type of angel. it get tiresome seeing angels as always so proper and good. Nice review.
ReplyDeleteI also enjoyed this one. It reminded me of the TV series "Quantum Leap" with Scott Bakula, which was on a number of years ago and now on DVD. The hero of that, Sam Beckett, is, like Mercy, stuck with leaping from life to life, body to body. A lot of reviews have said that and Rebecca Lim says she's never seen it, but really must, now that she's heard about it.
ReplyDeleteI liked the implication that Mercy is fallen because she did something really stupid as an angel, maybe took part in the angel rebellion, and was let down big-time by Luc - Lucifer? :-) Who knows? The author doesn't say, in this book or the next, but I'm guessing that's who he is.
The sequel is a little more about Mercy and her troubles than the first one, but still worth reading. I'm looking forward to the third. The students at my school have been discovering this book and enjoying it.