Review: Fury by Rebecca Lim

THE STORY:

Heartbreak. Vengeance. Fury.

Mercy is an exiled angel cast down to earth and forced to live out thousands of different lives for her own protection. Betrayed by her eternal love, Luc, Mercy burns with fury. The time of reckoning is here and now she must wage open war with Luc and his demons. Ryan’s love for Mercy is more powerful than ever, but loving an angel is mortally dangerous. As their two worlds collide, Mercy approaches her ultimate breathtaking choice. Hell hath no fury like Mercy ...

MY THOUGHTS:

 I've been reading a fair few angel books lately because my NaNo novel is about angels and it always gets me curious to know how a writer resolves the angel/human love equation. Unfortunately, I was severely disappointed with the way this book ended and it's a testament to Rebecca Lim's extraordinary way with words that I managed to finish reading this one at all.

The Plot:
I don't think I'm the only reader who has mentioned the anti climatic way Fury ended and how upset it made them after the incredible first three books in this series. I was three quarters of the way through when I finally realised what was bugging me so much. It was the phenomenon of a lot of doing but not much actually happening. In my opinion too much time was spent on the minor details, to the point where everything became mundane. Lim does an incredible job of building up the suspense but when it came down to the actual nitty gritty, I felt like the easy way out was taken and it all pitched on a word or a choice to be made rather than anything proactive on the part of the characters. I've always maintained that Lim is the only author I've read so far who has been able to convey the magnitude of what's at stake when angels are involved. To have so much build up only to have the ending fizzle out in a page felt like an insult.

The Characters:
This for me was by far the most disappointing aspect of Fury. Where I found Mercy to be a gritty, gutsy heroine in previous books, in Fury she came off as selfish and I'm so sad to say, a bit of a Mary-Sue. For all intents, she wasn't exactly blameless in her own exile and yet she and the other angels treated the situation like she was the one who was completely wronged. Almost all the other angels were her close friends or people who cared about her so much that they would give their lives for her. I counted at least three other angels who were in love with her for no reason that I could discern. She certainly was never described as being particularly beautiful, nice or caring. She of course had super special powers that the other angels couldn't fathom and was able to save everyone with a single word. 

Then we come to Ryan. I so adored him in Mercy. He was a bit unbelievable but still charming in Exile and in Muse I was anxious for him to catch up to Mercy so that I could get a glimpse of what their relationship would be like when the two were finally able to spend more than a few minutes together. Now I wish their love was a tragic one that could never come to pass. There was a real disconnect between the Ryan that we were introduced to in the first book as opposed to the Ryan that surface in Fury. On the one hand, Lim did an amazing job of getting across how utterly useless humans are in the celestial fight between the warring angels. On the other, it thoroughly irritated me that despite not contributing in any meaningful way, Ryan became a whiny little girl intent on dragging at Mercy's coat tails until she gave in and risked many lives to allow him to follow her. The romance between the two verged on nauseating yet still managed to be essentially shallow.

The Final Verdict:
 I know it doesn't sound like I enjoyed this book much and for the most part I did have to put it down and pick it back up again several times. The thing that saved it for me was the writing. Even though this wasn't my favourite book of all time I am going to miss the beautiful writing. If only the rest of the book was of similar quality.

THE RATING

3/5

Review: Muse by Rebecca Lim

THE STORY

An angel in exile, caught between lives ... and loves

Mercy is an angel, exiled from heaven, and when she wakes in the body of nineteen-year-old Irina, Mercy discovers that she′s one of the world′s most infamous supermodels on the verge of a very public breakdown. Against the glamorous background of Milan′s opulent fashion world, Mercy continues her increasingly desperate search for Ryan Daley, the mortal boy she remembers falling for in a past life. But this time, Mercy′s memories and powers are growing ever stronger - and she begins to doubt the pleas of her dream lover, Luc, as more of her mysterious past is revealed. Are Luc′s desires as selfless as her own or does he want her for a more terrifying purpose?

The grand scale celestial battle for Mercy′s soul builds to an incredible stormy crescendo as archangels and demons clash in a cataclysmic showdown that not all will survive ...

MY THOUGHTS

The Basics

I started reading Muse a couple of months ago and had to put it down for a rainy day. I knew I'd need it as a back up after a particularly terrible bout of YA books. Based on other reviews I've read, I know that some readers don't like Mercy as a character. I personally love her. She's cold and often uncaring and just the closest representation of how I think an angel would behave. 

      This installment sees Mercy sub planted into the host body of world famous supermodel Irina. I love how Mercy is unaffected for the most part by Irina's lifestyle and beauty. She neither covets nor shuns Irina's looks and astounding wealth. Though that doesn't extend to her appreciation of beauty in her male counterparts. A trait she freely admits to having. And who could blame her? If I rolled with a horde of gorgeous angels I'd be swooning over them too. Not that Mercy does this is the normal YA sense. In fact Mercy does nothing in the normal YA sense and I think that's why I love her so much.

     Mercy finally breaks free of the bonds which hold back her memories and we learn of the events leading up to her exile as an angelic body snatcher. I must admit I'd already figured out most of the reveals, but that didn't really phase me. It was obvious that the memories weren't meant to be difficult to work out, more that Mercy herself had so much trouble piecing them together because the angelic interference brought on my her constant body shifts. 

     It's clear how much research Lim has done for this series. Where other books just skim the surface of the world of angels, Muse in infused with  layer upon layer of it. I'm doing a lot of research into angels for my own story and I had a semi attack of excitement every time another angel I recognized appeared.

The Craft  

I'm going to take a moment to let myself be jealous of Rebecca Lim's incredible writing talent. Like the previous books in this series, I can only describe the writing style as a poetic symphony. The style fits particularly well with the heavenly plot, adding a sense of etherealness that I haven't seen before in any book except maybe Daughter of Smoke and Bone by Lainy Taylor. 

The Literally Star Crossed Loves

I complained of a lack of Ryan in the last book. That complaint still stands. What's with Aussie writers and the ability to imprint a character so vividly on a reader without giving them much page time? Ryan is the kind of love interest I want to be able to write. He's sweet and easy going which is hard to pull off given the scale of the events in this book. Sure it's unbelievable that he keep uprooting himself to go in search of her but no less so than some of the other stuff that happens in other books. I'm in awe of how accepting he is of the stratosphere of crazy that gravitates towards Mercy. How vulnerable he is as a mere human in the face of the highest order of angels. I can't see a HEA for Mercy and Ryan but that won't stop me from hoping for it.

One Tiny Complaint

I've only just realised how large the print in this series is and wish that the books were longer so that more time could be devoted to flashing out a few things. Things like people's reactions to Mercy's true nature for one. I know if I found out there was an angel inhabiting the body of someone I knew my reaction would be a heck of a lot of screaming and not such easy acceptance.

THE RATING

4.5/5

Review: Exile by Rebecca Lim

Title: Exile
Author: Rebecca Lim
Genre: Paranormal YA
Release Date: May 2011

Summary:

Exile is the second book in Rebecca Lim's Mercy series and takes up shortly after the events in the conclusion of the first book.


Mercy 'wakes' inside the body and life of eighteen-year-old Lela Neill. Mercy has little recall of her past life, except her memories of Ryan which come back to her after a particularly insistent push from her immortal beloved Luc. In order to find Luc, Mercy must make contact with Ryan, whose feelings for her haven't dulled despite their untimely separation.
 

My Thoughts:

I started reading EXILE thinking that it would be written in the same formula that MERCY was. That it would be a mystery wrapped up in a bit of romance and soul searching on Mercy’s behalf. I turned out to be both right and wrong.

EXILE is a lot more laid back than MERCY was and the plot is much less pace driven. It is a very introspective book and Mercy spends a great deal of her time travelling the celestial universe in search of answers to who she really is.  Once again the author’s prose is infallible and  I think the way the author writes saves EXILE from being a little on the slow side.  

Mercy’s new body host is Lela Neill, a young lady struggling to hold on to the shreds of her life while her mother is fighting a losing battle with cancer. Lela works at the awesomely named Green Lantern café where most of the novel is centred. I won’t put in any spoilers but it’s fair to say that from the get go, Lela seems to be a genuinely nice person and I was saddened by the ending. The supporting characters are a mixed bunch of equally lost souls, who I came to really care about by the end of the book. Luc’s presence is less dominant in this book and I was glad for that because I have started to really dislike him, if not for his pushiness, than because of what Mercy’s brothers have been trying to tell her about him. Ryan continues to be a source of much swooning for me, but I will admit that even my very accepting YA mind finds it difficult to grasp that he and Mercy could be so much in love after less than two weeks of knowing each other. Maybe I’ll just focus on how gorgeous he is.

All in all, I thoroughly enjoyed EXILE and would definitely recommend it.  Am very much looking forward to the next book in the series.

Review: Mercy by Rebecca Lim

Title: Mercy
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.

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.