BkRv: Sing it out, girl, you got to be what tomorrow needs

Book Review / 

mercy
by Rebecca Lim - @none-found

YA | Angels | Series Book 1

First Line / There's something very wrong with me.

 








Summary / from the publisher

A fallen angel haunted by her past. Yearning for her immortal beloved. Forever searching for answers.Who will show her Mercy?

Mercy has lost herself. She can’t count how many times she’s “woken up” in a new body, and assumed a new life, only to move on again and again. During the day she survives in the human world on instinct and at night her dreams are haunted by him. Mercy’s heart would know him anywhere. But her memory refuses to cooperate.

But this time is different. When Mercy wakes up she meets Ryan, an eighteen year old reeling from the loss of his twin sister who was kidnapped two years ago. Everyone else has given up hope, but Ryan believes his sister is still alive. Using a power she doesn’t fully comprehend, Mercy realizes that Ryan is right. His sister is alive and together they can find her. For the first time since she can remember, Mercy has a purpose; she can help. So she doesn’t understand why the man in her dreams cautions her not to interfere. But as Ryan and Mercy come closer to solving the dark mystery of his sister’s disappearance, danger looms just one step behind.

Will Mercy be able to harness her true self and extraordinary power in time?

The first in a dazzling new series, Mercy masterfully weaves romance, mystery and the supernatural into a spell-binding tale.

Review / mercy is hard for me to describe without going too wordy. The best way to describe mercy is that it is a mystery wrapped in an even bigger mystery. Similar to Veronica Mars as she solves smaller cases while chasing after that BIG ? that won't get solved until the very end. That is how mercy begins for us, and Rebecca Lim delivered such a strong "small" mystery that will get you hooked into the series!

Mercy is such a fascinating character. I mean, here is a girl who does not know who she is, but knows that the body she's inhabiting is not really hers and has to share with the original person. A potentially complicated dynamic, but Mercy has the upper hand and keeps the other person in check. Which is weird considering that throughout mercy the other person stays present, somewhere, somehow. Mercy doesn't even know how affected Carmen will be after this current ordeal. I'm curious as well, but I don't think we will ever know.

The only aspect of mercy that threw me off is Mercy's dream encounters with strange men who seem to glow in the dark. Yes, it alludes to the larger mystery of Mercy's identity - but his doom-and-gloom premonitions seemed out-of-place when it showed up during the small mystery. Rebecca Lim dances around Mercy's identity with careful but deliberate steps, and unknowing readers like myself will delight in following the breadcrumbs to an unknown but surely grand finale.

mercy gives a story unlike any other - and it will draw you in very carefully and then pounce for keeps as you become invested in the characters - Mercy and Ryan, especially - and realize that the current mystery has ran its course. I don't know about you, but I am definitely in line for exile when it gets released!

An Aside / The Australian cover (immediate right) is GORGEOUS, and can I say that I am sad that US gets the cover on top? I don't quite fathom why!

---Disclaimer / NetGalley
---RELEASED MAY 2011 BY HYPERION BOOKS (DISNEY)
---OTHER BOOKS IN THE SERIES: EXILE, MUSE