I loved this book. So much! It was so different from any other Angel book I’ve read. In fact, if the description/cover/etc hadn’t told me it was an angel book, I might not have even known.
So, there’s this…spirit? I guess? Or soul or whatever. She doesn’t remember who she is, or where she’s from or anything like that. All she does know about herself is that one day she’ll wake up in a new body. A new life. She’ll take over some woman’s life for a few days, a few months, a few years, then move on to the host. She has no control, and no idea why it happens. And she only has two connections to her past. One is the man in her dreams. The man named Luc. The man she might be in love with, but who has a sinister shadow around him.
The other connection is the word Mercy. She figures it was her name.
So, that part is awesome. But that’s just the back story. The plot of the book is about Mercy waking up in a new girls body and being plunged into the middle of murder mystery in small town…well, I assume Australia, but it never really says. So, just a small town anywhere. She’s her host body is on an extended school field trip with her choir and is staying with a family who are trying to move past a tragedy that befell them two years before. And now Mercy teams with the son of the family to solve this mystery, and find whatever clues about herself she can in the process.
I loved all the mystery in this book. The two levels of it. And the angels you see in this book? Not nice guys. They’re either mysterious (go figure), shady things or big and menacing and terrible…and still mysterious.
And the humans in the book are so complicated. Ryan is on a path of self-destruction but nothing is going to stop him from finding his sister.The host Mercy is inhabiting is shy and quiet, yet has an amazing voice and wants so bad to sing and be admired for it. I especially loved that with the mystery of Ryan’s missing sister, when you find out who the culprit is, it isn’t some one new they spring on you at the end, as it is in a lot of crime drama’s on TV. It is someone involved in the story, there were clues and hints. I love when mysteries stick to their roots that way.
***Woah, woah…I just read the description for this book on Goodreads and…it gives away all of the mystery surrounding Mercy. Like all the stuff it says isn’t even said for sure in the book. It’s heavily implied, but not said outright. I am not cool with this, not cool at all. Rant over.***
Now, I’m all upset. Really though, Mercy is such an awesome lead. She doesn’t take crap from anybody, and she can be hard and blunt but also caring and understanding. And she struggles not to let anyone down. As she struggles to figure out who she is and why this curse, or what have you, has been done to her. And who did it to her?
I am on the edge of my seat for the next book, Exile. I need to know more, and if she can find Ryan again and…and…despite Goodreads just laying out her past like that (grrrr) I want to read it in the books. I might have to get Exile from Book Depository when it comes out in Australia in April. I just can’t wait until June.
Okay, so as implied above some countries have this book, some don’t. As far as I can tell, you can currently buy it in Australia, the UK, and Canada, where it’s published by HarperCollins. And it will be available in the USA on May 17th from Hyperion. Which is odd to me…but, whatever.
Get this book when you can. You will not regret it. It’s so different from other angel books. Mercy is just so kick-ass, I love her.