Book Review : Mercy (The Mercy Trilogy) by Lucian Bane
A Sneak Peek Into The Story :
Mercy (yes, that is her real name), has a dark past. A man rescues her from said past, take cares of her and teaches her how to fight and defend herself, who she eventually comes to call her father. Her father, who has been sheltering her for her whole life suddenly passed away and leaves her with an envelope.
Inside the envelope, there is a full and detailed report on a man called Sade, along with his picture. From what was written, Mercy can already summarize that Sade has been through some hardship and has turned into a dangerous man. Not only that, the fact that he was raised and is still living in the worst part of the city and is the son a man who deals in illegal drugs, prostitution and flesh trade just strengthens Mercy’s belief that Sade is definitely dangerous.
However, Mercy being a kind-hearted angel, who only ever sees her father as a kind and goodhearted man, strives to be like him, and decides that her father must have been wanting to help Sade from his current situation. Knowing that now her father is unable to help Sade, she decides step in and help him herself.
Despite Mercy already knowing the fact that Sade is not a good man, she still decides that she wants go and find out more about the man herself. I just find it funny that Mercy, who has had a horrible past, thinks that it is a good idea to just visit the man in his club, which is located in one of the worst parts of Los Angeles, all by herself. Without even thinking that it would probably be a good idea to at least tell someone where she would be going, in case something happens to her. But she just fly down to Sade’s club as fast as she possibly can, it is as if she just can’t wait to meet the man.
” The crowd in the front was vanilla ice cream in comparison to the crowd in the back and the energy screamed ‘welcome to your last wrong turn. “
That is what is written in the book in regard of what she thinks after she enters the back alleyway. At this point, I am not sure if Mercy is either stupid, naive or just plain crazy.
Once the two properly meets, it is as if they just instantly falls in love with each other. Which I don’t really mind when the writing is executed in the right way. But the way Lucian Bane does it, I don’t know, it just doesn’t sit well with me. It is more like Mercy has a bipolar disorder and sometimes she is being all snuggly and lovey-dovey and at times, just the simplest thing that Sade does will set her off and she will be on defense mode and literally fight with Sade (as in literal physical fighting). Not only that, in the very beginning of them knowing each other, Mercy is already feeling possessive about Sade, and I find it weird that she feels that way because they don’t even know each other that well yet and here she is, blowing up his phone when he doesn’t answer to her calls.
Review :
For the first half of the book, the story bounce around so much that I have a hard time trying to understand Mercy and Sade. I am still trying to wrap my head around Mercy’s motivation to find Sade and her trying to integrate into his life once she did. I get that Mercy wants to help Sade with his issues, but it somehow feels as if she is just trying to be in Sade’s life as fast as she can possibly be.
They both have serious sexual issues. Sade gets off on pain, it doesn’t matter whether he inflicts it or he endures it. And Mercy’s body shuts down at the thought of sexual pleasures when approached with triggers. And Sade is an equally complex character as well, while he is portrayed as the Dominant in this book, he doesn’t quite seem to fit the Dominant criteria based on his actions in this book. Moreover, in “Mercy” seems like Sade gives a lot of power, way too many power even, to his cock, to the point that it feels like his cock is the one controlling his actions not the other way around.
Another problem I have with this book is the heroine. Her mission is to help Sade with his past, and at the same time help herself with her past as well. While Sade does a good job conversing his past, Mercy seems to have more problems with it. As in, whenever she has a break down, she refuses to talk about it and opted only to have Sade comfort her, and will try to avoid it when Sade tries to pry about her past. Which is kind of odd seeing that her whole mission is to help him get past his traumas and yet she can’t even talk about her own traumas.
Moreover, I don’t feel like any of their deep seated problems or past traumas are even solved at all, there are a lot of the story that is hidden from the readers. When I read a book, I like to know what is going on, and even after finishing the book, I don’t feel like the ending helps me understand the situation or the main character any better. It is as if the author just decides to pull out all these problems and scatter it throughout the book without having a real solution in mind and pull the reader along with it.
While I can still cope with the half-baked character and the plot, what bugs me the most is the writing and grammatical errors. It is annoying how the heroine keep on using exclamation mark in her dialogue.
There are also a lot of times when the setting of the scene is sombre and sad, but then Mercy’s dialogue will consist of exclamation mark in them, so it makes me feel as if she is screaming for no reason and that just breaks the whole scene for me.
It’s not only that, there are a lot (and I mean a lot) of grammatical and vocabulary errors. How could Lucian Bane publish a book without having it spellchecked and grammar-checked (not sure if that is a word) is beyond me. And I don’t think I have ever read a book where the author blatantly writes, “Fuuuuuuuccck” as a dialogue. And it is not only one time occurrence, I am pretty sure it happens at least three times where Sade say “Fuuuuuuuuccck” in this book.
The Verdict :
Altogether, it was a pretty good read. There is something about the dynamic between Sade and Mercy that is oddly entertaining and keeps me coming back for more. There are a lot of things that stills needs a lot of improvement, like the dialogue, the punctuation or lack thereof. Lucian Bane comes up with a really unique and interesting plot, but his writing still needs a lot of work.
I might continue reading book two, just for the sake of satisfying my curiosity but it is definitely not “drop everything to read” kind of book. And if you are worried that this book might be too dark for you, I think it is safe to say that it has some disturbing flash backs, but there is nothing dark about this book at all despite what is written on the book cover.
The review is right on point. I placed on order on Amazon and I can't wait to start reading. Thank you!
I love an honest book review and thank you for sharing your thoughts with us on the book. I've always been someone who likes to read non-fiction so keen to hear if you have any recommendations there!
Great honest book review. You know this is giving me a little Grey vibes.
Haha as in 50 shades of grey?
Thank you for visiting! I am more of a fiction kind of girl, but I will see if there are any non-fiction book that grabs my attention then I will definitely make a recommendation list! xx
I'm hearing about this book for the first time. Your detailed review definitely piqued my curiosity for this book. 🙂
This sounds like a good read! I've never heard of the book before this post!
I am not a huge book reader for past few years but I like a good book once in a while. I am also quite annoyed when the story is interesting but you see grammatical error everywhere. >.<
This sounds like an interesting read! I get what you mean when dialogue and other aspects of the writing for romance novels could use work. I've encountered many books where I question how the book even got published because of their poor writing techniques, but the story and plot always hooks me in some way!
Sondra xx
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This looks to be such an interesting read! Thanks for the suggestion, will certainly check it out! xo, Suzanne
I know right? but weirdly I keep coming back to it because the dynamic between the main character was kinda cute haha
Thank you!
Haha same here. You would think that they would have a professional editor go through it before publishing the book
Thanks for this honest review. You'd think a published writer would proofread before publishing right?
Very thorough review! You have peaked my interest! thanks for that 🙂
I really like that this is an honest review. I have to say, I don't think this my cup of tea, but I think my sister would really like it. I will show her your review to see if she would be interested.
I love books and am always eager to add new books to my list of books to read! Thanks for the review!
I've never heard of this book. Thanks for your insightful review.
Of course! Let me know if she decides to read it xx
Thank you for visiting! xx
I know right? The errors in this book are just horrific haha
Never read this book but I appreciate your honest review.
I've never heard about this book. The story line of this book is so interesting. I will definitely check this out.
great review! It's a shame about the grammatical errors. I get irritated when I read books with simple grammar errors. Because these books and publishers must have proof reader and editors, right?
This is such a great honest review. I am a book lover so I don't miss this chance. I will totally check this book.
I wish I had more free time to read. Sounds like a good one.
First time came across this book. Thanks for the great sharing of the synopsis. I should be ordering one for my own reading too.
dark erotica. .sounds like something i would like to read. Good sharing
This sounds like an interesting read, helping with the past – that makes me want to read it. I haven't heard of Lucian Bane before but based on your review, seems like a nice writer, the only thing needed is improved writing style.
I agree, the premise of the book is actually pretty good and the main characters are really likable and I love the dynamic between the two, i just hope that the writer can hire a professional spell checker and an editor to make it better because I honestly feel like ripping my hair out reading grammatical errors after grammatical errors haha
haha tell me how it goes if you do xx
let me know how it goes! xx
What an in-depth review! Love it! This book is intriguing though heehee
thank you for sharing this book. I can add my reading collection
hurmmm..interesting…
Could it also be that the reason why there's like punctuation marks even when it is supposed to be in a quiet or gloomy environment….could be because Mercy like you said is bipolar..one sec she snaps when she calls Sage out but quickly realises something and shuts her mouth while starting to whimp?
I have not read the book…but from what you had in mind of the story itself…could that be it? Because I have seen those kind of scenes where a character screams out something and then becomes dead silent the next. Usually it is with a gasp.
hmm that is an interesting way to see it. I don't know whether or not she is a bipolar because the book has way too many grammatical and vocabulary errors that I don't even bother wanting to read the second or third installation for this series. But then again, while she could be bipolar I think there are other, clearer ways to show that she is bipolar rather than just adding exclamation marks in the end of her dialogue most of the time. Haha sorry, I just went on a rant, it just bugs me so much that the author didnt even have a professional editor look through his work.
What an interesting review. It seems you have a love hate relationship with this book. Maybe that's part of what the author intended!
I appreciate your honest book review! You certainly seem to have a love-hate relationship going on with this book!
Nice, your book review made me curious and want to read up the story 🙂
What an interesting plot this book has. I am not sure I am able to find it but I am going to look for it because it is so intriguing.
Really good and detailed book review! I think I am going to grab this book soon 🙂
After getting such reviews now I cant wait longer to read ….Thanks for sharing
I see. So this book is almost the same as Fifthy Shades but more to their sexual addiction.
The story line of this book is so interesting. I think I need to add this to my book list to reading. And I am looking forward to check this out.
I am sure it is a great book for fans of S and M.. Unfortunately, not so much my forte….
This sounds like such a good read. I LOVE to read however, I haven't sat down and just read a book for quiet some time. I really should.
Love your insightful review as usual =) Sounds interesting to read also, will you be interest to continue to read on this novel series?
Sadly, no. I cannot force myself to read through the bad grammatical errors and missing words in the book.
Well, that was a thorough and honest review. A lot of times with self published books they don't go through an editor which they should. It would probably help tie up some of the plot wholes you felt were prominent throughout the book…also helps with writing and spelling errors.
The concept of the story seems interesting.
I know. But still, when one published a book, I just somehow has this general standard of how the book should turn out to be. Even when the story is riddled with holes and half-baked story, you would at least expect it to not have any writing errors. But then again, maybe I'm just too picky about stuff like that haha