Mercy by Rebecca Lim

After “waking” to the sound of someone shouting, Mercy realises that she is on a bus bound for a small and quiet town called “Paradise”. Self-named, main character Mercy is an angel that has been exiled from heaven for reasons she can’t remember. Every time she “wakes” in a body of a complete stranger, barely remembering any previous memories. The unfortunate “host” person this time is Carmen Zappacosta, a girl that is near the end of high school, yet looks about 13, who was travelling to Paradise, accompanied by many other students from her school to sing. The reason I say “was” is because whenever Mercy enters another body, it is almost like she is hijacking it, a virus, and the host body has no memory of the events and situations that occur while Mercy is occupying the body.

Throughout the entire story, an angel name Luc contacts Mercy via her dreams, for he is forbidden to contact her otherwise. He persuades her to return to him and warns her of the dangers of those searching for her. The mentioning of Luc is very brief and I suspect that there will be more action from him in the future books: Exile and Muse.

Throughout the 2 week stay at Paradise, Mercy lives with the Daley family, a family that has been through a lot of misery due to the kidnapping of their daughter, Lauren. Their daughter was beautiful and popular, she had everything, and she was also a soprano singer. The family are still in a lot of pain, even though their daughter had been abducted near two years ago. The Daley’s son, Ryan, still believes that his younger sister is still alive, that she is still out there somewhere, waiting to be found. He even has “visions” of where she is being held captive. Whenever Mercy comes with contact with a person she can “feel” their emotions and strongest memories, she can also detect if they are lying. After touching Ryan’s hand, Mercy feels his pain, sorrow and fading hope and, I this quite predictable, felt a great urge to aid him in his search.

In Ryan’s vision, he heard voices raised in song, an organ, the thumping of a bible, but all of this sounded very distant. He “saw” two or more doors, many stairs and felt the warmth of the sunlight. Because of this, Ryan had already searched the Church, but found nothing of importance. After Mercy suggested trying the Preachers home, which they were very close in getting caught in, they also discovered nothing. The next couple of chapters revolve around Mercy and Ryan following false clues.

And cue Paul Stenborg, a music teacher with the looks and the voice, and boy does he know it! On the outside Paul appears to be like any other good looking, vain music teacher but there is just something that causes Mercy to be wary of him. Paul doesn’t act odd, unless you counted his endless praise for Carmen/Mercy’s voice…

Then, just when you begin to get bored with the book, the unbelievable happens: there has been another kidnapping. The similarities are that both were amazing soprano singers, just like Carmen.
After confirming details with Paul, Mercy and Ryan are near positive that an older man name Laurence Barry is the kidnapper and plan to search his home that very night… except Mercy never shows.

Mercy had been taken, for the same purpose the previous 2 girls were: for her amazing, angelic voice…

Mercy is an amazing novel that is the perfect amount of Paranormal, mystery and a touch of romance. Although the beginning of the book lacks action, the suspense builds up gradually throughout the book. Author Rebecca Lim creates a mysterious and successful debut novel, using the perfect language to engage the readers! The cover of the book is also truly magnificent!

4 out of 5 stars!

By Rosa Tran