The Phantom of the Opera - Gerard Butler & Emmy Rossum

Mercy
Mercy, Book 1

Author: Rebecca Lim
Pages: 269
ARC Acquired from: Hyperion via NetGalley

Brief Summary:
Mercy, or so she calls herself, borrows other people's bodies for a while. She has no control over what body she will be in, how long she will be there. Nor does she have any of the body's memories or many of her own. She can remember the last few bodies and lives she had, but that's it, except for the sexy mystery man, Luc, in her dreams. Her newest body belongs to Carmen, a tiny girl with a a giant soprano voice. Carmen has just traveled to Paradise with her school's chorus, where they will practice for a big performance while staying with local families. Carmen gets placed with a family whose own soprano daughter was taken two years ago, now presumed dead by all but her twin brother, Ryan. Carmen/Mercy decides to help him hunt for his sister, even though Luc is telling her not to. What is Mercy? What happened to Lauren?

Review:
Mercy definitely was not what I was expecting. My expectation was that it would be another of the paranormal fantasy wave, something about angels, judging from the girl on the cover. While the paranormal stuff is there, it's mostly just an afterthought, though. What this book is, more than anything else, is a mystery. It is about the search for Lauren and her captor and/or killer.

It was so much about that actually that the paranormal gifts that helped Mercy accomplish everything seemed like a bit of a cop out. She can read people by touching them and has powers appear to help her out of tough scrapes.

As for the characters, I do rather like Mercy. She's brash and strong, says what she thinks, even when it's inappropriate. It should come as no surprise that I like that in a heroine. Most of the supporting cast did not interest me at all, especially Mr. Dream Boy Luke. He can just gtfo. I am much more interested in Ryan and am really wondering whether he will make a reappearance in the series or if this will be episodic, with Mercy in a different body and dealing with different people each time.

Mysteries aren't my genre of choice, but the story did keep me reading. The novel was a bit uneven, too, but I am still curious to try the next book in the series to find out what's going on. I am also curious whether it too will be a mystery or something different.

"Sing once again with me our strange duet
My power over you grows stronger yet"