Shannon Dermott
Cambion #1
Source: PNR/UF Fanatics' R2R Program
Mercy's first kiss was not what she expected. Instead of a slightly sweet, slightly awkward demonstration of love, she ended up with a nearly-dead boyfriend and learned she was half succubus. Now she's afraid to kiss anyone - until Luke. He makes her want to find away around her nature, to force her mother to tell her how to control her inner demon. But her mother - and her new fiance - are preoccupied with other things, things like supernatural murder...
I actually liked this book rather more than I expected after the first few somewhat dull chapters. (There's only so much spin-the-bottle drama I can handle.) I found the story quite enjoyable, though I do wish it had focused more on the murders and less on every boy throwing himself at Mercy's feet. I thought Mercy and Luke's relationship was sweet, and the suspense at the end was very good.
Even though I found the actual throwing-of-selves-at-feet reasonably believable - Mercy is a succubus, after all - at some point it got to be a little much. Love triangles are okay, love heptagons, less so. It also made the end of the story seem like something of an afterthought, since until that point, Mercy hadn't really been involved in the investigation, and no mention of the possible identity of the perpetrator had been made. Granted, this may just be me, since I favor saving the world over snogging, but I really was getting tired of Mercy being pursued by every boy she met. However, that didn't stop me from enjoying the book, so I guess it wasn't a huge problem.
While the story was okay, I had some major issues with the writing itself. Normally I try to avoid bringing up spelling and grammatical errors, because even though I notice and I think it's important, complaining about it just seems like nitpicking. However, if you're going to use a gimmick like SAT words of the day, the very least you could do is use them correctly. A thesaurus cannot simulate an actual vocabulary. The time I spent wincing over usage errors in this book was a huge distraction from the story itself. I've noticed this tends to be a much bigger problem with indie books than mainstream ones. Do indie publishers not have copy editors?
So overall, while the book could use some work, it was a fun read, and probably better than my review is making it sound. It's definitely more romance than adventure, but I know a lot of people go for that, so if that's your thing, go ahead and give it a try.
Plot: 3 cupcakes
Characters: 3 cupcakes
Style: 2 cupcakes
Overall: 3 cupcakes
If you liked Beg for Mercy, try:
Bite Me by Parker Blue
My Soul to Take by Rachel Vincent
Starcrossed by Josephine Angelini
I have had this one on my kindle forever. It sounds interesting and typos do kind of bother me but with a small self published writer I can look past it. The story does sound interesting.
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