Review: Saving Mercy by Abbie Roads (Fatal Truth #1)


Note: This ARC was provided by Sourcebooks Casablanca via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

He lifted his head and stared at her long and hard. “You are the best thing ever to happen to me.”
He spoke with such seriousness, such naked truth, that her heart cracked right down the middle. How much more of his sweetness could she endure before he left her in pieces? Didn’t matter. She wouldn’t need her heart or her soul when she left. He could keep them.
The tears threatened again, but she wouldn’t let him see her cry. Not about this. She reached up with both hands, settled them on his cheeks. “And you, Cain, are the best thing to happen to me.”

And just when I thought nothing could surpass the two novel in the Fatal Dreams series--Race to Darkness and Hunt the Dawn--Abbie Roads now has me standing up and applauding Saving Mercy, the first in her new Fatal Truth series. This was, to use the term I discovered in the book, a mind twist, and damn but it was a deviously genius one. To have the son of an infamous serial killer and the only living victim of said serial killer meeting and falling for one another? Gah! Sheer and absolute brilliance! But this wasn't just about the romance between Cain Killion and Mercy Ledger. There was a true blue mystery that had to be solved, and with each crime that passed, it seemed to escalate, the scenes Cain would see in his head more chilling and his connection to them far more baffling. And how does Mercy play into all of it? Could she be a victim turned murderer or could she be only the third among the saving graces in Cain's life? Cain and Mercy were both victimized by Cain's father, but once they're together, it's as if they were always meant to be. Will they be able to outrun--and outlive--the evil that hounds them in order to have a true shot at a future, or will their respective pasts leave them shackled, unable to escape?

Where do I begin? I wish I could come up with something I didn't like or that I found lacking in the novel because then it would make me sound less of a fangirl, but I'm sorry, there simply wasn't anything for me to complain or grumble about. Abbie Roads's writing is spot-on as always, coming up with, not just a creative and original tale that both tantalizes and terrorizes, but a cast of characters that has the reader forming firm opinions on each of them, while still having that niggling nugget of doubt as to whether they are who they present themselves to be or something far more sinister. I'm naturally paranoid and I tend to form all these scenarios in my head when I read a book or watch a movie. Here, I was on my proverbial toes the whole time. Was Cain anything like his father? Could that kind of evilness be passed down from father to son? Was Mercy really as innocent as she seemed to be or could she be a deviant lying in wait? Then there were the peripheral characters as well, some of whom I was proven to be right about. And that's the thing I loved most about this book--the element of surprise, almost as if the author lulls her reader into this feeling of complacency before she shocks and awes them with her twisty turns.

The person I expected to be the bad guy turned out to be exactly that--the bad guy--but there's more going on here than meets the eye. And yes, that basically means that there's a cliffhanger near the end of the book. While Cain and Mercy's story is resolved, there's another part of the overall arc that had me gasping as to what it would mean for the couple here and when the second book would be released. Because, hello, I am so not a patient person...but it's not like I have much of a choice but to wait it out. I'm confident, however, that Abbie Roads will make the wait worthwhile. Three books in and I have yet to be disappointed. That means, of course, that the stakes and my expectations are much higher in this upcoming fourth go-around. We're given some sort of idea who the second book in the series will be about and I'm hoping that Cain and Mercy will make an appearance there as well--I'd actually be surprised if they didn't. But since I have no clue when that book will be released, I'm simply going to encourage you to read Saving Mercy as soon as humanly possible. Why? Because it's a fantastical work of fiction that SHOULDN'T be missed. Abbie Roads is a go-to author worth my time and yours. This gets five-plus stars. ♥

Date Read: 08 March 2017

Learn more about Abbie Roads.

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