***4.5 ‘A Gift and A Curse’ Stars***

When the first chapter has you going “WTF?!?!?” in absolute horrific fascination you know you’re in for an interesting (understatement) ride and that’s what Abbie Roads served up in Saving Mercy. This book is more than just a romantic suspense. It has a touch of the paranormal mixed with all the goodness of a psychological thriller that will keep you turning the pages to find out what will happen next.

Cain Killion has lived with the stigma of been the offspring of a serial killer his entire life and all the crazy that comes with it. He’s learned to block it all out and does all he can to not only makes amends for the sins of his father, but to never become like him. My heart bled for Cain. From his first breath he was trapped in a nightmare and is always on guard. His walls are high and expectations of people, with very few exceptions, are low, so no one ever sees the sweet and considerate man with a gentle heart that only wants peace and a chance at happiness.

Mercy Ledger survived what should have been absolute death at the hands of a serial killer and has been living with the consequences ever since. She has had to pretend to be something she is not to survive as she hides away from the world. God is Mercy strong, vulnerable in some ways, but so damn strong. The life she is living is definitely not the one she dreamed up before it all became a nightmare but by some miracle she’s been able to maintain her sanity and compassionate heart.

What happens when the only survivor of a serial killer and that serial killers offspring collide? The truth? No one can predict it, but what happens between Cain and Mercy was slightly cray cray and yet made perfect sense. While their nightmares may not have been the same, they were orchestrated by the same man and it forged a connection that neither could deny. From start to finish their relationship actually made sense to me and watching as they formed a tangible bond of their own making was the bright spot in the darkness.

Having read the Fatal Dreams series I knew Abbie Roads could weave a story and make even the most outlandish aspects work in a realistic way and she’s done that with Saving Mercy. The story was intriguing, though it does take a gruesome nature at certain times that may turn some off, but it is necessary to the storyline and I had fun trying to figure out “who done it” and found the reveal to be surprising and yet make absolute sense. There were some things that happened, or didn’t happen, that had me going. “Really? They didn’t...grrr.” and at times the book dragged for me and I had to keep from skimming things because I knew that there was a purpose to all of it and didn’t want to miss a thing. But overall, this was an awesome read and I’m looking forward to finding out if my guess at who the next book will be about is correct!

Abbie Roads blew my mind away with this book. Yes the protagonist is broken, damaged but he works hard to rise above his up bring to right the wrongs of his father. The readers is given glimpse of the broken little boy though the eyes of the female lead. While readers are given Mercy POV it doesn't take away from the story but only enhances it more. The protagonist has depth and the author doesn't rely of the typical FBI story lines. She pulls is able to bring the characters to life.

The book has a supernatural side but it really doesn't overtake the story in anyway instead it only brings the story to life pull at readers heart strings and minds.

Saving Mercy isn't about saving the woman as much as it is saving the protagonist from his mind, and fathers control.

Abbie Roads is able to pull from the real world experiences as a therapist which helps the story to come alive.

The romance is believable in this story.

The ending of the story is tied quickly in a nice little bow but the build up to the last few chapters Abbie gives the readers a ride they will never forget not to mention they will want to run out and tell their friends. This is a must read.

Thank you Netgalley and the author for an advance copy.

Abbie Roads has done it again! Saving Mercy is a roller coaster with all the feels. Similar to her Fatal Dreams duology (if you haven't read it, it NEEDS to be on your list), Roads does an amazing job of weaving in her paranormal elements into reality so the tapestry is so believable it has to be possible, right? Similar to Stephen King, she asked "What if?", and then "If you believed that, what about this?"

Cain is living proof that not all of the victims left behind in the aftermath of a monster have to be hunted. Cain's childhood was as horrific, and probably more so, as what Killer Killion did to the Ledgers. He's damaged, but is he really broken?

Mercy was the one that got away. Or did she? Mercy's life is a commentary on our current society. Let's take the worst day of your life and keep reliving it for entertainment. With no connections in life, no family or friends, when Mercy is "committed" to the Center for Health and Well Being, no one questions why she's there.

Take two damaged souls, remade into something more by a monster, and you get something magical - hope. Roads characters are beautifully flawed and damaged, but somehow not broken. The prose in this book is amazing. Roads words paint a complex and rich portrait that sucks you in and doesn't let go until she's ready. Ultimatel

I meant to read a book by Abbie Roads for a while now and when the opportunity to review this book came up I jumped at it.
I’m so glad that I did. This book is a whole new level of thriller and romance mixed into one.
Loved the setting, dark, exciting, bite your nails crazy. But also a touch of humor and plenty of steamy time.
This book kept me on the edge on my seat throughout the entire book. It has some wicked good twists and turns and you never know what will happen next.
I loved the complex characters and their growth throughout the book, both from very different worlds each with their own dark past and yet they are connected and share a past.
Loved, loved this crazy thrilling world and characters that Abbie Roads has created.
The only minor hiccup for me was that the first two chapters were a bit confusing but I just seemed to flow into the right setting very quick and loved the rest of the book .
If you are a fan of dark romance and thrillers I highly recommend this book.
I rate it 4 ½ ★

Dark, gritty, terrifying, angst supreme and excruciatingly tender!!


A I-can't-put-down-but-really-can't-continue-because-I'm-terrified-kind-of-book!! Impossible choices... Mind conditioning…. My heart raced and my eyes almost popped out one or two times!!!

This book is full of OMGs, and WTH kind of moments with twists and turns that you never see coming. You really get blindsided at times, but the thing is, all the while, there is tenderness, and love, and affection and so many bittersweet moments, and not to spoil it but our heroes get their happily ever after!!!

Our heros here are Cain Killian and Mercy Ledger, two persons that really got the short end of the stick in life.

Cain is the son of a very well known serial killer, really a monster that had done the most horrible things to his own son, somethings he even blocked out.

“Give him fear. Give him fuzzy-assed unicorns that shit glitter and gold_ just don’t give him sympathy.”

Thanks to the unusual and horrendous childhood, he has a very unique gift that he uses to capture the bad guys, he drenches himself in the blood of the victims to get snapshots of the way the killings happened, for a brief moment in his mind, he becomes the killer. That way he has become one of the best profilers for the FBI.

Mercy Ledger, the lone survivor of Killion, having to live with the trauma of witnessing the murder of her family was also changed, she had a sixth sense about the intention of the people around her.

She is suddenly thrown in the loony bin for no apparent reason for two years, and freed by Cain, and the connection that they felt towards each other for a long time, suddenly flourishes.

Both characters are so strong, have been hurt so much, but they are relentless in trying to live a normal life, to see the good the world has to offer. They are the reflection of who we are and what the world wants us to be.

They are two tortured souls, each needing the other one to feel whole while trying to protect them, and the only way they knew how, was being apart.

“It was the price of loss. A price she had paid twenty years ago. A price he was paying now. His sadness was her sadness. His shame was her shame. They were united in shared hurt- had been from the beginning.”

The second characters are well built, and you don’t know until the end if they are good, or bad, and the ending…. I did not see that one coming!!!!

And as always Abbie definitely knows how to keep you hooked…. There is a loose thread in the story, I’m not going to tell, but I’m guessing this is the next book!

A book worth reading, and a series that I’ll follow.

Firstly, thanks for the opportunity to read this book. I was lucky enough to follow up a recommendation from another author on Facebook and so glad to have read all her other books (2). These books are not for the fainthearted. They describe horrifying torture and grisly details but what a ride! The tortured hero and heroines are someone you fall in love with, but would never want to be! I love her style of writing and am waiting with great anticipation on her next novel.

It was so gripping, the language so bloody good, the pace perfect, and the entire plot of the story was just effing awesome that it naturally resulted in a brilliant book. And I can't stress on that enough. Roads has written one hell of a psychological romance/suspense- the very pages of this book bleeds with the raw dark genius of the authors mind. I cannot wait for the next book. I needed it like yesterday!

This was my first book by this author, and I can already tell that I'm going to be after her books like a dog with a bone.

Abbie Roads did it again...

This is the second book that I read from this very talented and incredible writer and she never failed to make me on the edge of my seat.

I finished reading this magnificent yet disturbing well-written novel in five hours and I'm starving for the next book with her newest series: Fatal Truth.

Blood... From the cause to the effect, blood became the component.

I was sad about what happened to Cain Killion that led him on who he is right now, but at the same time grateful on how his ability as the key to saving Mercy.

My heart wrenched for Mercy Ledger, she didn't deserve what happened to her. It was enough tortured when her parents died and her throat sliced, and being in the psychiatric ward was too much.

The idea of painting and the symbols were superb. Yes, I guessed the killer correctly nearly the end.

My mind is telling me that the next book might be about Daughter and Dolan or someone wh0 is going to find Daughter who also has an amazing ability like Cain. I really can't wait!

Step onto the dark side of the street, where monsters live, kill and torment, yet through it all an unlikely romance takes root among the blood, gore and evil that stalks…

Cain will stop at nothing in his efforts of SAVING MERCY from the hands of death, even if those hands belong to him. Cain is damaged, but he is also gifted with a connection to blood that allows him to re-create a crime for the authorities. Although it takes its toll on him it is his way of making amends for horrors from the past, a way to re-pay a debt he didn’t owe. It was during the investigation of one crime scene that brought his past roaring back in all of its bloody horror and he knows there is one woman who knows what it means. And her life is in danger…

Mercy knows of the terror Cain sees, she survived a bloody massacre and has become a prisoner of medications and doctors with devious intentions. If Cain doesn’t save her soon, she will become a victim of a bloody death, but this time the killer will not fail.

Can Mercy trust the man who vows to save her? He has a past closely tethered to hers and he feels he is lost to the demons of death he was born to. She sees so much more and their attraction may blur the weakness that lay within his soul. Sometimes love is all it takes to kill the beast…
Leave it to Abbie Roads to create a dark and bloody world filled with edgy tension and pull love out of the twisted hatred. Well done! Taut, rapid fire pacing that will keep readers plowing through each page in an effort to discover who dunnit, why and how! I was hooked from the first page as one man on a mission of redemption finds that he too is saved.

I received an ARC edition from Sourcebooks Casablanca in exchange for my honest review.

Series: Fatal Truth - Book 1
Publisher: Sourcebooks Casablanca (April 4, 2017)
Publication Date: April 4, 2017
ISBN-13: 9781492639237
Genre: Paranormal Suspense | Romance
Print Length: 320 pages
Available from: Amazon | Barnes & Noble
For Reviews & More: http://tometender.blogspot.com

I was totally shocked by this book. If this book wasn’t categorized as a romance I would have sworn I was reading a thriller and a dark one at that.

It was the cover that lured me in. But after reading this bone-chilling, paranormal suspense thriller. Yes, I said a paranormal suspense thriller. Abbie Roads has put together one energetic book that would start her new series Fatal Truth on a high note.

Cain Killion knew that he might be one step away from being a serial killer just like his father. His only saving grace is he uses his gift with blood to take the edge off. Until one crime scene became all too familiar. With a haunting symbol linking the crime to his past and only one person would know what it means.

Some say that a person could take a lot before they go mentally insane. And what Mercy Ledger went through…witnessing her family being murder by the hands of Cai’s father should have done it. But Mercy was a resilient person. But when Cain and Mercy past comes back to haunt them will it kill them or drive both over the deep end.

I’ve read only two other books by Abbie Road and those where her Fatal Dreams Series, I must say that Saving Mercy tops either one of those. The plotline flows flawlessly without missing a beat.

I would recommend this book, it certainly had it all. I wouldn’t recommend it as a light reading material before bed.

Great start to a new series. Roads can make you think one thing while the story is going into another direction entirely.

A twisted romance full of dark allure. I was hooked on the connection between Cain and Mercy. Both of them had been tormented by the same man, Cain's father - who had murdered Mercy's family and slit her throat but left her alive and who had tried to turn Cain into a replica of himself through torture and repetition. The twisted part? Cain looked like his father. While Mercy saw emotion in Cain's eyes that kept them distinct for her, it felt a tad taboo it a delicious way. Because who would understand you better than someone who shared in your pain? There's a few understandable stumbles surrounding Cain and his father's resemblance and I liked that. It couldn't be a smooth sailing situation.

On a more specific relationship note - Man, those two can scorch a page with their sexual chemistry. There aren't a ton of sex scenes in the book, but Abbie Roads made every one count.

There's something to say for the introductory scene of Cain using his connection to blood. It was vivid and just wow...definitely sets the mood for the book. Cain had a love-hate relationship with blood that I feel deepened him as a character. He had this constant push-pull with where he is and where he was at as a child.

I loved how Mercy was able to see past Cain's appearance and to the real him. I think she gave him something that he desperately needed, proof that he wasn't his father and would never be him. She was self-sacrificing and undervalued her life yet continued to fight for her sanity.

My one complaint was who the killer turned out to be. There were so many great setups for it to be anyone *spoiler* that it almost felt like a letdown for it to be Cain's father. His brutality was emphasized more than his intelligence so it felt a little forced and kind of blind siding that he was somehow temporarily escaping when there were so many other great leads and no hint of him being the possibility.*end spoiler*

Overall, a great blend of romance, connection, and thrills - with a thread left hanging to set up for book 2. Be prepared for blood!

Wow, totally devoured this book. It was a bloody good read – both figuratively and literally. This author has one sick and twisted mind that makes for fascinating stories.

Saving Mercy starts a new paranormal series but as with her first series its frightening addicting with tortured characters you immediately are immersed with and feel their pain and sorrow.

Reading a book by this author is like going on a mind bender – lock your seat belt and just hold on for the crazy ride!!

Depressing. Confusing. Creepy. I stayed with the book, but found it distasteful. I will not be reading book 2 in this series.

This book I would consider a physiological thriller with horror and paranormal romance all thrown in. This book can give you nightmare if you read it before bed but that is what this book so good. The book is a great start to this series. I have a hard time putting the right words to how this book is. You will feel love, sadness, fear and none stop suspense in this book. Two unlikely people find love, understanding and the will to live in this heart stopping book.

I really did not like the characters and the scene with him covering him self with the blood of the victim was too much.

I voluntarily received an ARC of Saving Mercy by Abbie Roads in exchange for an honest review.

Holy crap! That is all I could think for several minutes after finishing Saving Mercy. Abbie Roads is a magnificent artist and story teller and she has blown my mind once again.  I am constantly amazed at how she manages to combine so much pain and darkness with immense amounts of love to form her books.

Mercy and Cain are both so damaged and have been dealt a hand in life that no one should ever have to deal with and their pasts have intertwined to connect them in unimaginable ways. Seeing them struggle to deal with their tragic childhoods while facing new horrors kept me from putting this book down until I had read every last word.

Saving Mercy left me with the worst book-hangover I've had in a long time. I tried to start another book the next morning, but it just wasn't an Abbie Roads book.

A unrelenting undertone of horror accompanies every Abbie Roads’s story especially in the beginning—no one is spared their nightmares, no saviour that comes in the nick of time before someone is brutalised or irretrievably lost—after which the slow climb upwards from rock-bottom begins…and back into the metaphorical light. Much of the plot is more concerned with the journey towards redemption and healing, rather than the search for a killer; throw in the paranormal elements and ‘Saving Mercy’ gives a twist to paranormal suspense that takes it into thriller territory. But after the very exciting first quarter, I thought the story lost its steady pacing for a while as it focused on building character and atmosphere. The break was disorienting to say the least, when I was actually expecting the action to ramp up and not slow down.

But the long and short of it is, I’m not entirely sure how to rate a story that goes past what I’ve encountered so far on my paranormal reading jaunts.

Both Cain and Mercy are very badly damaged characters in some way or other, but their connection is (perhaps unbelievably) instant, bound by tragedy and horror—in the worst possible way. But because the paranormal realm does permit logic to be defied to some extent and Roads tries convince on more than one occasion, that it’s a pairing of soulmates or at least star-crossed lovers, not just of compatible individuals because of their shared history. Yet the tragic element seems overplayed at times and their being drawn to each other did seem at times, far-fetched.

The lean towards the occult, the blend of psychology and para-psychology—it’s all very well done here. Though Roads does skirt several taboo topics, and that definitely adds to the dark allure of the story: Cain's paranormal ability to tell a story from spilled blood, Mercy's the perception of intentions as well as her ability to foresee a few seconds of a future action and the strange sense that all this are possible in this realm that goes beyond quantitative means of writing. But ultimately, it becomes a huge mind fuck that made me think the end was quite a batty one when the twist finally arrived and a prominent thread was left hanging loose.

another awesome story by Ms. Roads. I truly can't get enough of her books. Good solid plot.