This is the book that Shades of Grey should be. Well written, sexy, articulate, and not as vanilla as Shades, this was an awesome read. With a brooding, rich Dominant man, willing ballerina submissive, and plenty of BDSM, Mercy should be the flagship book for anyone curious about the lifestyle and how it is lived. I'll be checking out more of this author's work. ( )

The 'dom' in this book enraged me.
The story would have been stronger had the author left out the song and dance about ssc, bdsm, agreements, reasonable behavior, etc and just allowed the male main character to be the all-out unapologetic badass sociopath maniac that he is, only he's not presented as such: Actions speak louder than words though. ( )

This is where i have to say to each there own...I have no judgements on how these characters lived their lives..this level of humiliation & pain, just leaves me saying I am so sorry that someone would require this, and would think its a sign of love from ones partner. I say this because I am not a pain junkie, and I think humiliation and degradation is awful.
We learned very little about Matthew in this book, so he seems to just be a controlling mean prick in my opinion, and Lucy, we never really learned why she needs the pain to feel fulfilled and loved.. was it because of the rape that had happened prior to Matthew - who knows.
Glad the book had a happy ending, and Matthew chilled out a little bit. ( )

3.5/5
I kept choking on this book, emotionally choking. It was upsetting and moving at the same time. You know that feeling of intense, emotional pain after a break-up with your first true love? This is how it felt to me. Couple of times it felt like abuse, and I'd feel enraged for the heroine and would question how on earth she would go through something so degrading? But then when I was ready to drop it, the hero would change and open himself to vulnerability and it would right itself out. Overall, this is more of a dark romance rather than typical bdsm romance, and I usually stay away from those. Still, interesting experience that left me torn: did I enjoy it or was it too much? ( )

Could not finish for the life of me. The more i read the more i grew detached from the characters. It gave me the shivers. Lucy and Matthew are FU***D UP! He is an abusive asshole and she started of more then OK but then graduated to the position of a DOORMAT! Even that I could take, it's just a book, right?

BUT!!!!

She overdoses on painkillers, and she is unconscious!

He finds out she was raped!

HE RAPES HER TO GET HER PREGNANT-FOR HER OWN GOOD WHILE SHE'S STILL UNCONSCIOUS??!!!!???

WTF? I almost got sick. No i couldn't- WOULDN'T finish this book. He belongs in a padded cell. She belongs on a nice sofa with a nice doctor. She was five months pregnant when i stopped reading. How the hell does she see her life going? Breastfeed the kid, put him to sleep and then go down to the basement so daddy can beat the shit out of mommy???? Aaaaaw how sweet, can't wait for the kid's show n tell in school..."This is daddy's favorite cane, he uses it on mommy when she's a bad girl."
Disgusting, revolting and seriously perverted. ( )