Although this book is well written (often I am dismayed when a book is difficult to understand due to poor grammar, sentence structure, composition, etc.) I am sorry to say that I really did not enjoy it at all. Understanding that the backdrop of the struggle for Irish independence (in the early 1800s) is key to the book, I still found that all of the time spent on the background politics took away from the story of the main characters. I struggled mightily to try and enjoy what I was reading but I just couldn't. I was unable to connect with the story of Sarah and Robert. Maybe I will go back to it and try and reread it at a later date. ( )

Mercy First and Last, by Katie Hanrahan, is a work of historical fiction. The story is set Ireland in the turbulent times of late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. The story is told in the voice of protagonist Sarah Curran who is the young daughter of a tyrannical father. Tragedy strikes her family when she is young , Her only hope of escaping her prison like life is to marry. Sarah falls in love with a young man who is a revolutionary. From that point on, her life takes a path she could never have foreseen.

I found this book to be both well written and interesting.

I received this book through Library Thing Early Reviewers and the opinions expressed in this review are my own. ( )

While the focus of this book is obviously the relationship between Sarah and Robert, it covers much more of Sarah's life. We see how events during her childhood affected her and how her later life turned out. I found it mostly interesting. I say 'mostly' because Sarah as the narrator didn't always work for me. She'd tell what her father was doing while he was away or how the plans were progressing for a revolution. These events may have been necessary for the overall plot, but just being told about them by someone who only knew second hand what had happened made the reading a bit slow at times.

I also found Sarah to be unreliable in the narration of her earlier life. For example, if she accepted the invitation to visit Mrs. McNally only to be polite, why did she get angry when her father said she couldn't go? I also found it confusing why Sarah was concerned about going behind her father's back the second time Robert tried to initiate a secret correspondence but not the first.

I enjoyed the second half of the book better than the first, as Sarah tried to pick up the pieces of her life and see what she could make of it. The ending was touching, and, I felt, true to the rest of the story.

I was thankful the author included an epilogue to say what happened to the characters afterward, but I wish there'd been a section mentioning what creative liberties had been taken with the story.

Those interested in Irish history may want to check this out. I would recommend it to readers who like true stories about people overcoming life's hardships.

*Note* I received a copy of this book from Library Thing Early Reviewers for my honest opinion. ( )

Sarah, the daughter of a prominent Irish politician, finds herself in love with Robert, an Irish revolutionary. Hiding the relationship from her family, she writes Robert letters and meets him in secret. When Robert is captured, Sarah is disowned by her father and forced to consider marrying another.

I’m not quite sure how to review this book. To be blunt, I thought Sarah was pretty boring. The story itself seemed to lack something. Nothing really happened until the book was almost finished and the plot moved at a crawl. Overall, not a book I would reread or recommend. ( )

After reading the first three pages, I couldn't continue due to the poor writing of this novel. Characters appeared and disappeared, regardless of setting or what room people were in and events happened suddenly, with no explanation. Characters were also not introduced and just randomly interspersed between pages. Not a good start, and so I had to put it down. Hopefully more editing will happen before the publication of this book. ( )