Mercy [Kindle Edition]

Annabel Joseph (Author)

Book Description

Lucy Merritt has always defined herself by her body, whether dancing in a small avant-garde company or posing for art. But she has always felt as if something is wrong with her, as if something is missing. She has never been in love.

Suddenly, in the darkness of the theater wings, a strangely affecting man enters her life. Matthew Norris, rich, handsome patron of the dance company, has decided that he wants Lucy for his own. He makes her an offer that both frightens and compels her, and they soon begin an affair characterized by only two requirements, beauty and truth.

But how truthful are Matthew and Lucy? How much of Matthew's strenuous brand of love can Lucy endure? And how long can their rigid Dom/sub relationship stay frozen in time, never growing, never moving forward?

Publishers Note: This novel contains explicit scenes of dominance and submission, discipline & training, bondage, group sex, oral sex, anal sex & double penetration, menage a trois, dubious consent, and both harsh and loving bdsm scenes.

This book is approximately 72K and also includes a complimentary excerpt from Annabel Joseph's novel Comfort Object.

Product Details

• File Size: 403 KB
• Print Length: 226 pages
• Simultaneous Device Usage: Unlimited
• Publisher: Scarlet Rose Press (May 1, 2008)
• Sold by: Amazon Digital Services, Inc.
• Language: English
• ASIN: B0045JL4HA
• Text-to-Speech: Enabled
• X-Ray: Enabled
• Lending: Enabled
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #24,775 Paid in Kindle Store (See Top 100 Paid in Kindle Store)

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

24 of 25 people found the following review helpful

2.0 out of 5 stars Didn't care for it :( *SPOILERS* July 11, 2011

By Butterfly

Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase

I have read several erotic novels and I really didn't like this one. I did give it 2 stars because I felt at the beginning of the book the author really captured feelings and doubts a submissive may have, I felt a connection to Lucy. Sadly by the middle I lost it.

Lucy and Matthew's affair starts out interesting as he attempts to claim her as his. But as their relationship unfolds she is abused and used almost on a daily basis. I am involved in this lifestyle and quite frankly a seasoned submissive person could not endure the treatment she was put through let alone a tiny vanilla ballerina. Granted it is fiction, so I can over look that.

What I can't is the drug abuse Lucy has to continue dancing, Matthew raping her to make her stop dancing, sever beatings while she is pregnant with their baby, and using her prior rape as a reason that she wanted to be in a S&M relationship, basically saying she wanted to be attacked.

But through the magic of the written word fuzzy bunnies carry them and their baby off into the sunset to live happily ever after.

I don't recommend this book, going to try The Marketplace next.

42 of 48 people found the following review helpful

1.0 out of 5 stars I wish I could erase this from my memory May 11, 2011

By Firebrand

Format:Kindle Edition|Amazon Verified Purchase

This book is not a romance and I'm not sure that it can even be categorized as erotica. Maybe horror?
More than anything I wish I'd disregarded a review I read on here that urged me to "Look deeper. Expect more. Because of the darkness, the light at the end is so profound and entrancing." I could not disagree more. This book left me feeling violated, and sticking it out to the bitter end did nothing to dispell that feeling.
I'd like to see this book come with a warning:
IF YOU THINK YOU LIKE BDSM OR D/S, THIS BOOK IS A PORTRAYAL OF THE UGLIEST SIDES OF WHAT THAT WORLD HAS TO OFFER. Unless you are extremely grounded in your own sexuality, and know and understand the difference between a healthy D/s relationship and an abusive one, then I strongly discourage you from reading this book. It will warp your sense of what this lifestyle is all about. I think I have a good hold on what makes a relationship abusive or not, and this book still left me feeling just tragically sick inside. I feel like this book can be summed up in just a few words: Out of control "Dom" abuses trust of his sub. Mostly this is just a book about two extremely troubled people. I'd like to see a round of therapy for everyone.

I agree with the other posters who would like to see a rape warning put on this book. While there are many scenes of "dubious consent" as indicated in the book description, there is also a rape. And yes, rapists often have reasons for what they do...completely valid reasons - to them...that doesn't change the fact that the "hero" in this book rapes the "heroine", and there is no consent, dubious or otherwise, involved.

On the positive side, the author seems to really get into Lucy's head. She is a well thought out charcter. What we find in that head is just about as depressing as it gets, but she is a very "real" person. This was the only point on which I could award this book any stars.

Rape aside, the sex in the rest of this book was uninspiring. I'm having a hard time putting my finger on why, as the author goes through the usual recipe list of the kinds of sex expected in these books. They all fell flat to me, like I was reading a clinical description of what was happening, but I was never swept up or turned on. Perhaps it was the utter lack of emotional connection or trust-building between the two main characters. Without that, I was unable to find anything to enjoy about the sex.

Lucy needs to be rescued, she is unable to save herself - from herself or from the "hero", and ultimately everyone else in this book lets her down. Bleak.

15 of 16 people found the following review helpful

1.0 out of 5 stars Stories like this hurt BDSM October 18, 2011

By Barbara A. Hill-kidd

Format:Kindle Edition|Amazon Verified Purchase

This book is filth. I read quite a bit of BDSM and I know a bit about the lifestyle. Ms. Joseph needs to understand that there are people who read her fiction and believe it to be truth. In this story we meet a dancer who is facing the end of her career. Some dancers have body issues, no training for life after dance and high pain tolerance. If you want to read a story where a woman with these issues is exploited then Mercy is for you. Be warned, after she overdoses on pain pills (red flag for anyones mental and emotional health), her Master who thinks of her as a thing, rapes her 4x while she is unconscious. Part of their contract is she is not to get pregnant, so he suceeds in impregnating her. But even more offensive to me is that - the "thing" forgives her Master, the declare their love and marry. Joseph lets the reader know that her Master finds an understanding doctor who advises the couuple that they can continue to "play" during the pregnancy and that the baby is well padded and protected.

I hate that a writer again, portrays a woman falling in love with her rapist. The idea that a Masster who loves his "thing" would violate their contract for her own good by raping her in a sick and unconscious state.

I will never buy another book by this writer and I have mentioned this review to readers on serveral loops I belong to.
I don't believe that all erotica books are sweet kisses and gentle stroking but this is vile and a was a non-consensual violation of a woman

More About the Author

Annabel Joseph loves to write about the romance of dominance and submission. The characters in her books all have one thing in common, they are "into" BDSM and they have lives that are richer, fuller, and more complex because of it.

If you are interested in sensual power exchange and the dramatic emotion of BDSM relationships, you will find the novels of Annabel Joseph both titillating and satisfying in a completely original way.

Annabel also writes non-BDSM erotic romance under the pen name Molly Joseph.

She loves to hear from her readers at annabeljosephnovels (at) gmail.com.

Amazon Author Rankbeta 

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#77 in Kindle eBooks > Literature & Fiction > Erotica

#83 in Books > Literature & Fiction > Erotica

#77 in Kindle eBooks > Literature & Fiction > Erotica

#83 in Books > Literature & Fiction > Erotica