Customer Reviews

Warning Signs (Angels of Mercy)

5 star:		(9)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Amanda Mason is struggling to finish out medical school so that she can go into pediatrics. She's currently on a neurology rotation under Dr. Lucas Stone. This might even be enjoyable, considering how much she looks up to him and enjoys his company, except for one thing: she's started having some odd symptoms (clumsiness, weakness, numbness), and she's afraid he'll notice and decide that she isn't fit for duty. The problem becomes much larger than her, however, when two other patients with the same symptoms die, and a third slips into a coma. Amanda has to figure out what's going on with her and the other girls before the third one dies--and before Amanda follows her. But Amanda's friends, who are ignorant of Amanda's connection to the mysterious cases, are also caught up in their own problems. Nora's being stalked by an old boyfriend who won't give up; Lydia is trying to keep a homeless boy from being taken away from his sick great-grandmother, and Gina can't seem to get over a past trauma that's keeping her from doing her work.

The back of the book compares Lyons's writing to "ER" or "Grey's Anatomy," but, not being a fan of those shows, I can't compare. I can say that the medical mystery seemed to me to be right up there with what I was used to from "House," but instead of a grumpy addict of a doc as main character, it's med student Amanda Mason and her friends (a by-the-book nurse (Nora), a streetwise ER attending (Lydia), and another student completing an EMS rotation (Gina)). There was plenty of personal plot and drama among all four characters, but I didn't feel that it stepped over the line into melodrama or soap opera. It was comfortably in the realm of allowing us to be a part of these women's lives.

Life and death struggles take on new, and very personal, meaning for fourth-year medical student, Amanda Mason in this recently released medical thriller from author CJ Lyons. Young women with mysterious neurological symptoms are dying, symptoms that are now plaguing Amanda. When the latest patient lapses into a coma and Amanda's own symptoms begin to worsen she fears that her days are numbered and, with her friends and co-workers Lydia, Gina and Nora, launches a secret investigation to discover what, or who, is controlling the fate of these patients. Will she discover the culprit before it's too late and she too lapses into the terrifying state where every part of her body is paralyzed except her mind? Will Lucas Stone, the handsome doctor who makes her heart race, be able to save her from certain death? Or is Lucas the man who made sure that the hearts of the other women were stopped forever? In a race against time, these women, all of whom are battling their own personal demons, fight to unmask a murderer before one of their own pays the ultimate price. Set against a backdrop of the controlled chaos of the emergency room of Pittsburgh's Angels of Mercy Medical Center, this fast-paced, suspense-filled story will leave you breathless and begging for more.

Another great book. After finishing the first I felt like I knew Lydia and couldn't wait to learn more about the rest of the ER family - that's what it is like in the ER - co-workers become a family and that relationship is becoming more concrete in this second book. Dr Lyons has the gift of making the characters feel like real people. I was sorry to see the book end but am looking forward to learning more about Nora in the next book.

Thank you for the books sorry i haven't thanked you sooner been really busy the books are in good condiction and will be order more from you in the future!!! :) Thanks Carolyn.

It's Grey's Anatomy with a little bit of mystery mixed in, and a few apparently unsolvable deaths. Only on paper. Scenes are cut up the way scenes from a TV series are, in order to accelerate the heartbeat of the work. I can understand CJ Lyons' reasons for slicing and assembling events this way. First, most of the novel happens in a hospital and jumping from one character's drama to another might remedy to the monotony of the decor. It might also recreate the rush atmosphere of a city (here, Pittsburgh) emergency medical center. Technically, I would assume this is no easy task, and CJ Lyons seems very comfortable handling such rapid pace.

In order for the medical milieu not to be too cold, she adds elements of romance and a little bit of sex. I said it before, Grey's Anatomy. Cute, despite a few dead people here and there.

The story: Amanda, who is about to become a pediatrician, is going to die like a few other patients at the Mercy Medical Center if some antidote to what is bringing her paralysis is not found. Only no one is sure what is causing the gradual loss of the use of her limbs, so finding a way to counterattack an unknown enemy is quite a challenge.

I don't mind the concept. But is it because I don't want to be in a hospital during a whole novel? Or is it because I never play computer games and thus don't like to skip from one thing to the next after a few seconds? But I never get hooked on the novel. It takes me forever to get acquainted with the characters, even if I manage to find out who is responsible for the aforementioned mysterious deaths early on. Still, in the end, that's all I am, acquainted. "Hello, nice to meet you, see you."

Can I say this is a bad novel? No. I would say it's well done, and a good commercial undertaking, with just the right amount of romance and mystery, and good solid prose. It is the type that addresses a specific, albeit wide, audience. It's comfort food with just the right amount of excitement and the right amount of predictability. It's just not my cup of tea.

And I do wish it had been. For I had the opportunity of meeting CJ Lyons herself, and she is kind, professional, and generous. But I am certainly not worried about her career.

The Angels of Mercy series is GREAT!!
If you love fast paced, action packed stories, give the whole series a try!

As a former Army-trained paramedic, I love medical drama in just about any form. (My novel, Last Chance Rescue, takes place within a search-and-rescue team.) I also like mystery and romance, and this book has it all! AND with the added bonus of strong female characters. The main character in this one (Amanda) is an interesting mix of "sweet-and-saucy," and the other womens' characters develop in a realistic way as the story progresses. (Perhaps Lyons will write self-loathing, eating/binging Gina's story next.) It DOES have quite a few sub-plots and CAN be a bit TV-ish ... but I happen to like that! Another hit for CJ!

C.J.LYONS has written another great book I stayed up late to finish it.I think she is one of the best writers

This is the second installment in the Angels of Mercy Medical Center series and features med student Amanda Mason. She has been ignoring troubling neurological symptoms in her feet and legs for the past few months, which have now progressed to her hands. When another young woman shows up at Mercy Med with similar symptoms to hers, and goes into a coma, Amanda stresses. She has plans to become a pediatrician, and can't let personal illness get in her way, not to mention her needy and constantly interfering family back home in North Carolina. Amanda keeps her "warning signs" secret, right along with another secret - she has a huge crush on the neurologist she is shadowing for this rotation. As the mystery illness unravels in the story, all signs point to a connection between the girls and a certain doctor, a doctor that Amanda knows and respects.

Ms Lyons writes a multilayered novel with four main characters in this ongoing series, each with their secondary story thread throughout each book. This makes for a busy plot! I liked Amanda and rooted for her, as I did for Lydia Fiore in the first book. I look forward to Nora, the by-the-book, ER charge nurse's story, but have to admit of the four; Gina's character is the hardest to swallow. As in the first book, Ms. Lyons kept me glued to the last fifty pages as all four of the storylines converge and the tension ratchets up and then doubles at the end. Well done, though occasionally too descriptive medical scenes, even with my nursing background.

On rotation at Pittsburgh's Angels of Mercy Medical Center and struggling to finish medical school, Amanda can't afford mistakes or mystery - but mysterious symptoms that defy diagnosis have been affecting her performance. When two patients with the same symptoms die, she must begin her own life-saving investigation in this fine medical thriller, perfect for general lending libraries.