Customer Reviews

Without Mercy

5 star:		(9)
4 star:		(10)
3 star:		(9)
2 star:		(14)
1 star:		(7)

 

 

Lisa Jackson books are must-reads for me and yet I truly struggled to get through this one. The plot was fast-moving and complicated enough to keep the reader interested, but the characters just didn't make sense to me at all. It isn't a good sign when you find yourself agreeing with the evil mother in book instead of your heroine! Likewise, it was clear why I was supposed to find the hero attractive but I had no idea why our heroine was in love with him other than...she just never got over him? Why??? This book was okay to kill time but didn't keep me interested enough to pay all that much attention. I would definitely rather go back and read some of her other novels.

Jules Farentino's half sister, Shay is such a trouble maker. Unfortunately, Shay has used up all of her chances. Their mother sends Shay to Blue Rock Academy. A school for troubled teens. Jules has a bad feeling about Blue Rock Academy. Jules's mother tells Jules there is nothing to worry about. Yeah then why has Lauren Conway, a student at Blue Rock Academy been missing for six months and no one knows of her whereabouts? Jules must find a way to get Shay out of Blue Rock Academy before she becomes the next victim.

Without Mercy really packs the punches and the adrenaline rush. I am a big fan of Lisa Jackson's and have read almost all of her books. I have to admit that it has been a little while since I have enjoyed myself reading one of her books, until now. The ending for this book leaves much to be desired. I know it is intentional as there will be a follow up book. I just finished this one and already am impatient for the next one. Julies is a fighter. She is the best big sister anyone could ask for. Shay turned out to be a huge surprise. I don't want to get on her bad side. Without Mercy will make you scream mercy for more!

I think this is probably the worst book I've ever read and I average 12-15 books a month. The characters aren't developed or likable. The dialogue is unbelievably juvenile. The book drags on forever and is just repeating things you already learned in the first few pages. I read maybe the first third of it and skimmed the rest because it was just so tedious.

Spoiler alert.....

Page 115 (Nona's death scene) "She scrabbled, trying to dig at her attacker's wrists, force HIM off her, gain a little room so that she could drag in a breath......

Talk about a surprise ending, the author must have changed her mind at the last minute!!!

This was my first venture in Lisa Jackson's world and I was soooooo disappointed with this book. If I were asked to describe the book in two words, I would say it was boring and tedious. I can't believe I read it to the end! Well, in fact, I didn't... I was listening to it on audiobook, so at least I was busy doing other things and don't feel that I totally wasted my time. I would never have put up with it in print. The premise was interesting, but the delivery was unconvincing and surprisingly boring, with barely enough suspense to keep me going hoping that it would eventually deliver - which, by the way, it never did.
As for the ending, it was so ludicrous!... Did anyone in the publishing company actually read that novel before it was printed?! I do wonder.

I have read Lisa Jackson ever since she began writing romantic suspense and eagerly await each book. She has always ranked at the top of my list of favorite authors so it was with great anticipation that I picked up a copy of "Without Mercy", only to find myself extremely disappointed. The plot was such a cliche--isolated boarding school, religious extremists, snow storm, etc.--and the characters were underdeveloped and/or unlikable. The plot was also underdeveloped and there were a lot of questions the story raised that were never answered. I didn't understand why Jules was so convinced that the school was a terrible place, other than the fact she seemed to think Shay didn't deserve punishment for the bad things she'd done. Given the choice between jail and a reform school, Jules thought Shay should come live with her...huh?...why??? I found myself agreeing with the mother and the friends and despising Jules. I also hated how all the religious people were mocked and looked down upon, even the ones who seemed to be honestly good people.

I struggled to finish the book and was relieved to find out I was at the end, even somewhat enjoying the surprise ending. But then came the last few pages, when I realized the author was setting us up for a sequel! These are definitely not characters I am interested in re-visiting.

I read quite of a few of Lisa Jackson's romance books so I was quite excited to branch out reading her mystery books. What a disappointment!! Jules was unlikable and Trent's character was never quite developed. Where was the backstory for Jules and Trent? The book jumped around quite a bit and I could never grasp hold of the characters. There were several predictable subplots - religuious fanatics, mystery man as a priest, groom, pilot, isolated school in the middle of a bad snowstorm, etc. I did not like the ending at all. If it's leading to a sequel, I won't be reading it. The only good thing about this book is that I checked it out of my local library and didn't spend any money on it.

I bought this book because I really like Lisa Jackson's writing. Wish I had read the reviews on it. I would not have purchased it. It was so long, boring and too much junk stuff. I read a review today on another one of her books and would say the same about this one. It was 500+ pages and could have cut about 200 pages out and it would have been better. Will not purchase anymore until I come here and read the reviews.

This was my first Lisa Jackson book and it was a struggle for me to finish. It seemed like every page was a repeat of what had just been said on all the previous pages. Nothing changed till the last 50 pages and finally things started moving. The book was left to maybe a sequel? I hope not, if there is I will definitely pass on it.

I've read and enjoyed Jackson's books before so it was a surprise that one of her books is inspiring me to come here and give it a review -- my first ever -- at the half-way point in the book. I am really struggling to get through it, and don't know that I will.

Nothing in this book makes sense. Nothing. The plot is shaky and uninteresting, the characters colorless and unlikable including our main character. The author used horses in her book despite clearly knowing nothing about horses and not doing her homework to learn about them. For example, it was laughable that a ruckus was raised about a horse being left out when the temperatures were below freezing. The horse was also kicking at the barn door to get in. Are you kidding me? She described the hayloft as holding hundreds or thousands of bales of hay. Thousands? This must be the biggest barn ever built.

In the span of one page, our main character describes her ex-boyfriend as a liar who can't be trusted and as a straight shooter. Seriously?

I actually started dog-earing the pages in this book that illustrated how terrible it was.

Hopefully this was one bad gliche in the career of a writer I'd enjoyed to this point, but I'll honestly be thinking twice about buying her next book after this. It was really just that bad.

Like others have said, I have read this author before and was happy to find her new novel at the local library. I am so glad I did not waste my money on it! I read the first hundred pages, irritated that I was being given the same info repetitively, then I skipped to the last twenty pages or so, something I only do when the book is too boring and predictable to continue. I still have questions. Who is the sex-crazed leader if he wasn't the killer, and even after going back and reading Nona's disappearance and murder again, I am certain the author did not intend to make her "surprise killer" the killer until she had finished writing and decided the ending needed something to jazz it up.

SPOILER ALERT:

The baseball cap found at the double murder scene was once described as being taken by the victim as she left the room for her rendezvous, then later reported as being left behind intentionally by the killer. The thoughts we read from the killer before she became the surprise killer must have all been false - we read about her fear at being left at the academy and her thoughts about her future victims, all of which were consistent with her original role as secondary character, not that of a surprise villain. Like others have said, there is nothing to make the reader care about the main characters either. I won't waste my time on the sequel.