Traces Of Mercy by Michael Landon Jr.

I won this book in a First Reads giveaway, thank you to the authors/publisher for my free copy.

3 1/2 stars

The civil war is over. People everywhere are trying to rebuild their lives. This proves more difficult for some than others. For in order to rebuild your life you need to know who you are, where you've been and where you are going. And those are questions that one young woman, Mercy, just cant answer...
'Traces Of Mercy' is a story of a young woman endeavoring to claim her life back after an accident erases all traces of her memory. All she knows is that she knows nothing.
Should she put her life on hold until her memory returns or put the past behind her and start again? A new name, a new love, a new future...

I'm a little torn with this one...

The beginning is exciting and very "un-put-down-able", the book really sucks you in and I love that in a story. Also, nothing is predictable, many things surprised me; again, that's a good thing.

Once Mercy moves into the nun's orphanage things kind of slow down and I got a little bored, not mindnumbingly bored, I still kept reading, but it wasn't holding my fascination like the beginning did.The nuns did their little bit of sermonizing (which I suppose was to be expected~ but there was no "instant conversion" which I really hate in a book so I carried on and I'm glad I did).

At this point we are introduced to the handsome hero. Handsome UNION hero. Mercy is SOUTHERN. Even so, things seem a little TOO perfect and I was beginning to yawn...UNTIL...enter SECOND Union hero. Who recognizes someone...

This book would have been 4 star but the ending left me wanting more answers. To my knowledge there is no sequel and I wanted at least an epilogue to see what happens but the reader is left suspended. I'm not a fan of that. I don't have to have everything wrapped up in a bow but I do like a bit more closure. So that would have been nice.

However, I DO LIKE that this book has unexpected twists and turns and that the characters are real with real issues , hatreds and imperfections.

Great storytelling! I would definitely read more from these authors. 

* I just read on another person's review that this is the first of a trilogy so I'm sure more answers are discovered as the books carry on. I'm tempted to raise my rating to 4 but knowing there's a sequel doesn't change the fact that this one ended rather disappointingly. After all, I don't have the second book, do I? I have the first book. Providing I have the money and I find the other books in the series I will definitely want to carry on with the story.

CONTENT:
Sex: None
Violence: some wartime shooting, nothing descriptive
Language: None
Preachiness: a little (a few of the characters are nuns)
My rating: G