Karen Does Deanna Lee's, Undressing Mercy...

So I read Undressing Mercy a couple of days ago, dontcha just love the cover? No? Well sod ya then!

Anyway, here’s the blurb:

Mercy Rothwell’s job is to entice the crème de la crème of the art world to The Holman art gallery, where she works as a director, and they don’t come much bigger than Shamus Montgomery, a sculptor, who’s renown for his erotic works.


Shamus agrees to sign with Holman, but only if Mercy is willing to bare all, and let him sculpt her whilst sitting on his face nekkid.


Knowing that this would be a massive coup for her, career-wise, Mercy, reluctantly agrees.


Mercy finds Shamus devastatingly attractive, and she is aware that the feeling is mutual, but ever since she was tragically betrayed by a work colleague, who she considered a friend, she has kept all men at a distance, although Shamus tempts her like no other.


Will Mercy be able to overcome her past, or will her future be forever tainted with memories of the dark night that changed her life?

My Verdict

I really liked this book, I really did.

I was initially drawn to Undressing Mercy because I liked the front cover, but when I read the blurb, it seemed just a tad too bland for me, but I persevered, and decided to have a quick flick through anyway. (Note to Ms Lee, the blurb needs work..)

I read the first couple of pages, and decided to purchase. (By the way, I paid a whopping great £8.99 ($15) which I thought was bloody expensive for a book that only has 182 pages. This is what I call a rip-off.)


My favourite thing about Undressing Mercy was the hero, Shamus Montgomery. He was lovely. I love me some darkly brooding, yet sensitive arty type men, who know how to use their penis properly treat a girl right.

I loved his intensity, and this is something that Ms Lee managed to convey very well. He wasn’t an arsehole, and at no point in the book did I feel the urge to take a meat cleaver to his very manly tackle. Can I hear a Hallelujah for that?

I loved the fact that Ms Lee also managed to make him sensitive, without turning him into My Gay Best Friend. I love sensitive men, but I certainly don’t want to be channeling Lizza Minnelli’s David Gest whilst reading a romance book, ya know what I mean?

Mercy was a slightly more complicated kettle of fish. I did like her, but I had to fight really hard to understand her reasoning for not pressing charges on the arsehole who raped her. She had all the evidence she needed, but instead she chose to leave her place of work, and so the perpetrator managed to get off scott free. Grrrrr. HOT BUTTON, HOT BUTTON, HOT BUTTON!

Now I know that this is often the case in real life, but Mercy was a very strong character, and it just seemed to me that somebody as mentally tough as she was, would have wanted to see justice done. In the book, her motivation for not pursuing the bastard who raped her, was because she didn’t want to be seen as a victim, which, I would have understood a bit better, had her life not been ruled by the actions of the colleague who’d assaulted her.

Now being a Borderline Feminist which basically means I like to wear perfume, and shave my under-arm hair choosing to not act against a man who raped you, is something that I find hard to understand, and never having been a victim of rape, I can only imagine that I’d want justice if it had happened to me.

Having said the above, I did like the heroine. Apart from the whole rape issue, she was a strong woman, who didn’t take shit from anyone. I especially liked the way she dealt with the obligatory arsehole in the book, who’s sole mission in life was to make her life a misery.

I loved the chemistry between Mercy and Shamus. The contrast between these two people, which had nothing whatsoever to do with colour, was one of the things that I especially liked about the book. I felt that Mercy was the more fiery, (if sometimes slightly insecure) character, whilst Shamus was her anchor, who was able to pull her back, when things got too rough. They felt like real people, and it was easy to relate to them.

Not to say that they could be my next door neighbour or anything, because I imagine that Mercy is nothing like Betty, the elderly lady, who lives next to us, with her noisy freakish Yorkshire Terrier dog…. Erm I digress…

Anyway, to sum up, I often compare reading a book to taking a cruise on the Mediterranean, sometimes, the waters are so rough, you want to puke your guts up, and the people who you meet are so fucking annoying, they make you want to eat your own children, but other times, the waters are lovely and smooth, with hardly a ripple to mar the coastline, and it’s a joy to share a margarita or two with your fellow cruisers.

Well this book was comparable to the latter. Deanna had a good voice, the book was easy to read, it had the right emotional elements when needed, flowed along at a nice pace, and didn’t make me want to punch the bookseller chick at Borders or demand my £8.99 back. What more can a reader ask for?

By the way, for those who don’t particularly enjoy page after page of gratuitous, mind-numbing sex scenes, *cough*Elizabeth Bevarly*cough, cough* I can assure you that this book is probably on par with your average Blaze, in terms of the sexual content. The words, cock, fuck, and clit were used on the odd occasion, but don’t worry, it was all very tastefully done. *g*

You can visit Deanna Lee here and buy Undressing Mercy here.