A Lover’s Mercy by Fiona Zedde

A Lover’s Mercy by Fiona Zedde

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Blurb:

Mai Redstone prowls Atlanta as its hero, Mercy, trying to save people from themselves and each other. With her newly discovered, stronger powers, she acts as if she’s invincible. To those who know her though, she’s as delicate as a cobra lily.

Xóchitl is the complete opposite. Violence comes naturally to her. Hard-hearted and thick-skinned, the softest thing about her is her love for Mai. As part of an elite law-enforcement team in the secret Meta community, Xóchitl hunts and punishes anyone who dares to break their rules.

But when Mai is in danger from her own powerful family, Xóchitl’s soft underbelly is exposed. How can she protect Mai when she can’t even tell allies from enemies? For the first time in her life, Xóchitl feels as threatened as the vulnerable humans Mai protects.

Xóchitl is used to being the strongest one in the room, but when she suddenly isn’t, will she allow herself to surrender to her lover’s mercy?

Review:

You want to know what the best thing about reviewing books is?  I get introduced to all these amazing books, by all these amazing authors, and I get to go on these magical journeys of discovery to just fill my device with more by these authors who I would never have heard of if it weren’t for NetGalley or Xpresso Book Tours or QueerRomance Ink.

That was one hell of a run-on sentence, and my editor is going to come smack my knuckles with a ruler, but you get my point.

A Lover’s Mercy is a great case in point. While I’m generally happy to read f/f content that isn’t intended for the male gaze, I don’t know that I’d go out hunting for lesbian superhero romance. I found lesbian superhero romance on NetGalley, though, and you’d better believe I’m going to go right out and buy everything else Fiona Zedde produces.

Because A Lover’s Mercy?  This book wrapped me up tight, held me close, and it never let me go.

The book is a sequel to another book by Zedde, which I haven’t read (yet). It stands alone just fine. If you’re into intrigue and political drama, this book is for you. If you’re interested in watching two women navigate the intricacies of a new relationship, and finding where the lines are, this book is for you. If superheroes are your jam, this is for you.

And honestly, I’ll take Zedde’s superheroes over the ones I grew up with any day. I liked reading superhero comics when I was a kid, sure, but the characters who got the main story lines seemed to all be a little… er, how should I put this?  Monochrome. They were all straight (I think that was a law or something), all white, mostly male… they were Dean Winchester in spandex. Plenty of people like that, and there’s nothing wrong with Dean Winchester in spandex.

But the world is bigger than that. If superpowers are going to exist, I want to see them in the hands of more than one kind of person. Zedde’s characters look and feel more like a good representation of the population. They look normal, and real. (Okay, as real as a shapeshifting superhero and an assassin with phenomenal cosmic power can look. But hey.) 

And I love it.

They have day jobs, too. They don’t just run around the streets in capes. They’re college professors.

Their relationship doesn’t take a back seat to all the mayhem and superpowered shenanigans. On the contrary, the romance is directly caught up in the superpower plot, and the superpower plot is tied to their romance. This is the perfect way to write a blended-genre novel. If we took one element away, the novel would fall apart. I need to sit down and re-read this, taking copious notes, before I try to write again. It was that good, that masterful.

And finally, the two main characters themselves were perfectly likeable and perfectly relatable. No, I can’t relate to having telekinesis, although it would be pretty useful the next time I’m too lazy to get my own beer. I can absolutely relate to having a partner whose priorities don’t necessarily align with mine. I can relate to not knowing who I can trust. I can relate to grief, and to anger, and to fear.

This book is amazing. I’m grateful to NetGalley for putting it into my path. I know it is one of those books I will return to again and again.