Q for Quest – Exile, by Rebecca Lim (book review) – amnesiac angel on a mission

book cover of Exile by Rebecca Lim published by Hyperion TeenWaking up in a daze, again.
In someone else’s body, again.
Clinging to a thread of her own memory again.

An exiled angel, a desperate man, hints of other powers thwarting Mercy’s attempts to remember Luc or Ryan or why she cared for them – add this to a dead-end coffee shop job and a dying mother… how will Mercy resolve Lela’s situation and give the Melbourne teen her body back?

You’ll understand more of Mercy’s predicament if you read Mercy  first (see my no-spoiler recommendation) and sneak a peek at chapter 1 of Exile here. Hoping that Muse (book 3) and Fury  (book 4) get to the USA from Australia soon!

Can you truly remember love when all other memories are gone?
**kmm

Book info: Exile (Mercy, book 2) / Rebecca Lim. Hyperion, 2012. [author info]  [publisher site]

My recommendation:  Slammed awake in yet another body, Mercy now must answer to the name Lela, to care for ‘her’ mother dying of cancer, to work at ‘her’ dead-end job at the rundown café, to discover why she’s been called into this particular body at this exact time.

She has fragmentary memories of inhabiting a young singer’s body in another country, of being loved by a young man even after he realized she was not the real Carmen…why can’t she remember more of her time there? And just a flash of celestial Luc’s searing kisses in her dreams.

Poor Lela has had such a hard-luck life in this dreary Australian city, and now this, her mother withering before her very eyes. Perhaps Mercy was brought into her body to ease the pain of Mum’s passing, or she’s supposed to help Justine escape her terrible boyfriend, maybe turn co-worker Reggie into a decent human being (nah, impossible).

Mercy lets Lela’s muscle-memory take over coffee orders called to the barista, the best ways to ease around her grumpy boss and terrifying Sulaiman the cook. One man uses the café as his mid-morning office and helps her search for Carmen’s name on his computer in exchange for a dinner date. Very twitchy and OCD, this Ranald. Lela has turned him down for dates several times, it seems.

Rushing home when Lela’s mother takes a turn for the worse, Mercy is accosted by a small patch of energy, a being who’s as trapped here as she is, who gives her a tiny clue about who or what she might truly be. But there are larger problems ahead as a crazed customer threatens to kill everyone in the café, Justine’s boyfriend gets abusive, and Mercy’s online search for Carmen and Ryan is attracting unwanted attention in the city and elsewhere.

Could she really love Ryan, or is Luc right about the past she cannot remember?
Who is she? What is she? Why is Mercy right here, right now?
As Mercy journeys from body to body, can she ever find out where she truly belongs?

This second book in the Mercy series by Australian author Rebecca Lim is followed by Muse.  While Exile  can stand alone, read Mercy  first for maximum enjoyment. (One of 6,000 books recommended on www.abookandahug.com) Review copy and cover image courtesy of the publisher through NetGalley.

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