Review: No Mercy by Mary Martel

No Mercy (The Dollhouse #1)

by Mary Martel

Contemporary Romance

Bought

Blurb

Warning: this series is intended for a mature audience. It contains violence, murder, prostitution, foul language, suicide and sexual content.
This is a first part in a series. The books are meant to be read in order.

“Do you know what the funny thing about Mercy is?” Cap asked her. Before she could answer he spoke again, “It can be a cold, hard, unforgiving bitch.”

Duchess runs The Dollhouse. An old, two story mansion she recently purchased in an attempt to create a safe home for herself and her girl Franky, something neither of them have ever had. A safe home is not all The Dollhouse is though. The downstairs is a bar and the upstairs is home to something much seedier. A modern day brothel. A brothel Duchess is the proprietress of.
Duchess is a cold, hard, tough as nails woman with a murky past. Her whole life revolves around taking care of her girls and keeping them safe.
Life at The Dollhouse is irrevocably altered when its sole neighbor, the Mercy MC, strolls through the front doors of the bar.
From that moment on Duchess’s fate is intertwined with theirs. She tries to fight it to no avail. They claimed her and her girls and that’s all there is to it.
She gets a family she never wanted. Friends she never needed. And a lover she never expected. She also suffers loss and has no qualms about killing anybody who stands in her way or threatens her or her girls.

This is the first part in a series and it is not a happy go lucky story.

With the warning I was ready for a sexy, gritty, emotional read. Not what I got. What I got was a badass heroine who was over the top bat shit crazy. And really do not know why she is like that. I have some what of an idea based off a little of her background. That did break my heart and really needed more of it. I had a hard time really connecting with Duchess. I get that she has to be somewhat a badass as she is running a brothel and  she will do anything and I mean anything for her girls or anyone she consider her friends. I did enjoy that about her but some stuff she does is over the top crazy and does not really make sense. Loved her irritable, short-tempered attitude that did have me giggling a time or two. But at the same time I needed her take it down a notch. I really needed her to have some kind of meltdown or something. I needed to feel that she is only human.

There was nothing sexy about this book. I had no idea who or what direction the love interest was going. There was no sexual tension. Supposedly everyone in the MC thinks she is one of a kind. She is oblivious to this. Needed layers to her love interest and when they finally get together more than half way through book it was boring. 1st sex scene was ok nothing special. 2nd love scene was fade to back and 3rd love scene was a mix of fade to back then very little action with dirty talk.

Loved the idea of modern day brothel mix with an MC. I think she did a great job combining the two themes. The Brothel or more so the characters in the brothel are the main focus and the MC seemed more of a bonus.  Now the Mercy Mc I did like. Loved that they consider the town their family and once you live in town you are part of their family and under their protection. They all had different personalities and enjoyed that. I did enjoyed how they pushed their way into The Dollhouse as it did leave for some fun moments with Duchess trying to deal with them.  But for me no one really stood out or connected with them. I really wanted to and I think I would of if I was not always in the heroines head.

I really wanted to feel for all these characters especially since there are some moments that should of been emotional. I just felt a lot of  nonsense scenes that went nowhere should of been left out and other more important scenes should of been more fleshed out.

The authors writing style and voice was very similar to Kristen Ashley. I felt like she took a little bit of everything she liked from some of her favorite authors and combine them. I really wanted for her to have her own writing style and voice. I think she has a great and her own imagination and it really could of shine in No Mercy.

The many mispelled words and the words not in the right spot were a distraction. I did have to read sentences over because they made no sense. This was more so the first half of the book. I usually do not notice or get bothered when it is done once or twice.

Love the idea of modern day brothel mix with an MC as it is original and was refreshing. I really could of seen me loving this book and series. The execution was lacking a bit. This book still had some good to it unfortunately the bad did out weigh the good for me. I do not regret reading it because it was a  refreshing read that  at least I did have few giggle moments that made my day.

Quote-Tastic

So for my quote-tastic today I give you The Duchess. I might not had a really good connection with Duchess but I did have my few giggle moments from  being in her head.  The scene before this is Franky who is one of Duchess girls in her brothel The Dollhouse sitting with her elbows on the bar  and talking to a standing Duchess. They are waiting for Frankys regular clients who like to ride together. The scene I give you is what happens after Franky leaves.

After I unlocked the door I made her take her drink upstairs to wait with Mandy. I walked around the bar and got myself a beer out of the cooler then headed back around and sat in Frankys seat. I didn't sit how she had though. I sat up straight, facing the door, with my feet on the floor.

I sipped from my beer and waited.

Fifteen minutes and another beer later the door slowly swung open. Three men walked in. Oh how nice, they must have carpooled for their trip to the whore house. Save on gas so you can spend more on ass.

Quote-Tastic is a weekly meme hosted by Anna Herding Cats & Burning Soup.

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