Beg For Mercy by Jami Alden

Dueling reviews by Dani and Teri Beg For Mercy by Jami Alden Rating:  B, HOT - Danie's rating 1st book in her new series Dani's Review: First of all let me say that even though I read romantic suspense, I was not prepared for a story this dark. Meagan is the heroine. She is in her late 20’s, a writer and court appointed advocate. Cole is a 37 year old Seattle Homicide Detective. The story starts with Cole and Meagan having a nice dinner at her apartment. Meagan feels that this is the night that they will have more than a heavy petting (making-out) session. Just as Meagan is finally getting what she wants, Cole’s phone rings. As Cole is taking down the address of the crime, Meagan realizes that it’s her brother’s address. Cole will not say anything more. Meagan drives to her brother’s house just as Cole is being arrested for the rape and killing of a young girl. Meagan has just visited her brother Sean in prison. In one of the most emotional scenes that I have read in awhile, Sean tells her not to come and visit him anymore. After his latest appeal has been turned down, the fight is out of him, meaning execution date will be set. Meagan begs her brother to reconsider but his mind is made up. Meagan is beside herself. Sean is her only family left. They lost their parents when they were teenagers and moved in with their grandmother. In her heart Meagan knows that her brother is innocent and now has a week and half to try to save him from execution. Even while Sean is in prison girls are still being murdered. Meagan gets a call from Devany, her advocate client, that she has found a dead body in an abandoned trailer. Meagan tells Dev to call the police and drives to Dev’s trailer park. When the police come one of the detectives is Cole. The one man that Meagan has never forgotten, in the three years since they were last together. Meagan begs Cole to help her prove her brother’s innocence. Cole still believes in Sean’s guilt he too has never gotten Meagan out of his mind. The race for Meagan to save Sean’s begins.  This book goes into detail on the gruesome death of the victims and may not be for everyone. I’m now hooked on this series and I look forward to reading Sean and DA Krista Slater’s story. ebook received from Net Galley for an honest review. ********************************************************************************** Teri's Review of Beg For Mercy, by Jami Alden Rating:  B+, Hot, with graphic murder scenes I will not repeat Dani's opening statements, but I will start out by adding that the story picks up two years after Sean's arrest and trial, with Megan's visit to Sean in prison.  Yep, I shed a tear or two over their emotional parting when Megan left that day.  All either of them have left is each other.  The world is convinced Sean is a cold blooded murder, and that Megan has a few loose screws for trying to prove his innocence. Cole shows up once again to investigate another murder, the one in the trailer park.  He and Megan meet up again, and after the years apart, to his chagrin, he's still got it bad for her.  As Cole tries to convince Megan to give up her fight for Sean, the killer is busy getting his mind wrapped around Megan, who has been his target all along.  But the killer can't stop his grisly killings, even now when Sean's execution is only days away.  It occurs to Cole that the murders are escalating, and maybe Megan has been right all along;  Sean may not be guilty after all.   Finally, three fourths of the way through the book, Cole and Megan finally get together.  After all of the previous interruptions I was honestly beginning to wonder if the magic moment would become reality or not.  After all, with  these murders going on, it was beyond time to throw in a few happy moments.  Cole deserved something for being kicked around, and for Megan purposely not telling him where she was off to when she almost came face to face with the grim reaper.  That was a TSTL  moment, and good for me that it was towards the end of the book.  Megan justifies her TSTL moment as "doing what she has to, and being prepared by having her cell phone on 911".   Of course her cell phone gets kicked across the room, so I will leave it to you to figure out if she makes out of this moment in one piece. I really enjoyed this book, and would compare the murder scenes to those of Beverly Barton, who is the queen of gruesome crime scenes.  They did not bother me at all, but I can see where some readers would be put off by the descriptive narrative.  The reason for the B rating is Megan.  She is and can be brave, but some things that others might see as brave, are really not smart decisions, especially when Cole made it clear he was willing to help her in her quest to save her brother from execution. Looking forward to the next book in this series, due out in October.   eBook courtesy of NetGalley for review purposes