Katie Hanrahan

Somehow, I managed to pick up this book and finish reading it but then put it right back on my "to read" bookshelf so I completely forgot how long ago I read it! So the accuracy of the dates of when I read this is quite wrong! I'll just say August 2017 since that's when I re-read and found it again!

For some reason, this book did not stick with me. It was very hard to finish despite being beautifully written. I really, really wanted to like it but I wasn't hooked and I had to put it down many times.

This book is a great historical romance/drama for those who are interested in those types of books. I found Katie to be a beautiful descriptive writer despite me not getting hooked into the book. I would definitely suggest this to other readers - it just wasn't a good book for me, personally.

That being said, I did find that this book had pacing issues. Sometimes, this book was absolutely fantastic and moved at a fast pace that made this book super awesome! And then it would slow down to a snail's pace and make it difficult for me to continue on. While the plot itself was fantastic and the characters are extremely well developed, I think with some pace fixing this book could have hit a home run.

Maddie is a strong female lead who could rival some of the big named "blockbuster" leads - like Katniss, Hermione, etc. She is perhaps the best part of this novel, in my opinion.

Overall, this book is a strong contender in the top historical romances I've seen recently. It's a must read for those craving a good, strong female lead with a dash of historical romance in it.

Three out of five stars.


I received this book for free through Goodreads First Reads.… (more)

I liked this book...for the most part. I have a few negative and a few positive things that I can say about it, and I will try my best to do so without spoilers.

Negative:
1 - HUGE gaps of time are missing from the storyline. I was baffled when, in one chapter Eireann is 18 (or close to 18, if memory serves me correctly) and the next chapter she's in her 40s. I would like to know more about her and how she was molded into the woman that she became.
2 - The second half of the book read more like a textbook for a government or history class. And far to policital for my taste. That's great if you're a history buff who enjoys reading a book for the intellect, but it's not for me. I found it difficult to continue reading at times because I would lose interest. (This negativity, however, is completely dependent on my personal interests and views and if someone were interested in reading about the Fenians or the Irish Republican Brotherhood or even the Irish Revolution I would recommend this book. I do realize, though, that this book is a work of fiction but the author is dead-on a lot of the facts found within it).

Positive:
1 - I devoured the first half of this book. I loved reading about Mary Claire and her trip on the Hellebore and later her life in Fremantle. I would have loved to read more about Eireann and her childhood, though.
2 - The ending was superb. It wrapped up some of the details I was anxious to know about.
3 - It was well written; excellent grammar, spelling, etc. The author definitely did her research.

Would I recommend this book? Yes. I would definitely recommend this book to those who read for intellect more than for entertainment. But for those who read more for entertainment purposes, I would say that this book is definitely worth the experience at least once, so my answer is still yes.… (more)

Although this book is well written (often I am dismayed when a book is difficult to understand due to poor grammar, sentence structure, composition, etc.) I am sorry to say that I really did not enjoy it at all. Understanding that the backdrop of the struggle for Irish independence (in the early 1800s) is key to the book, I still found that all of the time spent on the background politics took away from the story of the main characters. I struggled mightily to try and enjoy what I was reading but I just couldn't. I was unable to connect with the story of Sarah and Robert. Maybe I will go back to it and try and reread it at a later date.… (more)

Mercy First and Last, by Katie Hanrahan, is a work of historical fiction. The story is set Ireland in the turbulent times of late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. The story is told in the voice of protagonist Sarah Curran who is the young daughter of a tyrannical father. Tragedy strikes her family when she is young , Her only hope of escaping her prison like life is to marry. Sarah falls in love with a young man who is a revolutionary. From that point on, her life takes a path she could never have foreseen.

I found this book to be both well written and interesting.

I received this book through Library Thing Early Reviewers and the opinions expressed in this review are my own.… (more)