To Love and To Lose by Mercy B. Published on June 29, 2017 by Mercy B. Publications Standalone or Series:  Standalone Page length: 307 Crown rating: Loved It! 7 crowns! Reviewer: Bella How long did it take to finish? About 4/5 days “Ever has it been that love knows not even its own depth until the hour of separation.”

Saydee Rhodes, once a sweet and vibrant soul, fell victim to the vicious hands of her longtime lover, Leon. Aside from the physical scarring, he completely diluted her mentally– leaving both her mind and body battered and bruised. After having her third child beaten from her womb, Saydee makes the greatest escape, landing in the arms of Coop. With winsomeness that couldn’t be avoided, Coop lured Saydee with his attentiveness. Being that his mother was once in her shoes, he felt obligated to her. A knight in shining armor was her reference of the selfless gentleman. In a short period, Saydee was effortlessly placed on a pedestal, only to be knocked down with two simple words from her savior. Destined to find peace within her inner self, Saydee flees once more, making careless decisions, fueled by temporary emotions. Even with being told that love was a losing game, Saydee couldn’t agree until she was laid on the cold bathroom floor, crimson blood surrounding her being as she begged her dear God to spare her life just one more time.

What I liked:
This was my first time reading a Mercy B novel and I must say, I’m about to go see what else she has because this book was really good. It held my attention and the plot twists had me on edge with my mouth all the way open, needing some popcorn. Overall, I thought it was written pretty well. Saydee and Ava had such a great friendship and I’m glad Say had someone like her in her corner especially when she needed someone most. Both Ava and Saydee’s love interests – Compton and Coop – melted my heart in different ways. But these brothers are a handful. I thought the author did a good job at pacing the book and positioning the WTF and Oh snap moments at the perfect times. After the 75-80% part of the book, I knew I wouldn’t be putting it down until I was done!! Though it took me a few days to read, I was reading it during my free time while traveling. Had I been where I had a couple days where I had a few hours or so of nothingness to do I’m sure I would have read it in a day or two because there wasn’t ever a lackluster moment.

What I did not like:
I don’t have anything negative to truly say about the book. As I said above, it held my attention and had some great ‘what the hell did you just say’ moments. However, a pet peeve of mind when it comes to writers who write in 3rd person is head hopping. I felt the writer should have title the chapters with numbers (or something) instead of names because the point of views wouldn’t just be in that character’s head. For instance it’s a Saydee’s POV but then we’ll get into the head of Ava and Compton or something like that. So that bothered me. Another thing I think the author should redo is the book’s synopsis. The current synopsis reads – as you can see above – as if the book is just about Saydee and Coop but we also venture into the lives of Ava and Compton. So when I started the book, I was throwed a bit to find POV’s from characters that hadn’t even been mentioned in the synopsis when their story was told just as much. The last thing that ruffled my feathers was repetitiveness of this one part. Saydee has a repetitive nightmare and the author wrote out the same nightmare 3x. After the 1st time, I skipped over the remaining two because I already knew it. It could be a reader’s preference, but I thought it could have just been mentioned that it was the same nightmare she’d been having without actually writing it back out.

Would I recommend this? Read it again? Read the next book in the series?
Definitely would recommend it and though I might not read it again, I wouldn’t mind doing so. It was good and I like the author’s style of writing. I might not read this again but I certainly am looking forward to reading more by Mercy B.

Rating:
I found this book to give me a good amount of feels. Anger, happiness, laughter, and my eyes watered too so I had to give it 7 crowns and 4.5 stars.