Jules Farentino has big problems. Her father has just been murdered, she has recently lost her teaching job, and her half sister shaylee has just been enrolled in a boarding school for troubled teens after several brushes with the law. On the surface, Blue Rock Academy, located in the mountains of Oregon, an idyllic and beautiful setting appears picture perfect. What really happened to the student that disappeared? What involvement with another student did a certain member of the faculty have? Jules has already lost her father in a most heinous fashion. Will she lose her half sister Shaylee too? What is going on at Blue Rock Academy? Determined to find out, she obtains a teaching position only to discover her old flame Trent Cooper in the middle of the unsolved mysteries that seem to be piling up as rapidly as victims of the Plague. With no one to turn to but each other, Trent and Jules must take a chance and believe in each other that will mean their very survival. As the action heats up and their attraction grows, they must find answers before their rekindled feelings have an opportunity to grow. When a relationship ends for reasons that are not as clear as they could be, how do you trust someone in a life or death situation? Will Jules and Trent be together in love and unscathed by the novel’s end? In a school that has more problems than the problem students it serves, will Shaylee come out a changed person?

Jackson’s novels are filled with fast-paced action and suspense. In a blending of mystery and romance, you will be on the edge of your seat while you read. Be prepared. There is a great twist at the end. I hope you will join us for a discussion of this great effort by Lisa Jackson. Below is a review and information about how to attend our discussion. Without Mercy is available on the bard site and I believe on bookshare.org as well.
Review by Allan Leverone
Jules Farentino is floundering; her life in a shambles after discovering her father murdered, presumably as a result of a botched home invasion. Unable to cope with her recurring nightmares and debilitating migraine headaches, Jules loses her teaching job and fears the worst when her seventeen year old half-sister Shaylee is shipped off to an elite boarding school for troubled teens after numerous scrapes with the law.

After receiving a panicked call from Shay that things are not as they seem at the remote school located in the mountains of Oregon, Jules begins researching Blue Rock Academy. Despite the idyllic picture painted by the school’s website, and glowing testimonials from former students, she fears there is a darker side to the institution. One student missing and feared dead. A teacher let go following a sex scandal with another student.

Concerned for her sister’s safety, Jules manages to get herself hired as a teacher at Blue Rock just as the biggest snowstorm of the decade hits, and just as more dead bodies begin piling up. Reunited with a former lover, Cooper Trent, himself working undercover to determine the fate of the first missing student, Jules discovers there is no shortage of potential suspects in the grisly murders.

With a blizzard raging and the school cut off from the outside world, Jules and Trent must put aside their differences and find a way to work together to have any chance of saving Shay and themselves and avoiding further bloodshed.

Lisa Jackson is the author of an incredible eighty-six books, many of them New York Times bestsellers. In WITHOUT MERCY, Jackson stirs up a stew of troubled teens and morally questionable adults, mixing in equal parts lost love, treachery, sex, trust and betrayal. When the bodies begin falling at Blue Rock Academy, the list of potential suspects is nearly as long as the roster of students and teachers at the school, and survival depends upon unraveling the clues before it is too late.

The book starts unevenly, as Jackson works to establish sub-plots involving the murder of Jules’ father, the failure of her romance with Cooper Trent under circumstances that are never fully explained, her disastrous rebound marriage, and tangled familial relationships where nothing is quite as it seems. Once the action begins at Blue Rock Academy, however, Jackson moves the story along, ratcheting up the suspense, concealing the identity of the mysterious “Leader,” the evil force behind all of the dark happenings at the school, and saving one final, shocking twist for the last few pages.

Without Mercy
Jackson, Lisa. Read by Angela Dawe. Reading time 14 hours 47 minutes.
Suspense
After her teenage half-sister Shaylee is sent to an Oregon boarding school run by the Reverend Tobias Lynch, Julia "Jules" Farentino takes a teaching job there. Jules discovers her ex-boyfriend, PI Cooper Trent, working undercover to investigate the institution. Violence, strong language, and some descriptions of sex. Commercial audiobook. 2010.
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