Title: The Miracle of Mercy Land
Author: River Jordan
Publisher: Waterbrook Press
ISBN: 978-0-307-45705-9
ISBN: 978-0-307-45705-3 (Electronic)
SRP: $13.99
Category: Christian Fiction
Book Description:
Mercy Land has made some unexpected choices for a young woman in the 1930s. The sheltered daughter of a traveling preacher, she chooses to leave her rural community to move to nearby Bay City on the warm, gulf-waters of southern Alabama. There she finds a job at the local paper and spends seven years making herself indispensible to old Doc Philips, the publisher and editor. Then she gets a frantic call at dawn — it’s the biggest news story of her life, and she can’t print a word of it.
Doc has come into possession of a curious book that maps the lives of everyone in Bay City — decisions they’ve made in the past, and how those choices affect the future. Mercy and Doc are consumed by the mystery locked between the pages — Doc because he hopes to right a very old wrong, and Mercy because she wants to fulfill the book’s strange purpose. But when a mystery from Mercy’s past arrives by train, she begins to understand she will have to make choices that will deeply affect everyone she loves — forever.
What if you had the power to amend choices you made in the past? Would you do it even if it changed everything?
Download the first chapter of “The Miracle of Mercy Land“.
My Thoughts:
Right away we find that Mercy Land is not like other young women of her time. Set in the early 1930′s, a time in which a young woman is expected to marry and start a family, our protagonist Mercy Land bucks that tradition, with the support of her eccentric Aunt Ida. Born in a bolt of lightning on the banks of the Bittersweet, Mercy leaves her small town and moves to Bay City, where she soon becomes the assistant to Doc Philips, the publisher and editor of the town newspaper, quickly earning the title “Doc’s girl”.
After seven years of working side by side with Doc, a mysterious book comes into his possession. This book appears to map out the choices that everyone in Bay City has ever made, and how each choice has influenced the path that their lives have taken. He quickly shares his find with Mercy and they work together to figure out how best to handle the information presented to them. Doc’s inclination is to go back and right a wrong choice in his past and Mercy wants to fulfill the books purpose. The author asks her readers and her characters to open their eyes to how every choice ever made influences and changes every aspect of their life’s path, and asks the question: “Would you make different choices if you knew it would change the outcome of a wrong choice you made in the past?”
The Miracle of Mercy Land is an enjoyable read that ended much too soon for me. Although I enjoyed the plot and felt the characters were complex and believable, I did feel a little let down that many questions were never answered. Where did the book come from? Why did it come into Doc’s possession? What’s the real purpose of the book? Overall though, Ms. Jordan has a style of writing that you will not soon forget. And Mercy Land is a character worth remembering.
About the Author:
River Jordan is a critically acclaimed novelist and playwright. Her previous works incude “Saints in Limbo” and “The Messenger of Magnolia Street”. She speaks around the country on the “Power of Story” and produces and hosts the radio series “Clearstory” from Nashville, Tennessee, where she makes her home. Follow Ms Jordan on Facebook or Twitter.
http://waterbrookmultnomah.com/bloggingforbooks/reviews/ranking/4591
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Giveaway Rules:
One winner will receive the gently used, previously read copy of “The Miracle of Mercy Land” by River Jordan, that I read in order to do this review.
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This giveaway is open to those in the USA and ends on 3/13/2011. The winner will be announced on 3/14/2011 on the blog and I will contact you by email for your mailing address. If the winner does not respond within 1 week, I will draw a new winner.
Disclosure of Material Connection: I received this book free from the publisher through the Blogging For Books review program. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own.
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