The Miracle of Mercy Land

The Miracle of Mercy Land
by: River Jordan

Back of the Book:
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 indispensable 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.

My Thoughts:
Overall this was a very entertaining book to read. Once I got past the first couple of chapters and adjusted to the way the book was laid out - very choppy transitions between characters - I was able to enjoy it. The premise of the book is very thought-provoking. What if you could see how every decision you've made has affected you and others? It would certainly change the way you thought about everything.

The characters in this book were very personable - people you could really picture seeing in real life. I've always had a fascination with small-town living and this book certainly fed into that. Doc is the character that stood out to me the most. I could just picture him in every scene as the 1930s newsman that he was.

As far as lessons to learn in reading this book the most obvious is definitely to live 'other's first'. Every decision we make not only affects us, but those around us, as well. Would they thank you for the decisions that you have made? Or carry regret and bitterness?

Thanks for stopping by!

This book was sent to me by WaterBrook Multnomah Publishing Group in exchange for an honest review.
I was not influenced on how to write my review.