About the Book (Backcover Blurb):

Mercy Flanagan survived the Whitman Massacre as a child, and now her heart’s cry is for peace between the native peoples and the white settlers inhabiting Oregon Territory. Unfortunately, most of the settlers would rather the tribes were removed from the land completely, one way or the other, and tensions are rising. Mercy has grown tired of Oregon City and feels that she has a larger purpose in life, so when she learns that family friend Eletta Browning is pregnant, she travels south to the Rogue River Valley to help.

At the Rogue River Mission, Mercy meets Eletta’s brother-in-law, Adam, who has suffered a broken engagement. Mercy finds him attractive, but Adam seems determined to focus on ministering to the local tribes and keeps Mercy at arm’s length.

When tragedy strikes and tensions in the territory reach the boiling point, Mercy is pushed to the limit of her strength. She and Adam must rely on their firm faith in God in order to make it out alive.

Why I Choose this Book:

I can’t even remember any more. Maybe because I like the name Mercy? (Oh, that’s as bad as judging the book by the cover…. #oops)

What I Thought about this Book:

People, I’m sorry. It just didn’t work for me. I had been planning on reading the first two books in the series before reading this one, but then after looking into them I felt like the series as a whole might be a little too much of a romantic overload for my tastes, so I went into this one cold.

Even though it’s obvious that the characters have their own backstories and are referred to a lot, I didn’t find this book hard at all to follow. I did, however, find it very difficult to become attached to/care for the characters, and in fact, ended the book with an apathy that isn’t normal at all for me when I read.

My biggest issue by far was the romance. It was so out of place that it made me not even care about the rest of the book. And there were times it was extremely cheesy. Folks. There are people dying all around them, and yet the main character is all wrapped up in her little romance? Please no. I mean, yes. There are ways that it could have been written that would have furthered the plot and helped the story along. But this? This book just kept jarring me out of the story and making me want to groan. That sounds so horrible and I’m sorry to the author.

Good news though! The book has a 4.6 (out of 5) star rating on Amazon, so obviously, not everyone shares my opinion. I’m quite thankful for that, because it always makes me sad when I don’t like a book.

I’m sure there were good points to the story, but I was so frustrated by what I mentioned above that I had a hard time getting into the book, and an even harder time finishing it. Other than the romance the plot did seem to be fairly realistic – complete with characters who I actually did start liking dying. (Which, harsh as it sounds, made the book feel a lot more real.)

And, I did like Faith, the darling little girl in the book. She was one character who I did feel attached to. She was well-written, and I wish she would have been in the story more.