The King's Mercy by Lori Benton

My thoughts:  As with all of Lori Benton's books, The King's Mercy is absolutely rich with historical information and is written with such realistic and detailed descriptions that you can sense a feeling of the humidity in the air, the sound of insects abuzz and the feel of slapping away a mosquito. The characters are so richly drawn verbally that you begin to love or hate them because your heart beats with anticipation, fear, love, dread, joy just as theirs.

Very well written with a depth of perception of the times, locale, and social mores that you will mentally engage on a level that takes you striving with the under dog from page one to the exciting conclusion.

Do the good guys win out? Sure they do. Can you accurately anticipate the ending? To a small degree you can.

The King's Mercy takes the reader to the shores of the Cape Fear River near Wilmington, North Carolina. The timeline is in the mid 1700s. The large "plantation" or estate is owned by a retired sea Captain whose wife is deceased and who has two daughters. He has a contingent of slaves to work his land, black smithy, and mill. One of the main male characters if the Scottish Indentured Slave who has been purchased and whose captivity by the English King has been granted a "mercy" which is indentured slavery.

I highly recommend this Christian historical fiction. It is heavy with Christian teachings which believers will enjoy.


About the book: This epic historical romance tells of fateful love between an indentured Scotsman and a daughter of the 18th century colonial south.

When captured rebel Scotsman Alex MacKinnon is granted the king's mercy--exile to the Colony of North Carolina--he's indentured to Englishman Edmund Carey as a blacksmith. Against his will Alex is drawn into the struggles of Carey's slaves--and those of his stepdaughter, Joanna Carey. A mistress with a servant's heart, Joanna is expected to wed her father's overseer, Phineas Reeves, but finds herself drawn instead to the new blacksmith. As their unlikely relationship deepens, successive tragedies strike the Careys. When blame falls unfairly upon Alex he flees to the distant mountains where he encounters Reverend Pauling, itinerant preacher and friend of the Careys, now a prisoner of the Cherokees. Haunted by his abandoning of Joanna, Alex tries to settle into life with the Cherokees, until circumstances thwart yet another attempt to forge his freedom and he's faced with the choice that's long hounded him: continue down his rebellious path or embrace the faith of a man like Pauling, whose freedom in Christ no man can steal. But the price of such mercy is total surrender, and perhaps Alex's very life.

DISCLOSURE: I received an advanced reader complimentary copy from WaterBrook and Multnomah Press to facilitate this review. Opinions are mine, alone and are freely given.