The Mercy

The Mercy by Beverly Lewis is the final installment in The Rose Trilogy, which began with The Thorn and continued in The Judgment. The story centers on Rose Kauffman, a young Amish woman who joined the church at an early age but has not yet married.

As The Mercy begins, Rose has ended her engagement with a young man who is in love with someone else and is not sure where her life will take her. Her heart is still drawn to Nick Franco, the bishop’s former foster son, but Nick has left the People under a cloud of suspicion surrounding the death of the bishop’s biological son, and Rose doesn’t have much hope of things changing in that relationship.

Amidst all of this drama, Rose meets a fellow from a neighboring community named Isaac Ebersol, and they begin courting. Rose’s attention is split, however, between her personal desires and the difficulties facing her family members.

Her mother has been crippled for many years with debilitating back pain but now has hope of a surgery that may help her get better. And her sister, who had left the Amish to marry a non-believer but then returned with her daughter, has the chance to care for her estranged husband after an accident that left him blind but with a chance that his vision would return.

Lewis is truly the best writer of Amish fiction out there. Her books are easily accessible regardless of your familiarity with the Amish traditions. In this trilogy, as in many of her other books, she explores universal issues of loyalty to family and community balanced with finding your own path in life and in relationship to God and others. Her characters are thoughtful and nuanced, and are capable of growth and change. No one-dimensional stereotypes here.

I truly enjoyed this book and also found myself challenged to look at my own life and see where I could extend mercy instead of judgment.

Trish is thankful to her local library for offering such a large collection of inspirational fiction and to authors such as Ms. Lewis who pour their heart and souls into their work. You can read more of her reviews at her blog In So Many Words.