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Friday, October 12, 2012

The Road to Mercy ~ Review and Giveaway


I find in life that sometimes despite our abilities to leave our pasts behind, sometimes it's not possible. Sometimes that past comes calling again, but we have a choice as to whether to open the door and deal with it or keep the door close and hope it stops knocking. In the debut novel, The Road to Mercy, by Kathy Harris, the readers are in for a journey that will outline what it really means to trust in God and learn to walk by faith, faith defined as believing in things we don't see. In each circumstance that the main characters are challenged with, Josh and Bethany Harrison, are tested in a wide variety of ways. The faith will come into question and will at times be doubted in some areas, and whole-heartily accepted in other ways.

The book begs the reader to ask their own question of where their life of faith stands. When hard times or unexpected circumstances come upon us, will we fall apart or fall on our knees. This book is perfect for these hard times we have all fallen upon lately, with job losses, health issues, financial strains, marriage problems, and more, I find if we don't have faith as our foundation, we will fall apart. We will look to fix things ourselves and at times will come up far too short. We must in fact, put our trust in God,  because storms will come in each of our lives, our faith will be tested to points of breaking us sometimes, but it's how we weather our storms that makes us stronger and better prepared to deal with what happens next.

In The Road to Mercy, the reader gets to also know what true mercy is. Mercy is when we completely deserve punishment for something we have done wrong, but are instead given a clean slate, a new start, we get what we did not expect in return. I found myself wondering as I read along with Beth's health issue of being on the brink of death and learning she is pregnant, what decision I would make if I were in the same situation. While the well-meaning Dr. Ben Abrams tries to convince Beth and Josh that terminating her pregnancy is the best option, Beth and Josh choose to trust that God can handle the issue and will accept whatever consequences happen by their decision. Sounds like stuff that happens in real life all the time. Josh and Beth also find that dealing with the health issues and the pregnancy that it places them under tremendous personal stress of their own, each wondering if they are doing the right thing, which at times places them at odds with one another. Yet deep within the past are some secrets that may undermine their faith and completely destroy them. You'll have to read the book to see how this all plays out but trust me, it's well worth the search!

I received this book compliments of Pump Up Your Book Tours and Abingdon Press for my honest opinion and love that Kathy Harris chose this as a debut novel to write. In this tough times, we need books like this one to remind us of the cost of maintaining our faith. It may not be an easy road to walk but it will be one that pays off unexpectedly in ways we never imagined for our good in the end. For that reason I rate this book a 5 out of 5 stars.

For more information on The Road to Mercy, Kathy Harris or where to pick up a copy of this book today, please click on the links below:


You can also find Kathy Harris on Facebook by clicking here. 

To read more reviews from the Pump Up Your Book Tour, please click here. 

Now for the fun part, thanks to Pump Up Your Book Tours and Abingdon Press, they are offering a giveaway copy to one lucky reader of my blog, Reviews From The Heart. Here's all you need to do to enter:

1. Be a follower of my blog, Reviews From The Heart

2. Be a resident of the US or have a US shipping address. Please No P.O. Boxes.

3. Leave a comment below telling me about a time your faith was tested and how you can through your own storm. Don't forget to include your email address along with your comment. You can use the words (at) and (dot) instead of the symbols.

I will notify the winner via email when the giveaway ends on October 20th!

*Disclosure of Material Connection: I am a member of Pump Up Your Book and a copy of this book was provided to me by the author. Although payment may have been received by Pump Up Your Book no payment was received by me in exchange for this review. There was no obligation to write a positive review. All opinions expressed are entirely my own and may not necessarily agree with those of the author, publisher, publicist, or readers of this review. This disclosure is in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission's 16 CFR, Part 255, Guides Concerning Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising*

7 comments:

  1. I am going through a storm right now. My youngest daughter passed away 3 weeks ago leaving 2 sons ages 5 and 17 months. Her Dad and I have the boys. We are all going through such a difficult time of grief and adjustment. God is helping us through each day though. He gave us the boys and they keep us grounded. I know he is with us each step of the way.
    I am a follower.
    I live in the US.

    lag110 at mchsi dot com

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    1. I'm so sorry for your loss. I pray that God will continue to help you each day.

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  2. I'm a follower via gfc and by email subscription. dancealert at aol dot com

    I've had my own challenges physically eight surgery's on back and neck and bacterial spinal meningitis. The meningitis and having my esophagus clipped during surgery caused me to have very long hospital stays and I wasn't sure I was going to live. I had my faith tested every day those first couple of weeks.

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    1. Brenda,

      What a terrible set of circumstances. Praise God for your recovery and the faith that helped get you through.

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  3. When I was a teenager, 6 people--friends and family members, suddenly passed away during a 9 month time period. My world was jolted, and I was left feeling my world was torn apart. It was a hard time to live through. I turned to God in an intense way. My faith went from something I just did with my family by attending weekly church, to a faith that involved intense Bible reading and wanting to know who God really was.

    I am a follower of your blog and live in the U.S.A.

    ischu9@aol.com

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    Replies
    1. Your comment reminds me of the comparison of faith to a muscle, which grows stronger as we use it. It's certainly not fun to go through a difficult time, but our faith helps. Thanks for sharing your story.

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  4. Wow! sounds like a heart-touching book.
    I follow your blog (just haven't been here in a long time!)
    My biggest storm in my life happened 17 years ago on October 2nd. I lost our first baby at 8 weeks pregnant. I really had to trust that God was in control when I felt like my world was falling apart and life would never be the same. I'm happy to say that I now have 4 beautiful, healthy, amazing children! My husband and I have been married 18.5 years and have been so very blessed!

    lisa dot otis6 at gmail dot com

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Please share with me your comments. I love to know what touched you about this post or how it has blessed you in any way.