Shades of Mercy ~ Review

Shades of Mercy
By Anita Lustrea
   and Caryn Rivadeneira

Shades of Mercy is a story that looks at the fears and prejudices that have been (and still are) prevalent in our country.  Set in the Northwoods of Maine in 1954, the Maliseet people are the focus of this distrust.

It is this world that Mercy Millar is looking back on.  A world in which she loves a man whom she shouldn't. But Mercy plans to someday leave this world behind and to acknowledge the love she and Mick have for one another.

But when racial tensions escalate and Mick is accused of a crime Mercy knows he is incapable of committing, prayer seems to be her only hope.  But when the area faces a natural disaster an act of mercy and compassion may bring about the changes Mercy has been hoping for.

Shades of Mercy looks back on a period of unrest and change in our country and the power of love when it extends to all of our neighbors not just those who look like us.

I was provided a copy of this book through BookFun/TBCN in exchange for my honest review.

About the Book:
It's 1954 and the world-even the far Northwoods of Maine-is about to change. But that change can't happen soon enough for fourteen-year-old Mercy Millar.

Long tired of being the "son" her father never had, Mercy's ready for the world to embrace her as the young woman she is-as well as embrace the forbidden love she feels. When childhood playmates grow up and fall in love, the whole community celebrates. But in the case of Mercy and Mick, there would be no celebration. Instead their relationship must stay hidden.

Good girls do not date young men from the Maliseet tribe. At least, not in Watsonville, Maine. When racial tensions escalate and Mick is thrown in jail under suspicion of murder, Mercy nearly loses all hope-in love, in her father, and in God himself.