Erin
Healy’s House of Mercy (Thomas Nelson
Publishers) follows a young lady named Bethesda (Beth) whose family lives on a
generationally ran cattle-ranch turned sanctuary to rehab troubled men. She dreams of becoming a vet, due to her easy
intuition at healing animals, and is about to go off to vet school. One night she makes a quick decision that
turns into a very foolish mistake. This mistake put’s her dream at stake as
well as her family’s livelihood causing Beth’s relationships with her family
to take quite the toll. As she tries to right each wrong she continuously finds
herself in more trouble and her decisions continue to have a domino effect. Mercy becomes personified and Beth discovers
a spiritual gift. She starts to believe
in this gift that she cannot control and follows Mercy to once again try to
right her wrongs.
House of Mercy turns even more tragic and
the magnitude of consequence is made clear.
While not all the tragedies that ensue are clearly due to Beth, it is
argued that she is the cause. Her family
ties continue to sever as she fights for control to fix her wrongs and she is
given a task to complete that may fix almost everything. This request unravels a family secret and
sets her directly on a journey toward mercy.
She is given an ultimatum and flees the situation to begin her journey
and attempt to fix her problems.
Healy
does a great job at keeping the reader on the edge of their seat; suspensefully
relaying Beth’s journey. The story is
heartbreakingly universal. Beth is
constantly trying to fix things herself without relying on anyone else,
including God. As she journeys to
fulfill the request set out for her, and find her grandfather she is forced to
learn to rely on Mercy or suffer even more consequences.
The
constant challenges that Healy’s character’s face and the extreme abruptness
that it takes until they listen to God makes them incredibly relatable. House
of Mercy exemplifies through Beth how decisions that may seem harmless
sometimes carry negative consequences, but are not always a death
sentence. Healy also quite realistically
describes through Beth’s journey that the plan God lays out for us is not
always easy; human pride often gets in the way of His Mercy. Beth must learn to relinquish control and let
God use not only her but the people around her to turn her situation back on
track. Healy also relates to the reader
in the truth that these other vessels also may take some work before they are
willing vessels, and that is sometimes quite the fight. Healy keeps it real; not all of the
characters accept God’s mercy. The story
ends on a suspenseful note, leaving room for some of the characters to change
their minds.
House of Mercy, released August 2012, is a
riveting, fast-paced read with a redemptive lesson on what mercy truly
means. It is available in paperback or
e-book form and Healy includes at the end of the novel the story of when she
met a real life wolf that inspired her story of Mercy.
Find out more about Erin Healy here: http://www.erinhealy.com/
