Mercy's Refuge

A young woman's journey to the New World. Inspired by William Bradford's 'Of Plymouth Plantation', Mercy's Refuge is a sweeping historical novel of romance and adventure in the year 1620. Mercy McCrea, orphaned as a child and raised by her aging grandparents, lives in poverty. The only thing keeping her and her family from starvation is to work as a kitchen servant for a rich nobleman. When catastrophe strikes and Mercy's life is in danger, she flees England for her uncle's farm in Holland. There she meets Caleb, a carpenter, and finds refuge among the Separatists who fled the wrath of the English King. Beginning in Ipswich, a North Sea port town in Suffolk, England, the novel takes the reader on a voyage across the English Channel to Holland, and then aboard the Mayflower. When Mercy and Caleb face the dangers of the sea, their faith and love for each other is strengthened by the strong bonds of a people whose courage forged a nation. One of the reigning queens of descriptive imagery and masterful storytelling, Rita Gerlach, has set the bar high. Diana Flowers, reviewer.