Mercy's Rain by Cindy K. Sproles

When your life is built around a father's wrath, how can you trust in the love of Father God?

Mercy Roller knows her name is a lie: there has never been any mercy in her young life. Raised by a twisted and abusive father who called himself the Pastor, she was abandoned by the church community that should have stood together to protect her from his evil. Her mother, consumed by her own fear and hate, won't stand her ground to save Mercy either.

The Pastor has robbed Mercy of innocence and love, a husband and her child. Not a single person seems capable of standing up to the Pastor's unrestrained evil. So Mercy takes matters into her own hands.

Her heart was hardened to love long before she took on the role of judge, jury, and executioner of the Pastor. She just didn't realize the retribution she thought would save her, might turn her into the very thing she hated most.

Sent away by her angry and grieving mother, Mercy's path is unclear until she meets a young preacher headed to counsel a pregnant couple. Sure that her calling is to protect the family, Mercy is drawn into a different life on the other side of the mountain where she slowly discovers true righteousness has nothing evil about it--and that there might be room for her own stained and shattered soul to find shelter. . . and even love.

Mercy's Rain is a remarkable historical novel set in 19th century Appalachia that traces the thorny path from bitterness to forgiveness and reveals the victory and strength that comes from simple faith.


About The Author 

Cindy K. Sproles is an author and a speaker, whose dream is do nothing more than craft words that speak from the heart. God's plan seems to be for me to write email devotionals but we're expanding our horizons. We'll see how He uses me. In the mean time...I write and speak. I'm a mountain gal, born and raised in the Appalachian Mountains where life is simple, words have a deep southern drawl, and colloquialisms like, "well slap my knee and call me corn pone" seem to take precedence over proper speech. Apple Butter, coal mining, the river, pink sunrises and golden sunsets help you settle into a porch swing and relax. Family, the love of God and strong morals are embedded into my life in the mountains. Teaching writers, spinning fiction tales about life in the mountains, history and down home ideas find their way into all I do. I love to write devotions, to seek after the deeper side of Christ and to share the lessons He teaches me from life in the hills of East Tennessee. I am a writer. A speaker. A lover of God's Word and friend to all. 


My Review

Mercy’s Rain is a hard to read book, not the wording, but the abuse that is done in the name of the Lord. I know that people like the Pastor really do exist, and are working with the hand of Satan, and not Christ.
The setting is rural Tennessee in the Appalachian foothills in the 1890’s, and as the story opens Mercy’s father, the Pastor, is baptizing a crippled man in the river. What happens next is a horror story, and the story begins to unfold. Have a box of tissues handy; what happens to this young girl in the name of God is horrific.
You will feel that God has forsaken Mercy, and as we travel and the flashbacks continue to happen, we find people of Christ being put in her path. In fact, I was a bit surprised how some of these individuals ended up being at the same place at the same time, but was it a coincidence, I think not.
The road to healing and redemption is long, but the God’s hand is on Mercy’s shoulder. We meet the people God has chosen to put in her path, and she is made to give of herself, and in the end find what we all are looking for.
The author Cindy Sproles has done an amazing job of putting this story together, it will make you think, cry, and will definitely linger with you for a long time.

I received this book through the Publisher Kregel, and was not required to give a positive review.