Uncharted Mercy
Edenbrooke Press, January 1, 2025
Print, 224 pp $17.99
Ebook $6.99
Hardcover $23.99
About the Book:
Lonely bachelor Noah Vestal longs for a family of his own. His inherited
farmhouse feels empty, and working the expansive orchard doesn’t keep his mind
off his life in America before being shipwrecked on the Land. When he learns
the lovely widow next door is being pressured to marry a man she’s never met
and to leave her son behind, he offers to marry her. She could have a home and
keep both of her children, and he could fill the orchard house with the family
he longs for. But when Noah’s inheritance is contested by someone claiming to
be the orchard’s rightful heir, he stands to lose everything—including his new
family.
Bette Owens has made the best of things since losing her husband three years
ago, but now her forceful in-laws want rid of her. When they persuade her
parents to help separate her from her son, she has nowhere to turn but to the
generous bachelor next door. She has always admired Noah and misses the
protection and companionship of having a husband, so when Noah proposes a quick
marriage, it seems like a wise remedy. Just when her children are settling into
their new home—and love between Bette and Noah seems possible—she discovers
Noah isn’t who he says he is.
While the Good Springs elder council becomes judge and jury over the orchard’s
ownership, Noah’s dreams of supporting a family and being part of a community
slip away. And as Bette’s friends side against her, she finds herself in an
unimaginable fight for her family—and for love.
Can their marriage of convenience withstand the battle for inheritance, family,
and love?
Keith settles deeper into her role of great story-teller with her fourteenth book in the Uncharted series. I have often longed for steeper conflict to propel her stories, and she fulfills my wishes in Uncharted Mercy. There isn’t much I can add to the cover copy. The story in a nutshell is that characters we’ve met earlier, Noah clinging to his values with all his might, and his sister Caroline’s pet project and friend next door, Bette and her kids who are getting a total bum rap from her inlaws, finally get story. They both know they can make a relationship work, given time, which they don’t have. It’s not really a marriage of convenience story so much as a “two are better than one” story when facing a brutal series of bullies, no less the established societal expectations of legalism over practicality in the Land. The interesting twist playing out is that in this male-dominated culture, a particularly cruel woman is dealing the hand.
Hidden love, great secrets, deeply held promises,
misinterpretation of laws meant to guide society—all of which Keith uses to
great value in her circle of tales about a Brigadoon civilization hidden from
the evils of the world by a mist that clears for a brief window each year. Well
done. Fans of the series will certainly enjoy this latest addition. Readers of
inspirational fiction, not exactly historical but set amid a greater dystopian
and unseen world, should check out the series.
Keely Brooke Keith is the author of the beloved Uncharted series. Her books are best described as inspirational frontier-style fiction with a slight sci-fi twist.
Born in St. Joseph, Missouri, Keely was a tree-climbing,
baseball-loving 80s kid. When she isn't writing, Keely enjoys teaching home
school lessons and playing bass guitar. Keely, her husband, and their daughter
live on a hilltop south of Nashville, Tennessee, where she dreams up stories
about a hidden land.
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