Review: The King's Mercy by Lori Benton

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When captured rebel Scotsman Alex MacKinnon is granted the king's mercy--exile to the Colony of North Carolina--he's indentured to Englishman Edmund Carey as a blacksmith. Against his will Alex is drawn into the struggles of Carey's slaves--and those of his stepdaughter, Joanna Carey. 

A mistress with a servant's heart, Joanna is expected to wed her father's overseer, Phineas Reeves, but finds herself drawn instead to the new blacksmith. As their unlikely relationship deepens, successive tragedies strike the Careys. When blame falls unfairly upon Alex he flees to the distant mountains where he encounters Reverend Pauling, itinerate preacher and friend of the Careys, now a prisoner of the Cherokees. 

Haunted by his abandoning of Joanna, Alex tries to settle into life with the Cherokees, until circumstances thwart yet another attempt to forge his freedom and he's faced with the choice that's long hounded him: continue down his rebellious path or embrace the faith of a man like Pauling, whose freedom in Christ no man can steal. But the price of such mercy is total surrender, and perhaps Alex's very life.

My Thoughts:

The King’s Mercy was an epic story taking us from the battlefields of Scotland, an overseas trip, to a plantation in North Carolina. The author states that this is a retelling of the Biblical story of the runaway slave Onesimus whom the apostle Paul sends back to his master and now Christian brother Philemon. That is a small letter compared to this book as the author certainly fills in the story that she has placed in the setting of colonial America.

Alex MacKinnon is a Jacobite and fighting for the losing side. He receives the king’s mercy and is exiled and transported to North Carolina. Things do not go according to plan and he becomes an indentured servant for a seven year length. After Alex accepts his new life, for now, he begins to realize that not all is right on the plantation that is run by a father with the help of his step-daughter, Joanna.

There is an air of animosity and way too many mishaps and accidents that are happening that is threatening to tear this home apart. Joanna who has stepped up into the role of mistress of the plantation has her own ideas of how the place should be run much to the dismay of her step-father and the overseer who seeks her hand in marriage.

This story has a very evil villain and his crimes are gastly and his history is very murky. I really liked how this story took shape and drew me in. I cared not only for the main characters but all of the secondary characters as well as they as a community were all being affected by this evil.

Looking forward to what author Benton will pen next.

I received a copy of this novel from the publisher. I was not required to post a positive review and all views and opinions are my own.