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The Promise #1

Mercy's Promise

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In a world shattered by loss and burdened by guilt, Glenn Ward and Anika Coltrane find themselves desperately seeking miracles. Glenn Ward a war-torn soldier, is facing the unimaginable - his wife is fading away, leaving behind twin newborn sons. Haunted by guilt and consumed by anger, he struggles to find solace in his shattered faith. Anika, on the other hand, has been plunged into darkness, burying her husband and precious newborn daughter on the same fateful day. Left with a six-year-old daughter to care for, she grapples with overwhelming grief and uncertainty. But when fate intervenes, an answered prayer brings these grieving souls together. Anika becomes the wet-nurse for the Ward family, offering her nurturing heart to help raise their twins, while also seeking refuge for her own daughter, Delaney, from the shadows of sorrow and fear. As Glenn and Anika forge an unexpected bond, they begin to glimpse a glimmer of hope. Amidst the pain and heartache, they find comfort and understanding in one another’s shared struggles. But to move forward, they must confront their pasts and embrace the power of forgiveness.Will they surrender to the darkness that threatens to consume them, or will they choose to open their hearts to God’s healing grace?

265 pages, Kindle Edition

Published November 14, 2018

1305 people are currently reading
146 people want to read

About the author

Lynn Landes

66 books39 followers
Lynn Landes is the Best Selling Author of the Mercy's Promise book. Her books span the spectrum of Romantic Fiction from paranormal, romantic suspense to Christian historic and fantasy. If you like clean romance, historic, fantasy, fairytale, temptation, and adventure be sure to check Lynn's website for upcoming titles.

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5 stars
584 (64%)
4 stars
185 (20%)
3 stars
93 (10%)
2 stars
22 (2%)
1 star
21 (2%)
Displaying 1 - 30 of 56 reviews
Profile Image for Julia.
3,127 reviews100 followers
February 8, 2019
Mercy’s Promise by Lynn Landes is a fabulous Christian historical romance set after the American Civil War.
War is a terrible thing – some wounds are visible, some are not. War changes personalities – things that have been seen cannot be ‘unseen.’ Men returned full of anger and pain. In those days, there wasn’t any help. Today we would diagnose PTSD as nightmares reign.
Survivor’s guilt is a terrible burden to carry. “ ‘What bothered you most about being a soldier’ ‘Surviving.’ “ God does not want us to live under a burden. He wants us to live abundantly free. “You have to choose between holding onto the past or being thankful for what remains.” The past is gone. We can trust God with our future.
No one knows what goes on behind closed doors. There is the difficult theme of domestic abuse. The outward bruises are clearly visible. The inner pain runs deep.
Two hurting families come together. This reminds the reader of Esther who was here ‘for such a time as this.’ God can and does use all our circumstances. He can be trusted.
There are light hearted moments and times of tenderness within the tale, often involving the children.
Forgiveness is another theme. Where it is hard, we need to seek God’s help. There are lessons on forgiveness to be learnt from children.
I really enjoyed Mercy’s Promise. It was a cracking story as well as highlighting God’s truths.
I received this book for free. A favourable review was not required and all views expressed are my own.

Profile Image for Marinda (rindasreads).
523 reviews30 followers
January 10, 2019
I didn't even get past the first chapter. Too many typos and repetition. The dialogue was not engaging, so I decided this book wasn't worth my time.

Disappointing, because the premise sounded interesting.
1,055 reviews11 followers
October 6, 2024
Different

Anika is severely beaten by her husband, causing her to go into labor and delivering a stillborn baby. When the doctor is tending her wounds, word comes that Sue Ward is dying of heart failure, having recently delivered twins, who were starving. Anika offers to be a wet nurse for them, not only saving the twins' lives, but giving her & her 7 year old daughter a place to stay. Basically it's a good story, but there is a scene that went too far for me. Plus, the editing/proofreading didn't happen; many wrong words, wrong names, typos, etc. The story is told in present tense, which I always have a hard time with.
1,471 reviews3 followers
April 18, 2024
The Promise series Book 1

Such a Beautiful Christian Romance. Many men return from the Civil War scarred from death and carnage they have witnessed, some return not only scarred but monsters themselves. The story is about people trying to pick up the pieces of Life and Love after the heart break of war. Realizing that we cant heal until we forgive. I purposely didnt mention the characters because their are so many that i Loved and didnt want to accidently give away spoilers, but this book has all the emotions and trust me, its worth the read.
I will read more Lynn Landes books.
11 reviews
May 27, 2024
Amazing

Gave a 4 because POV confused me 3/4 times while reading and the book contained a few curse words and one sex scene that was a little more descriptive than I prefer. Overall, I loved the story, the characters and the setting. There was one particular scene between the two new mothers that had me sobbing (literally)! The author did a beautiful job with their thoughts and emotions during a very difficult time.The author also did a great job with some of the Biblical Truths she presented (which I will admit kind of surprised me---but she knew what she was writing about.) Read this story!
Profile Image for Dawn'sReading ComeBackLater.
83 reviews2 followers
September 15, 2024
Plot had good ideas

This was a difficult read due to the quantity of typos, plot mistakes (calling character wrong name), and an amazing number of grammatical errors. I would bet this was published without editing. I gave up on submitting Kindle errors about halfway through. Oh, and the random changes on font size in the second half of the book. The plot had good ideas and a good story unfolded, with spousal abuse, healing journeys, trust issues, and PTSD after the Civil War. The narrative also changes back and forth from first person to third person randomly. This is a difficult book to read. I beg the author to update the Kindle edition.
Profile Image for Donna Malloy.
1 review
January 15, 2025
I enjoyed the characters in the book and their overall stories. The first few pages grabbed your attention and pulled you right in. However, the editing/proofreading was horrible. I’ve never seen so many errors in a published book before. There were misspelled words and incorrect pronoun and article usage. Several times I’d have to reread a sentence to figure out what they meant to say and at one part 3-4 paragraphs were actually duplicated. It was a bizarre experience and certainly one I’ve never experienced before. I will try Book 2 in the series and hope this is not typical as I’m new to Kindle Unlimited.
8 reviews1 follower
March 23, 2019
Disappointed

This book has many typos. It also felt like the author couldn’t decide what tense she wanted to write, bouncing from past to present. Some parts were written more like a screen play tan a book. This is also not what I am used to in Christian fiction. The language was not Christian and some the scenes were more racy than I am used to in Christian fiction. The family attended church but following God and his principles were not highest priority. The one redeeming part of this book was that I got for free.
2,405 reviews13 followers
November 9, 2019
Mercy’s Promise

Really great story. It’s about the struggles families faced post civil war. The damage done to the soldiers followed them home. Saul was brutal to Anita, beating her until she lost their baby. He went to the saloon drunk, died from a gun shot wound. God intervened for Anita and Delaney, her young daughter. Please read this story. It is emotional, but filled with truth.
334 reviews2 followers
October 25, 2023
Wonderful Christian Story

This was an amazing true love story. There were many twists and turns. Unbelievably sad and amazing grace. I loved the Christian Bible verses as special reminders of the amazing forgiveness, mercy and the love of our GOD for all. This was a true masterpiece which held you into it and would not let you go. Thank you Lynn, for something really awesome.
3 reviews
July 1, 2025
good story, awkward writing style

There were many good situations and characters and development in this story, but the writing style really was not my favorite. It reads more like a script than a novel. I really wanted to edit verb tenses, sentence fluency, and perspective. Some sections seem like they were written by old AI. Since it has won an award, obviously others disagree, but i’d really love to see what this book could become with a good English teacher’s editing
4 reviews
December 29, 2018
Horrible proofreading spoiled the entire book.

Every page of the book was spoiled by errors in spelling, punctuation, word usage, bad grammar, and character name misplacement. I felt like taking a red pen to the whole thing! I would not read another book by this author because I was so annoyed. She would benefit greatly in sales by hiring a competent proofreader.
21 reviews1 follower
January 30, 2019
Good read

The story line is a little hokey, but in all it was a nice read. However, the editing was not the greatest. Words are missing, wrong words are used, such as your instead of you're is a common !mistake. Sometimes to make a sentence make sense a comma should have been used.



1 review
June 24, 2019
Needs editing

This book was filled with spelling and grammatical errors. Much of the book was unbelievable such as women who couldn't tell their drink had been spiked. They apparently needed the men to figure that out. It had a decent plot and would be more enjoyable with quite a bit of editing.
8 reviews
September 2, 2024
In need of a reliable proof reader

I liked this story but disappointed in the often grammar errors. If it wasn’t a missing letter in a word (you instead of your), it is a tense error or missing word that made the reader reread the sentence to figure out what the author is trying to say. So, naturally, the reading didn’t flow as easily. Otherwise, the storyline was good.
Profile Image for Judy.
1,830 reviews13 followers
October 19, 2024
Amazing story!

I was not expecting such a deeply emotional story! I could not stop reading until I got to the end. Anika and Glenn’s story would make a great movie.

A few typos and mixed up names, which normally, I would rate it with one less star. But not in the case of this book 💘
64 reviews1 follower
May 28, 2025
God’s Eternal Mercy

This novel stirred my heart. The pain from the consequences of war bring heartbreak and trama throughout the entire novel. Precious Biblical truths interwoven with the innocence and joy of a child are the hope that lead to healing hearts and happiness.
This is a beautiful story.
Profile Image for Faith Mischel Golden.
32 reviews
September 4, 2025
The book is formulary. The progression was fairly obvious from the beginning but it did have some interesting twists and turns. There are a tremendous number of misspellings, sentences that don’t make sense and grammatical errors. This book needs to be edited. I will not be reading the other books in the series.
2,632 reviews16 followers
August 4, 2019
Glen and Anika

This is a very well written story and the plot has bee very well thought out as well. The characters are well chosen and they all work well together. There is excitement, adventure, sadness and grief, with hope of future love and happiness.
981 reviews3 followers
March 29, 2024
very nice read

This is a very nice read written by Lynn Landes. It is written very well and a very enjoyable even though there are sad parts in it. All the characters are strong and are loving in there own way.
Profile Image for Anita Rohn.
1,987 reviews9 followers
September 2, 2024
Mercy

The war had survivors who came home haunted by what they went through Mercy tried to keep her promise but battered she loses her way for awhile. Friends and family lend support and time heals. Inspiring read.
3,671 reviews17 followers
September 17, 2024
What a enjoyable book!

I enjoyed this book a lot, it had me in tears by the 6th chapter! The only thing I have to question is the quote of Joel 2:28. It didn't fit with my memory so I read all of Joel and found the quote no where. Can't help but wonder how it was changed so much.
119 reviews
November 1, 2024
Come to me my beloved

I had to stop reading this story long enough to wipe tears from my eyes. Its an emotional story. About two people learning forgiveness in order to find love. Its about leaning we all have faults but sharing and understanding will bring us together.
1 review
November 11, 2024
disappointed in the bad language

Very talented author and I’m very shocked by the bad language if it had not been for that it would’ve been a great book. Bad language and scripture doesn’t mix
12 reviews
December 1, 2024
Bad writing. Writer couldn't seem to decide 1st person or 3rd person narrative...it hurt my readers soul, and I only read to 4th chapter. Almost seemed like english wasnt the person writing it's first language.
2 reviews
February 17, 2025
The story line is 5 stars. The grammar errors, sentence structure, spelling errors lead one to believe this was set for printing by a computer with no human attached. I had expected to read the entire series but no longer.
4 reviews
July 18, 2025
Good story, poorly edited

Nice story but the editing was terrible - misspelled words, repeated paragraphs, sentences that made no sense. It needs to be cleaned up. I expect better from Amazon.
Profile Image for Barbara  F Dowden.
56 reviews1 follower
August 22, 2025
What a great inspiration read!

This is the first time I've read a book by this author Lynn Landes! My sister told me about this and I got book 1! Now I will read book2! I know you will be inspired also! God bless you!
460 reviews
August 29, 2025
Absolutely beautiful

This book was a free download for me, Thankfully I have found a new author! I enjoyed this well written story! The characters were well developed and the best part was incorporating the scriptures! Looking forward q reading the next book in the series!
113 reviews2 followers
November 16, 2025
Excellent Christian Romance!

This story was wonderful! The power of God to heal and to forgive, His mercy, and most of all, His love are woven throughout this book through sorrows and pain. God's love wins!
Displaying 1 - 30 of 56 reviews

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