Review: Echoes of Mercy by Kim Vogel Sawyer

"When a suspicious accident occurs at the famous Dinsmore Chocolate Factory in Sinclair, Kansas, Caroline Lang goes undercover as a factory worker to investigate the circumstances surrounding the event and how the factory treats its youngest employees—the child workers. Caroline’s fervent faith, her difficult childhood, and compassionate heart drove her to her job as an investigator for the Labor Commission and she is compelled to see children freed from such heavy adult responsibilities, to allow them to pursue an education.   

Oliver Dinsmore, heir to the Dinsmore candy dynasty, has his own investigation to conduct. Posing as a common worker known as “Ollie Moore,” he aims to find out all he can about the family business before he takes over for his father. Caroline and Oliver become fast friends, but tension mounts when the two find themselves at odds about the roles of child workers. Hiding their identities becomes even more difficult when fate brings them together over three children in desperate need. When all is revealed, will the truth destroy the love starting to grow between them?"
Have I ever read a book by Kim that I didn't love? (I'll give you a hint- NO!! NEVER!) Echoes of Mercy is certainly no exception. First of all... she set a book in a CHOCOLATE FACTORY! Hello??? What better place is there? Second, her characters always leap off the pages for me. From Caroline and Ollie to their three young charges to Noble and Annamarie. Each one was so faceted and what my 9th grade lit teacher would call "round characters". Something I always find as a theme in Kim's books is that family is who you choose, those that love you and whom you love in return. Caroline's family wasn't her birth parents. Her family was Noble and Annamarie, the couple that raised her as their loved daughter. With faith filling every corner of this book (without a moment of preachiness) you're sure to fall in love with this story as quickly as I did. Kim is one of the few authors that repeatedly keeps me up past midnight. (Roseanna White is the other I can think of who disrupts my late night sleep) Kim even manages to make each and every "villain" in all her stories as round and complex as our heroes, making the conflict not only believable, but also relatable. I hope you have a chance to grab this 5 star story and read it! You won't be disappointed. Okay... that's kinda wrong, because you will undoubtedly wish for some of Dinsmore's World Famous Chocolates. And then you'll be disappointed that they are merely fictional. But other than that!