by Dawn Lanise Crooks (Author)
Merci Samuel was not the kind of woman who believed in much; not in second chances, not in the redemption of people and certainly not in love. But ghosts were about the only thing she was sure were real. She had been running for her entire adult life from the ghost of her grandfather who'd fathered her, from that of her mother whom Merci couldn't bring herself to call mother; until after she'd laid her to rest, from three generations of traumatized women, and from the family legacy that scarred her even before she'd slid through the womb and into her life. Now after 10 years of running, Merci is forced back into the memories of her childhood and the sins that run deep through her family roots when she must return to the place she once called home to bury her mother, Charlotta, and alongside of her, a part of the past she had vowed to outrun. But there is far more awaiting her arrival than Merci could have been ready for. Her confrontation with the life she fled would challenge everything she'd come to believe about who she was and who she had the power to be. The roadblocks are hers alone to remove but in order to find the courage and strength, Merci will have to trust the living spirit of the mother she never understood and never forgave for choosing to give her life.