Review: Merry Mary - Ashley Farley

"Miracles come in all shapes and sizes.  You were Mary's miracle, not the other way around."

Title: Merry Mary

Author: Ashely Farley

ISBN: 97810986167225

Publication Date: October 15, 2015

Publisher: Smashwords Edition

Source: NetGalley

Investigative journalist Scottie Darden is photographing the homeless for her Lost Souls series when she makes a discovery that could change her life forever. Under a makeshift tent in subzero temperatures in a downtown city park, she finds a woman's dead body with her infant child. Without her cell phone to call for help, Scottie makes the split-second decision to take the baby home. Her initial instinct is to provide the baby with food and shelter until her family can be located. But as her fondness for the baby grows, she finds herself facing a life on the run or worse—prison time for abduction.

~*~

Merry Mary is a quick read, being that it's only an 89 page novella.  However, Farley still packs quite a whallop of emotion into the too short story.  I spent the story torn between shaking some sense into Scottie, and being in complete accord with the insanity her biological clock insisted was 'right'.

Further, I really loved the tight knit family bonds Merry Mary portrayed, both with Scottie and her parents, and Scottie and her brother.  Everything about them felt true to life, and very believable.  Scottie's husband, Brad, was probably the only person in the novella I didn't like - he came off as immature and lame, which I imagine was the idea of his portrayal.

Definitely a well thought out novella, with characters I want to see more of in more of Farley's writing.  I eagerly look forward to the next story of hers that I get the opportunity to step into.

-Digital ARC provided by NetGalley, in exchange for a review