The Calling Begins

When Daniel Mercer leaves Texas for a struggling youth farm in the hills of southeastern Ohio, he isn’t chasing a fresh start — he’s answering a debt he’s carried for years. Haunted by a moment he can’t undo and a boy he couldn’t save, Daniel steps into a world of fractured trust, hard-won resilience, and boys who have learned to survive by instinct alone.

The Southeastern Youth Farm & Academy is more than a school. It’s a last chance — for the kids who live there, and for the man now responsible for them. Jonah, quiet and sleepless, carries secrets he won’t speak aloud. Mason, sharp-edged and volatile, tests every boundary to see who will stay and who will walk away. And the land itself seems to watch Daniel, demanding honesty he’s spent years avoiding.

As winter deepens and old wounds rise to the surface, Daniel must confront the past he’s outrun and the calling he can no longer ignore. What begins as a job becomes a reckoning — and a chance to build something that might finally hold.

The Calling Begins is a powerful, emotionally rich novel about redemption, responsibility, and the fragile hope that grows between broken people. For readers who love character-driven fiction, found family, and stories where healing happens in the quiet moments, this is the start of a journey that lingers long after the final page.