Don Brown: Detained

By Kelly Bridgewater

From Amazon

Back Cover Copy:

A man and his son dreamed of America’s freedom, but the dream became a nightmare when they ended up at Guantanamo Bay.

Hasan Makari and his son Najib, both Lebanese nationals, have dreamed of the day they would experience the shining freedom of America. But when they arrive in the US, they are arrested, accused of terrorism, and incarcerated at the Guantanamo Bay prison camp in Cuba, all on false charges. Suddenly, they face the nightmare of death by execution.

Their only hope is Navy JAG Officer Matt Davis, who has been assigned to the case of his life—to defend the Makaris in court at Guantanamo Bay. Matt believes his clients are innocent but faces monumental opposition—not only from powerful federal prosecutors with a huge agenda and an unlimited budget, but also from the woman he loves who, as a fellow JAG officer, has been ordered onto the prosecution team to convict the Makaris.

As the drama unfolds in Cuba, Emily Gardner, a top-ranking TSA lawyer, has just received a larger-than-life nomination as General Counsel for the Department of Homeland Security. While preparing for confirmation by the US Senate, she discovers a shocking scheme that will turn her life upside down. Can Emily expose the truth in time to save the lives of those being accused—and escape with her own life? Somewhere between the war-torn plains of Northern Lebanon and the secret torture chamber of Guantanamo Bay lie the keys to justice.

My Thoughts:

I am drawn to books and movies with car chases and high chances for danger. That is why the Fast and Furious movies are my all time favorite. Plus, I love the family and religious aspects woven in the plot. Similarly, I am a fan of NCIS, the television show. I have never read anything by Don Brown, but when the opportunity arose to review his newest book, Detained, I jumped on the chance. True to a thriller, Brown captures his readers with high speed chases, terrorist threats, and characters who tug at your heart.

In Detained, there are a lot of main characters, which bring this thriller to life. There is Najib and Hasan Makari, Diane Brewer Cobernian and her husband Zach Brewer, Matt Davis, Amy Debenedetto, Emily Gardner, Willie Roberts, and Secretary General TSA Strayhorn. That is a lot of characters to keep track of, especially in the beginning when you’re scratching your head, trying to figure out why there are so many characters. But after finishing the book, I realized that each individual character was important to tell the story. As you can understand from reading the synopsis, Najib and Hasan Makari are Lebanon citizens who are wrongly accused of terrorism over eleven years ago. The pain the TSA agents made them endure made my heart ache for these innocent men. None of the other characters took a leading role throughout the rest of the story. The story portrayed them all. Emily, Matt, and Amy were brave characters who fought for American justice. Zach and Diane spent a lot of time praying and enforcing the Constitution. However, the mention of God was not preachy, but woven in as the individual character’s strength, not as a sign of weakness.

This brings me to the idea of conflict and tension, running rapid across the novel. From Philadelphia to Washington D. C. to Norfolk, Virginia, to Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, to Rome, Italy, to a plane over the Atlantic Ocean. The story starts off with watching an assassination on an American ambassador and does not let go until the end. It was fast moving and explosive. A few scenes had me cringing while others had my eyes flying over the words, so I could keep up with the action. True to the thriller genre, the tension and conflict caused nail-biting moments mixed in with political wrong, begging the readers not to put the book down.

By wrapping your mind around the original and totally unpredictable thriller written by Don Brown, readers notice the writing. The prose and dialogue started out a little unbalanced. Brown uses way too much prose in the novel’s beginning. The dialogue is sparse, not allowing the reader to truly get into the character’s mind. As the action picks up, Brown evens them out, making the story more powerful. Another aspect to make the novel more realistic is Brown’s vast knowledge into this Navy community. Brown spent five years as a Judge Advocate General (JAG) before starting his own private practice. It definitely shows with his knowledge of the inner workings of the Navy and chain of command.

Conservation readers should be cautioned that there are vivid descriptions of TSA enforcers torturing Najib and Hasan, brutality, and a suicide. Even with this, the story grabbed my attention and did not let go. I would love to see Detained in a movie, but the movie has to be done right like Brown wrote it. Fans of NCIS and Mel Odom’s NCIS book series (Paid in Blood, Blood Evidence, and Blood Lines), which I love and own, would devour this book. Now that I have found a new author to enjoy, I want to go get his other eight books.

Overall, Don Brown’s, Detained, questions his readers to ask themselves what would you do to see justice served? Detained is a high adrenaline chase thriller, pulling the readers through a series of emotions while keeping their focus riveted on the page.

I received a complimentary copy of Detained from Zondervan and the opinions stated are all my own.

My Rating: 4 out of 5 stars

“Kill” Your Middle

By Kelly Bridgewater

Last week, I discussed opening lines and how to grab your reader’s attention. Today, I want to give four suggestions on how to bring more tension to your middle. Don’t forget to return next week to uncover some suggestions on how to work on your endings.

Everyone knows that the middle part of a story can be the most horrible thing to write. You may come up with a great premise and start off with a bang. You have spent hours and pages writing and discovering what makes your characters kick. Maybe, if you write like me, you know how the story is going to end, but as you travel the story you get stuck on what happens in the middle.

I have four suggestions that I have used to bring more interesting elements to the middle of my story. Of course, there are tons of variations to how to do each one.

1.      Kill someone

I know this works well in a suspense or mystery book, but in a romance it might not work so well. As an avid mystery writer, I enjoy finding dead bodies, throwing conflict in the ways of my hero and heroine. Nothing is worse than working on a current dilemma and come across a dead body that may or may not have something to do with your current problem. Wrecks havoc everywhere.

2.      Isolate

This will work in all types of genre. Have the hero or the heroine run out into the countryside or travel down a dark alley (told you I like to write mysteries). This is a good time for the character to ponder what has been happening, feeling abandoned, or being chased and hide. It allows the reader a moment to breathe and catch up.

3.      Love interest

Nothing brings more conflict than bringing in another love interest. Either someone from the past or someone who can tell a secret about the hero or heroine. What I did in one of my stories was not have the hero mention to the heroine, not because he wanted to keep it a secret, the time was never correct to mention it, was bring in a current girlfriend. This threw the heroine in a fit where she confronted the hero, sparks flying. Great tension to liven up the story’s middle.

4.      Lie

Have a secret come to light. Nothing brings more tension than showcasing a secret that will wreck the character’s lives. It does not have to be a big lie, but something that will create conflict to your characters.

Of course, there are many more ways to bring conflict to sagging middle, but I enjoyed writing this. What do you do to bring conflict to your middle?

Dawn Crandall: A Captive Imposter

By Kelly Bridgewater

Back Cover Copy:

Sent away for protection, hotel heiress Estella Everstone finds herself living undercover as a lady’s companion named Elle Stoneburner at one of her father’s opulent hotels in the mountains of Maine—the one she'd always loved best and always hoped to own one day, Everston. The one thing she doesn't like about the situation is that her ex-fiancé is in the area and is set on marrying someone else. Reeling from her feelings of being unwanted and unworthy, Estella reluctantly forms a friendship with the gruff manager of Everston, Dexter Blakeley, who seems to have something against wealthy young socialites with too much money, although they are just the kind of people Everston caters to.

When Estella finds herself in need of help, Dexter comes to the rescue with an offer she can't refuse. She sees no other choice aside from going back home to her family and accepts the position as companion to his sister. Throughout her interactions with Dexter, she can't deny the pull that's evidenced between them every time he comes near. Estella realizes that while she's been hiding behind a false name and identity, she’s never been freer to be herself than when she's with Dexter Blakeley. But will he still love her when he finds out she's Estella Everstone? She's not entirely sure.

My Review:

The Captive Imposter is the third book in Dawn Crandall’s Everstone Chronicles. I have read and reviewed the first two books in the series: The Hesitant Heiress and The Bound Heart. Click on each individual book title to read my complete reviews on the specific books. I enjoy stories where characters have to struggle and work their way through dilemmas in order to end up together. A sort of redemptive quality to the hero and heroine.

Crandall does a good job at mirroring the love of God in the relationships of her characters. For instance, in the hero, Dexter Blakeley, Crandall created a loving, caring, protective, and trust-worthy man who does not flirt and give his heart away. Dexter takes the time to be careful at guarding Elle’s heart. On the other hand, Elle Stoneburner aka Estella Everstone, is a patient, meek woman who wants to be loved. Even through all the struggles Dexter and Elle face, Dexter and Elle love each other for who they really are. Just like God loves us for who we really are.

The setting of the story in 1891 Maine captured my interest. Crandall does a good job at describing the setting of the woods, mountains, spring, and the hotel to situate her readers in the story. I felt like I was roaming the woods with Elle or climbing on the cement wall around the spring.

The writing is fluid with a balance between the prose and dialogue. I believed I followed Elle through her story, learning and empathizing with her as she struggled with sharing her true identity to Dexter. The story is told in first person, so the readers experience the story from Elle’s perspective. The romantic tension was spot on. I truly felt Elle’s dilemma as she started to fall for Dexter and fought internally how to break her secret with him. Crandall is great at creating realistic characters who stay with you long after the story is done.

Fans of Julie Klassen and Jane Austen will love the story and the romance between Dexter and Elle. I recommend everyone read the first two books in the story since there are moments in the third book that allude to incidents in the previous stories.

A swoon-worthy romance from a hero and heroine that will tug at the reader's heart with a captivating setting to spark love and the keys to finding one's true identity.

I have received an ARC from Dawn Crandall for The Captive Imposter in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own. 

Dawn Crandall’s Author Bio:

A graduate of Taylor University with a degree in Christian Education, and a former bookseller at Barnes & Noble, Dawn Crandall didn't begin writing until her husband found out about her long-buried dream of writing a book. Without a doubt about someday becoming traditionally published, he encouraged her to quit her job in 2010 in order to focus on writing her debut novel, The Hesitant Heiress. It didn't take her long to realize that writing books was what she was made to do. Dawn is represented by Joyce Hart of Hartline Literary.

Apart from writing books, Dawn is also a first-time mom to a precious little boy (born March 2014) and also serves with her husband in a pre-marriage mentor program at their local church in Northeast Indiana.

Dawn is a member of Romance Writers of America, American Christian Fiction Writers, secretary for the Indiana ACFW Chapter (Hoosier Ink), and associate member of the Great Lakes ACFW Chapter.

The Everstone Chronicles is Dawn's first series with Whitaker House. All three books composing the series were semifinalists in ACFW's prestigious Genesis Writing Contest, the third book going on to become a finalist in 2013.

Where to connect with Dawn:

Personal Author Page

Blog

Facebook 

Goodreads

Where to buy her books:

Amazon

Barnes and Nobles

Kobo

What is your favorite thing about historical romance?

Colleen Coble: The Inn at Ocean's Edge

By Kelly Bridgewater

From Amazon

Back Cover Copy:

A vacation to Sunset Cove was her way of celebrating and thanking her parents. After all, Claire Dellamore's childhood was like a fairytale. But with the help of Luke Elwell, Claire discovers that fairytale was really an elaborate lie . . .

The minute she steps inside the grand Inn at Ocean's Edge, Claire Dellamare knows something terrible happened there. She feels it in her bones. Her ensuing panic attack causes a scene, upsetting her parents.

Claire attempts to quiet her nerves with a walk on the beach, to no avail. She's at too great a distance to make out details, but she believes she witnesses a murder on a nearby cliff. When local police find no evidence of foul play, they quickly write off the "nervous" woman's testimony as less than credible.

But Luke Elwell, home on leave from the Coast Guard, has reason to believe Claire. Years ago when his mother went missing, Luke's father suspected she'd been murdered. He died never having convinced the police to investigate. So when an employee of the grand hotel doesn't show up for work, Luke steps in to help Claire track down the missing woman.

As Claire and Luke put together the pieces of a decades-old mystery, they discover that some family secrets refuse to stay buried. And some passions are worth killing for.

My Thoughts:

Romantic suspense is my genre of choice. I prefer to read it along with mysteries, suspense, and thrillers. I have read a number of Colleen Coble’s contemporary and historical romantic suspense and have loved them all. Like a romantic suspense, Coble’s books are mysterious, filled with great characters, and unique settings. I really could not wait to dive into Colleen Coble’s latest The Inn at Ocean’s Edge.

The first thing to grab my attention is the opening scene where Claire Dellamare, the heroine, follows her father to Hotel Tourmaline in Maine to settle a merger between two aviation companies. Once inside the hotel lobby, Claire’s eyes travels to the nearby forest, inciting a panic attack. As a reader, I wondered why the woods would have such a firm impact on Claire. From that moment on, the mystery takes the reader away and is filled with many twists and turns. Coble does a good job at delivering exactly what suspense and mystery readers loves, bringing them back to the familiar genre over and over. Just when I think I have the mystery figured out, Coble threw me for another loop, which threw my suspicions out of the water.

Coble’s writing enhances the story. As a fan of Coble’s author’s page on Facebook, I have seen her take a number of trips to the Maine coastline, which is evident in how she describes the setting in the story. The waves crashing into the rocks and sand made me feel like I was there. The shingle and clapboard cottages mingled with the aroma of fudge and candles sparked me to inhale deeply, even though there was no fudge nearby. Like a good mystery, Coble weaves in a good amount of prose with the dialogue to understand how the characters feel.

As for the characters, I really did not feel any connection to Claire Dellamare and Luke Bocco. For Claire, she seemed to be the typical damsel-in-distress. She was weak, always fainting, and had money. Even though she did want to know why she was afraid of the forest and wanted to know the truth about the year she was missing, Claire depended on Luke to do all the work for her. On the other hand, Luke was not a hero that I could have rooted for. He gave up his dream to be a part of the Coast Guard, so he could take care of his stroke-ridden father and their cranberry fields. Luke is a hero in Claire’s eyes because they have the same interest in the ocean and he rescues her a lot, but I felt they really had no connection or depth to their budding relationship. To redeem herself from these superficial characters, Coble throws a twist in by adding a third point of view character. Kate Mason. Now she was my favorite. Kate was determined, smart, and resourceful. She wanted an answer to a question that has been bothering her for the past seventeen years, and Kate did everything in her power to find the answer.

True to the romantic suspense genre, there are two types of tension in the story. Coble uses the external conflicts to drive the story along. The mystery is good and kept me on my toes, wanting to know what happened to Claire in the year she went missing and how Kate and Luke’s mother fit into the puzzle. As for the spiritual tension, none of the characters really changed and grew personally or spiritually. God was mentioned a couple of times in pieces, but it is not important or detracts from the dilemmas. But on the other hand, the romantic tension between Claire and Luke is incredibly cheesy. There was no conflict to keep them apart, bringing no depth to the plot. I think the story would have been just better as a cozy mystery. The romance was practically non-existent.

The Inn at Ocean’s Edge is an original idea and an unpredictable mystery, which will appeal to readers of all ages. Conservative parents should be prepared to talk about a near assault in the book, but it didn’t happen, and I think Coble wrote the assault for the merger aspect to move to the wayside. If you’re a fan of Coble’s romantic suspense, I believe you’ll still like the mystery part, but the romance made me cringe.

Overall, Colleen Coble’s latest book, The Inn at Ocean’s Edge, takes place in a scenic coastal town in Maine while the page-turning mystery filled with twists and turns begs to keep the reader up at night while the romance detracts from the story, not enhances it.

I received a complimentary copy of The Inn at Ocean's Edge and the opinions stated are all my own. 

My Rating: 3.5 out of 5 stars

Why Opening Lines?

By Kelly Bridgewater

I’m going to list five opening lines. See if you can identify what books they come from.

1.)    “The sad, ripe odor of death seeped from the entrance to the abandoned mine.”

2.)    “Mr. and Mrs. Dursley, of number four, Privet Drive, were proud to say that they were perfectly normal, thank you very much.”

3.)    “In the hole in the ground there lived a hobbit.”

4.)    “I hope you’re hungry, Mr. Caldwell, because I’m serving up crow.”

5.)    “Another night of death and defeat.”

What can you tell by reading these five opening lines, even if you guessed what books two of them came from? I made two of them pretty recognizable.

The first one grips the reader’s attention by asking what is dead in the abandoned mine? It had to be recently because the smell is still ripe. But the adjective “sad” evoke an emotional response. As a reader, you are preparing yourself for something that might tug at your heartstrings when the point of view character enters this mine. Automatically, your mind pictures a mine with the wooden beams. Probably damp smelling mixed in with the dead smell. Dark. Cold. So much has been evoked into the reader by the one sentence.

The second one tells you the name of a couple and where they live. But the reader notices that the couple is stuck-up and stuffy because they think they are “perfectly normal.” Who is normal? Who defines normal? Only the ones who think nothing is wrong with them. As a reader, we are prepared not to take these people seriously. Maybe even not like them from the first sentence.

The third quote does not really tell us much. It tells the reader there lived a hobbit, whatever that is, in a hole in the ground. Not much to go on. But the next sentence drags the reader into the comfortable setting of the hobbit.

The fourth quote shows a character who apparently does not like Mr. Caldwell. She is serving him crow, either literally or figuratively. We do not know. We have to keep reading to find out. Why does the point of view character not like Mr. Caldwell. It sounds like a sentence from a determined person who knows what they want out of life. A proud, knowledgeable person who thrives.

Opening lines set the tone for the book you plan to write or read. The reader can be invested in your story and have preconceived notions about the characters, setting, or plot, before you, as the writer, have even written the first paragraph.

So be careful when you write opening sentences. They need to explain something about the character, setting, or plot and entice the reader to keep moving forward. Nothing is worse than having the reader close your book and move on.

Answers:

1.)    The Knight by Steven James

2.)    Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone by J. K. Rowling

3.)    The Hobbit by J. R. R. Tolkien

4.)    Surprised by Love by Julie Lessman

Did you get them correct?

Oh, you thought I forgot, didn’t you? Where did the quote from number five come from?

Well, actually it came from MY first book, Face of Admiration, in my three book series titled Lockwood Mills Files.

What do you think of my opening line? Would you keep reading the book? It is a suspense book with a hint of romance.    

Leave the opening to your work in progress, so we can have a discussion with your opening line.