Lynette Eason: Moving Target

By Kelly Bridgewater

When Maddy McKay and Quinn Holcombe don't show up for Quinn's surprise birthday party, his friends know that something is very wrong. Their search turns up little beyond evidence that Quinn and Maddy just decided to take off for a long overdue vacation. But it soon becomes apparent that they did not leave of their own accord.

Maddy awakens in a cement room with no idea where she is. But it's not long before she realizes she's in the clutches of a madman exacting revenge by hunting. His prey of choice? Humans. Now Maddy and Quinn must run for their lives, hoping to find their killer before the next game begins. Because if they don't win this game, they die.

From Amazon

My Review:

Lynette Eason is one of my favorite romantic suspense authors. She knows what the readers want and she doesn't let me down. I have read everything that Eason has printed, and I don't regret my discussion. She always gets me with her suspense and a hint of romanc, but has me begging for more.

Eason is at the top of her game in her writing. She creates realistic settings and allows it to explode in my mind. I have no problem anchoring myself in the setting. In Moving Target, she places me on an island for a while, and I can feel the ocean breeze and hear the rustle of the wind through the leaves. Speaking of writing, Eason does a great job at using concise writing where she invites me into the character's point of view and completely understand their hurts and pains.

One of my favorite elements of Moving Target is the plot. With a little mixture of Hunger Games, Eason created an unique suspense story that kept me on my toes the whole time. I didn't want to put the story down. Every time I believed I had a break in the story, Eason upped the anty and made me want to turn the page to the next chapter. She really knows how to create a non-stop action story that I had a hard time putting down.

One of my favorite thing about Eason's romantic suspense is that she downplays the romance. Don't get me wrong. It is there but subtle, which I really enjoy when I spend time in a romantic suspense novel. I want more of the suspense than the romance. In Moving Target, the romance between Maddy and Quinn has been forthcoming, and it was nice to see it come to fortuation. Even though the ending to their romance was completely cliché.

Maddy and Quinn both have issues with their families, and this plot helped both of them solve those underlying family issues. Maddy and Quinn are both threaten a number of times, but they are both brave characters who don't let the villains get the best of them. I adore them for that.

Moving Target is a unique and totally unpredictable novel that I enjoyed spending time with. The research into the crime scene investigators and other police task force run seamless and felt completely real. The spiritual element is there, but it's part of what makes Maddy who she is. She doesn't force it on anyone. Moving Target is a great novel for fans of suspense like Irene Hannon, Brandilyn Collins, Kathy Herman, or Christy Barritt. I highly recommend Moving Target.

In conclusion, Lynette Eason's third installment in her Elite Guardian's series, Moving Target, is an unique, fast moving story with light romance and characters who beg to finally tell their story. I really can't wait to read the final installment, Chasing Secrets.

I received a complimentary copy of Lynette Eason's Moving Target from Revell Publishing and the opinions stated are all my own.

My Rating: 5 out of 5 stars

I LOVE everything Lynette Eason writes!! How about you? How many of her books have you read? Is there a go-to author for you? If so, who? Why?

Candace Calvert: Maybe It's You

By Kelly Bridgewater

ER nurse Sloane Ferrell escaped her risky past—new name, zip code, job, and a fresh start. She’s finally safe, if she avoids a paper trail and doesn’t let people get too close. Like the hospital’s too-smooth marketing man with his relentless campaign to plaster one “lucky” employee’s face on freeway billboards.

Micah Prescott’s goal is to improve the Hope hospital image, but his role as a volunteer crisis responder is closer to his heart. The selfless work helps fill a void in his life left by family tragedy. So does a tentative new relationship with the compassionate, beautiful, and elusive Sloane Ferrell.

Then a string of brutal crimes makes headlines, summons responders . . . and exposes disturbing details of Sloane’s past.

Can hope spring from crisis?

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My Review:

Having read the first two books in Candace Calvert's first two books in the Crisis Team series, I really enjoyed them. Her stories always have characters that dig at my heart and make me want to keep turning the page. With her final book in the Crisis Team series, Maybe It's You, I felt the same way. I enjoyed the strong, yet flawed characters with a plot that kept me focused on the story.

Like the previous novels, Calvert uses her knowledge of the medical field to make her story shine. The inner workings of the medical hospital is proven with Calvert's incorporation into the story.  While the medical research is important, Calvert also understands how to create an interesting, yet concise story where characters stay in their point of view and have me empathize with them.

Sloane Ferrell is a strong heroine who is an ER nurse. I enjoy stories where the past comes back to haunt the individual characters. It makes the story better. With Sloane, it is no exception. Sloane is a caring and loving nurse who tries to escape her past, but it catches up and interferes with her current movements. I really enjoyed spending time with her. I loved seeing her flawed and trying to put her life back together. As for Micah, he is a PR person who works with the crisis team on the side, so he wants to help others out in his spare time too, which makes him perfect for Sloane.

While the individual characters are well-written, the romance wasn't too cheesy or over the top. I really enjoyed watching the love story of Sloane and Micah slowly unfold. Their romance takes time to develop and moves at a nice pace. But one thing about their romance bothered me . . . It was the proposal at the end of the story. I understand completely that it is formulaic to throw the type of endings in a romance, but I really, really don't like those type of endings.

The plot centers around Sloane's past and a young women named Zoey who is wrapped up in human trafficking. The story gripped me pretty early on and kept my attention glued to the page. I liked being lost in a world where the innocent is downtrodden, but then strike to victory in the end. I loved when justice is served. Maybe It's You does exactly that.

Maybe It's You is a predictable and unoriginal novel. The story idea has been done a number of times, but I really enjoyed it. While the story keeps me glued to the page, Calvert gently reminds me that God loves you no matter what you have done in your past. Something all of us need to remember. Fans of Calvert's other stories and Beth K. Vogt's novels should pick this novel up. I highly recommend it.

In conclusion, Candace Calvert's Maybe It's You, is a gripping story with flawed, yet realistic characters and non-stop moving plot with a predictable element that kept me glued to the pages.

I received a complimentary copy of Maybe It's You from Tyndale Publishing and the opinions stated are all my own. 

My Ratings: 4.5 out of 5 stars

I really enjoy stories where Justice is served, especially to the innocent. What about you? What draws us to the this genre?

Welcome to 2017 (Part III)

By Kelly Bridgewater

If you have been following my blog for the past two weeks, I started the New Year with setting my year off right with focusing on God. Then I followed up with my writing goals for the new year. Now today, I will be showing how I set up by reading goals for the New Year. I try to read 200 books during a year. For me, it doesn’t seem like a lot, but as an avid reader who can complete a 400 page book in a twenty-four hour period while watching my boys and getting dinner on the table, I think my list should be longer.

Maybe this year.

Let’s me share my secret. First, I read all the time. My Kindle is in my purse. I find an extra fifteen minutes waiting to pick up the boys from school. Sitting in the doctor’s office waiting to go back and then watching the clock tick by in the examination room. I pull out my Kindle while standing in the line at the grocery store. I read while my husband is driving down the road to the store.  My nose is always in a book. My favorite moments are when my youngest, Obadiah, hands me a book, and he cuddles in my lap while we devour the book together. He is really into Franklin and Lego Batman right now, so we read a lot of those.

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Last year at the Indiana ACFW meeting in December, our speaker, Bob Hosteller, challenged us to be intentional with our reading. He suggested know ahead of time of at least fifty books you want to read in the New Year, and then read accordingly.

In the past, I have been purely a reader who read a book because of I’m a devoted fan of an author who I buy everything of, or I read the synopsis on the back of the book, and I’m interested.  I have a lot of books around my house that need to be read, so I plan to be intentional with the books I NEED to finish by the end of 2017. Not that there won’t be more added as new books come out. There are a lot of books coming out in 2017 that I want to devour. I have been reading every suspense and romantic suspense, so I can study and improve my writing, so now I can venture out of my genre. Lately, I have been obsessed with World War II fiction.

We all know I will be reading the Bible every day, so that won’t be listed.

Let’s begin:

2 authors:

·       Alexandre Dumas’ The Three Musketeers (all four of the books in the series)

·       C.S. Lewis who I have an entire bookshelf devoted to his writings and writings about him, but I haven’t gotten around to reading all of them.

6 contemporary romantic suspense books (Including Love Inspired Suspense) Let’s be honest, I’ll probably be reading a lot more of these:

·       Justice Delayed by Patricia Bradley

·       Moving Target by Lynette Eason

·       Still Life by Dani Pettrey

·       Maybe It's You by Candace Calvert

·       If I'm Found by Terri Blackstock

·       Beyond Justice by Cara Putnam

From Amazon

4 World War II or historical fiction books (absolute minimum):

·       The Stranger at Fellsowrth by Sarah E. Ladd

·       When Tides Turn by Sarah Sundin

·       High As Heavens by Kate Breslin

·       The Illusionist's Apprentice by Kristy Cambron

·       With Love, Wherever You Are by

3 suspense/ thriller books:

·       Murder on the Moor by Julianne Deering

·       Purgatory Road by Samuel Parker

·       Pursued by Lisa Harris

4 favorite fiction authors:

·       Susan May Warren

·       Steven James

·       Kathy Herman

·       Julie Lessman

2 new fiction authors:

·       Harlan Coben

·       James Rollins

Young adult books:

·       The Noble Servant by Melanie Dickerson

·        

4 writing craft books:

·       Troubleshooting Your Novel by Steven James

·       Stein on Writing by Sol Stein

·       The Fire in Fiction  and Writing the Breakout Novel  by Donald Maass

2-3 Christmas books:

·       Where Treetops Glisten by Tricia Goyer, Cara Putnam, and Sarah Sundin ( I read this book this past Christmas, and it became a classic that I will want to read every Christmas)

·       The Christmas Candle by Max Lucado

·       The Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens (Never read the actual book! Shame, I know)

Non-fiction books:

I have a couple on my bookshelf from C.S. Lewis and J.R.R. Tolkien I need to read.

1 daily devotional:

·       A Year with C. S. Lewis: Daily Readings from His Classic Works

This is just a summary of the type of books I plan to read this year. Plus, if anything new comes up, then this list has the right to change by adding or deleting a certain book. Some of these books aren’t even going to come out until the end of the summer, so I probably will have included some new books by then.

How do you decide what books to read for the New Year? Share. I have a journal next to my favorite chair where I list every book that I read during the month and under the heading of what I have actually read during the year. It helps me keep track of what I already have read. Plus, it is cool when someone asks what type of books I read. Like they couldn’t tell by looking at my overflowing bookshelves.

Let’s meet back here for a recap in December and talk about our books that we read during 2017.