Books for Christian Girls: "Called to Protect" by Lynette Eason

About this book:

“For the past year, Chloe St. John has been working as a K-9 cop with her German shepherd partner, Hank. After being dumped by her fiancé for another woman, Chloe has decided that Hank is just about the only male she likes. She's over the whole romance thing and focuses her attention on doing her job. Because a serious case of human trafficking with connections to her missing cousin just landed in her lap.
When US Marshall Blake MacCallum's daughter goes missing, he's ordered to kill the judge he's protecting and tell no one about his daughter's disappearance or she will die. Blake races against the clock to rescue his daughter while Chloe and Hank are asked to be a part of the task force assembled to bring down the traffickers. Chloe finds herself attracted to the silent, suffering man, but thanks to her previous bad judgment, she wonders if she can trust him. And can Blake trust himself around this firecracker of a woman?”

Series: Book #2 in the “Blue Justice” series. Review of the first book, Here!

Spiritual Content- A few Scriptures are remembered & said; Prayers & Thanking God; ‘H’s are not capitalized when referring to God; Rachel wonders if God hates her & why He would allow this; Brady (in the preview of the next book in the series) doesn’t come across as super happy with God; Mentions of prayers & praying; A mention of the mission field; A mention of a church camp; A mention of sainthood;

*Note: Mentions of evil.

Negative Content- Minor cussing including: a ‘screw up’, five ‘dumb’s, seven ‘idiot’s, eight forms of ‘shut up’s, and thirty-five ‘stupid’s; Mentions of curses (said, not written); Sarcasm & eye rolling; Pain, being kidnapped, being chased, being locked up in cages, & being sprayed with chloroform (three times, semi-detailed); Finding dead/murdered bodies & how it happened (up to semi-detailed); Car accidents, pulling weapons, being shot at, nearly being shot, seeing others shot, blood/bleeding, & gunshots (semi-detailed); Shooting criminals & seeing deaths (up to semi-detailed); Seeing someone fall off a roof & die (semi-detailed); Seeing abuse & girls hit/beaten (up to semi-detailed); K-9 officers take down criminals & cause them pain (up to semi-detailed); Bombs/explosions & fires (semi-detailed); Many, many mentions of kidnappings, being held hostage, being locked up, & threats of killing; Many mentions of threats; Mentions of suicides & another saying she would have committed suicide; Mentions of killing/murders, finding dead bodies, & how they happened (up to semi-detailed); Mentions of abuse, abusers, injuries, & pain (up to semi-detailed); Mentions of beatings, being hit/pushed, & being murdered; Mentions of car accidents, injuries, & deaths (up to semi-detailed); Mentions of guns, bullets, & aiming the guns towards others; Mentions of bombs & explosives (barely-above-not-detailed); Mentions of mafias, criminals, crimes, rap sheets, arrests, jail/prison, & the death penalty; Mentions of hitmen; Mentions of someone nearly drowning; Mentions of fathers beating their kids (including Blake’s father); Mentions of drugs & drugging others; Mentions of alcohol, drinking, drunks, bars, & injuries through a bar fight; Mentions of cigarettes & smoking; Mentions of throwing up; Mentions of lies, lying, & liars; Mentions of hatred; Mentions of a divorce & intense custody battle; A few mentions of attempted murders; A few mentions of hints of self-harm; A few mentions of domestic abuse & a husband beating his wife; A couple mentions of a mother drowning herself and her children on purpose (barely-above-not-detailed); A couple mentions of a mugging; A couple mentions of gossip; A mention of a girl’s parents who were killed on the mission field;

*Note: Mentions of car brands; A couple mentions of social media.

Sexual Content- a hand/fingers kiss, a forehead kiss (by a creep), a head kiss, three barely-above-not-detailed kisses, and a semi-detailed kiss; Touches, Embraces, & Hand holding (barely-above-not-detailed); Blushes; Noticing & Smelling (barely-above-not-detailed); Rachel was born out of wedlock; Prologue is in Penny’s point of view right before and after she is kidnapped for human trafficking; A trafficker touches Rachel under her shirt & kisses her forehead; All about many, many, many mentions of human/sex trafficking rings, finding the girls, them being auctioned off, & the untouched ones who get sold for more money (we do see a trafficker’s POV and hear comments); Mentions of a mom prostituting herself & then later selling her daughter (which is why the daughter later committed suicide); Mentions of boyfriends, girlfriends, dating, exes, & cheating; A few mentions of a birth father telling the mother to have an abortion; A few mentions of kissing & kisses; A few mentions of blushes; A few mentions of crushes; A couple mentions of the girls not being raped by the traffickers; A couple mentions of a man checking Penny out; A couple mentions of websites of human traffickers; A couple mentions of finding a boyfriend kissing another girl; A couple mentions of flirting; Love, falling in love, & the emotions;

*Note: A few mentions of revealing clothes & bathing suits; A mention of dressing the victims in lingerie.

-Chloe St. John

-Blake MacCallum
P.O.V. switches between them, Rachel, a man involved in the trafficking (x3), Derek (x1), Carson (x1), & Penny (in the Prologue)
320 pages

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Pre Teens-

New Teens-

Early High School Teens-

Older High School Teens-

My personal Rating-

{Not for young readers at all or those sensitive to human trafficking.}

Human trafficking is never easy to read about—and I’m of the opinion that we should never get used to hearing about it because it’s not right. It’s awful, horrendous evil that happens to too many people across the world.

Because of this major plot point, I was already a bit concerned reading this book after hearing about it in the first book. But, because I really do appreciate the fact that the author created a series about a family that truly loves each other and sees each other often, I decided to take a chance on this book. I will most likely end up finishing this series because of this reason.

All that said, I don’t think this was the author’s best. It was good, but I didn’t enjoy it as much as her past books (though, I will admit that could be completely because of the human trafficking) and I wasn’t really a big fan of Blake.

I do have my usual romantic suspense genre complaints of the random kisses in very un-romantic places (such as in the room connected to the room with two murdered bodies) and the typical suspense/mystery being wrapped up a little too quickly in the end.

There also were a couple parts that seemed obvious that I think a trained professional like Chloe would have picked up on. Whether I picked it up because I’ve taken classes in the criminal justice industry or it was a weaker plot point for the readers to guess what will happen next (and it’s most likely the second), it was disappointing that Chloe didn’t catch it. *Spoiler* Regarding the paintings with the numbers. It literally connects very easily in my mind of those paintings being sold and being paid for (therefore looking as a normal transaction in black and white), and then the girls being the “product” given. Makes me sick. *End of Spoiler*

One more thing to note is that the back-cover says that Chloe was dumped by her fiancé where as in the book (on page 28) it says they were dating and she thought they might be heading towards a lifetime commitment, but they were only dating.

Overall, this was not my favorite, but it does talk about an evil that is out there that people (who are old enough to be able to understand the horrors and not become scared or paranoid) need to be aware of for their own safety and for those around them.

See y’all on Friday with a new review!