Books for Christian Girls: "Collateral Damage" by Lynette Eason

About this book:

  “Honorably discharged from the Army after an explosion nearly killed her, former military psychiatrist Brooke Adams has set up shop to help others—but her days of helping military personnel are over. She's got her own battles to fight from her time overseas, and she's not equipped to take on more. Former Army Special Ops Sergeant First Class Asher James could handle anything that war sent his way—terrorists, bombs, bullets. The only thing that scares him now is sleep. As the shadows close in, the nightmares begin.
    Finally convinced that he needs help, Asher makes an appointment with a counselor, and Brooke is pressed by her boss to take him on. When he arrives at her office she isn't there—but a dead body is. Brooke is devastated when she walks in, and Asher is a conveniently strong shoulder to cry on. But she can't take him on as a client after sharing such an intimate and unprofessional moment, can she? And he's not sure he can handle sharing his deepest fears with such a beautiful woman.
    When it becomes clear that Brooke was the real target of the attack—and that her secrets go even deeper than his own—Asher vows to protect her no matter what.”

Series: Book #1 in the “Danger Never Sleeps” series.

Spiritual Content- Isiah 40:30-31 at the beginning; Prayers & Thanking God and Jesus; Talks about God, sin corrupting the world, & a conversation about God not being out to punish us when something bad is happening; 'H's are not capital when referring to God; Brooke talks about PTSD, coping strategies, faith, and God with her clients (saying that “I don’t know if you even believe in God at this point, but if you do…” and later when someone asks her to keep God out of it, Brooke says they can try, but knows the conversation will circle back to God); Brooke thinks about that while God may not have blessed with her a family she always wanted growing up, God’s “made up for that” in the friends He’s placed in her life; Mentions of God; Mentions of prayers & praying; Mentions of churches, church going, & a pastor; A few mentions of miracles; A few mentions of blessings & being Blessed; A couple mentions of those & events in the Bible; A mention of a possible missionary; A mention of a coping technique about feeling like God is on someone’s side;
             *Note: Kristin is a Christian American women and has taught a young girl about the one true God but they have to be careful not be caught (they refer to praying with the prayer mats that the Muslims there use & Kristin is told to just convert to the Muslim faith to be able to adopt the child, but she won’t do that; A woman tells Kristin that maybe her God will help her, but Kristin doesn’t say anything about her God because she isn’t sure what the woman is after); A woman calls Afghanistan a “godforsaken country”; Mentions of Muslims, couples who are not Muslim not being allowed to adopt from Afghanistan, prayer mats, & mosques.

Negative Content- Minor cussing including: a ‘dang’, a ‘heck’, a ‘suck it up’, two ‘dumb’, two unfinished ‘for the love of…’s, six ‘shut up’s, and eight ‘stupid’s; Eye rolling & some sarcasm; Mentions of curses (said, not written); The first couple chapters are set in Afghanistan and we see our main characters go through bombings, explosions, attacks, seeing others die, injuries, pain, blood/bleeding, & passing out (up to semi-detailed); Seeing people shot & killed (up to semi-detailed); Being attacked, fighting, knocking someone out, being hit, seeing stars, being chased/followed, car crashes/being ran off the road, bombs/explosions, being held at gun-point, being shot, being shot at, shooting, injuries, pain, blood/bleeding, passing out, & throwing up (up to semi-detailed to detailed); Finding murdered bodies & Seeing bodies that are seriously harmed (both dead and alive, border-line barely-above-not-detailed // semi-detailed); Recalling all of the events prior listed (with PTSD symptoms and nightmares of it as well and worse, up to semi-detailed); A break-in & threatening a mother with her child being held at gun-point (we see this in a villain’s POV and our main characters trying to help, semi-detailed); Seeing reconstructed skulls after an autopsy (barely-above-not-detailed); Grief (of co-workers and friends, up to semi-detailed); *Major Spoilers but Important Content Note about organ trafficking content* A military man is involved in trafficking orphaned Afghanistan children to the USA for their organs (all of the main characters are horrified by the thought of organ trafficking especially with children involved) and believes that the children are nothing and their organs let other kids (kids who are “deserving who’ll grow up to be something other than a terrorist”) live instead; A man planned for his wife to be murdered during a home invasion so he could come back to the states quickly and says that it was for the good of many; A doctor involve calls the orphans worthless and implies that those kids shouldn’t matter to anyone; Brooke sees the children being drugged and one wheeled into a surgery room, but those children are saved *End of Major Spoilers*; Brooke talks with a teen who doesn’t understand why she’s alive (suicidal thoughts and feels to blame for her parents fighting); Brooke and Asher talk about not drinking alcohol (despite both of them being tempted some days, Brooke won’t because of her father; Asher comments on needing his wits about him if he was going to survive overseas and that “alcohol would lessen [his] chances of coming home” so he hasn’t touched a drop since he joined the military); Asher has a neck tattoo; Many mentions of wars, deaths (including a man and a child being killed by a sniper), fighting, military presence overseas, bombs/explosions, & injuries (up to semi-detailed); Many mentions of a mass grave site, the bodies of infants, children and adults being found there, smuggling them into a country illegally, potential causes of deaths, autopsies, drugging children, & organ trafficking (up to semi-detailed); Mentions of a possible serial killer & some criminals drawing the line at killing or killing children; Mentions of suicidal thoughts, thinking that someone may commit suicide, & a teen wondering why she’s even alive; Mentions of deaths, murders, & grief (for military co-workers and friends, a man and his teens for their wife/mother, & a wife for her military husband); Mentions of terrorists (including jihadists and the Taliban) & bombers blowing themselves up; Mentions of a car crash & being ran off the road (up to semi-detailed); Mentions of guns/weapons, gunfire, shooting, shooting at others in self-defense, other being shot (fatally and grazes), & a child being held at gun-point (up to semi-detailed); Mentions of fires, smoke, & injuries/burns (up to semi-detailed); Mentions of fights/fighting, injuries, pain, blood/bleeding, & throwing up (barely-above-not-detailed); Mentions of human trafficking (including slavery); Mentions of black market adoptions; Mentions of nightmares of terrible events (including seeing deaths and imagining losing limbs in a fire) & guilt from not saving someone (Brooke); Mentions of treason, people being accused of treason, & the benefits of a widow being cut off because of suspected treason; Mentions of criminals, crime scenes, prisons, arrests, & a manhunt; Mentions of break-ins, burglaries, stealing, stolen items, fencing items, & a murder during a home invasion (barely-above-not-detailed); Mentions of alcohol, drinking, bars, & alcoholics; Mentions of a fourteen-year-old trying her friend’s father’s alcohol (only one glass and didn’t like it, but feels guilt); Mentions of parents & married couples arguing; Mentions of gossip & rumors; A few mentions of potential cults; A few mentions of lies, lying, & liars; A few mentions of drugs & junkies; A couple mentions of serial killers; A couple mentions of violence; A couple mentions of teens possibly being runaways or kidnapped; A couple mentions of a man being in a medically induced coma; A couple mentions of a mother dropping her child off at an orphanage and visiting him every so often, but it breaks the child’s heart when she leaves him again; A couple mentions of gambling; A couple mentions of tattoos; A mention of the death of a daughter in a bombing; A mention of a suicide; A mention of a teen threatening to runaway from home; A mention of jealousy;
             *Note: Both Asher & Brooke have PTSD from their time in Afghanistan & we see it on-page (typically with flashbacks and nightmares, semi-detailed); Brooke is a military psychiatrist that helps people with the mental brokenness they face (at one point, she says that she’s empty after giving everything to her clients and that there was nothing left for her to give; Brooke also feels like a fraud because she helps others but can’t deal with her “own issues”); Brooke’s father is hard on her & they do not have a good relationship because of it; Brooke’s mother left when she was a teenager & hasn’t talked to her since (Brooke thinks that she didn’t want to be a brother or that maybe she didn’t know how, but Brooke has learned to let go of her and hopes she’s happy); Asher feels like the black sheep of his family & has a rough relationship with his older brother (who calls him an embarrassment to the family, makes jabs about his career choice, & calls him a ‘freak’; Asher wonders if his brother is actually a sociopath; It’s later said that his brother finds his self-worth in tearing others down); *Spoiler* Towards the end, Asher comments on sometimes wondering what his worth is and what he’s here (on earth) for, but Brooke encourages him *End of Spoiler*; Some comments from others about “mere orphans” and treating them as less than human (*Major Spoilers* the villain who is organizing orphaned Afghanistan children to be flow to the USA for organ trafficking says that the kids’ organs let other kids (kids who are “deserving who’ll grow up to be something other than a terrorist”) live instead and calls the orphans burdens and brats who had no meaning to their lives until he made it so; The doctor involves calls the children worthless and implies that no one should care about them; Brooke and Asher both strongly disagree and say so *End of Major Spoilers*); Mentions of car brands; Mentions of brand names & items (Keurig, AirPods, iPads, FaceTime, Tums, & Coke); A few mentions of fictional character (Paul Bunyan & MacGyver); A few mentions of a woman who is on her third marriage; A couple mentions of a young woman trying to “find” herself; A couple mentions of restaurants (KFC & McDonald’s); A mention of a movie (One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest); A mention of Uber; A mention of slasher movies.

Sexual Content- A nose kiss, a forehead kiss, a cheek kiss, a not-detailed kiss, two barely-above-not-detailed kisses, and a border-line semi-detailed // detailed kiss; Remembering kisses (barely-above-not-detailed); Touches, Embraces, Hand holding, Warmth, Nearness, & Smelling (up to semi-detailed); A couple Blushes; Noticing (including one instance of noticing his muscles, barely-above-not-detailed); Asher misspeaks and it could be taken inappropriate (but Brooke knows he wouldn’t suggest such a thing; About getting a hotel room or two for the night, no sexual intentions); Asher’s brother makes a jab about finding Asher and Brooke alone in the middle of the night (didn’t and doesn’t happen, he was just being a jerk to Asher); Asher wishes to see Brooke every morning, wake up next to her, and do life with her; A few mentions of kisses & kissing; A couple mentions of Brooke’s father telling her that sometimes men strayed but “most came home to the wife” and she shouldn’t be bothered by that; A couple mentions of a dating multiple women; A couple mentions of jealousy; A mention of children not being sent out as sex slaves; A mention of a married man not having another woman; A mention of a man not cheating on his wife; A mention of a man looking up and down Brooke’s body in a way that makes her uncomfortable; A mention of a creepy man making a teenaged girl uncomfortable; A mention of flirting; Love, falling in love, & the emotions;
             *Note: While in Afghanistan, Brooke and other American women there have to wear a hijab, always have a male escort when they leave the base, & can never be alone with a man in a room; A mention of Asher dating someone who found his “issues” (PTSD) to be “off-putting”.

-Brooke Adams, age 36
-Asher James
                                P.O.V. switches between them, Caden, Kristin & two other people
                                                        320 pages

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Early High School Teens-

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My personal Rating-

{Trigger Warning for children being harmed and killed (off-page, many mentions of it), organ trafficking, & corrupt military men}

Man, this was intense—and yet also had one of my new favorite suspense couples.

I really liked the two of them together, they fit and understood each other so easily it was like they clicked together—at least for me it was, Brooke probably wouldn’t admit to that at first. But regardless, I really liked them together and their easy banter that felt well into the plot and the pacing (it wasn’t poorly timed or too much). They are probably now one of my favorite couples in a suspense book.

We see the point of view of about six people with two different plots that eventually connect, but I did struggle at times keeping with all the names and who they were (especially because there was a Heather and a Hesther! That should be illegal in the writing world, just saying) so I used the search feature in my ebook often. I think I’ll be bingeing this series because it looks like the books are very connected—more so than the average series with different main characters. (I can already tell that the second book will probably put me through the ringer, haha. 😅)

This book deals with some heavy, heavy topics that definitely can be hard or triggering for some readers. For the 9-19 range I review for here on BFCG, I would hesitate to even mention to an older teen that wasn’t incredibly interested in law enforcement or the military. I decided to pick this book up on Memorial Day week as a reminder of what a serious cost our freedom is, so I was mentally prepared for hard topics, but it was obviously still difficult to read about children being killed. It makes me want to fight and see justice prevail—the latter I always expect to happen in a Christian Fiction suspense book where terrible things are happening but some books don’t do it well enough for me. Thankfully, this book did and made it better in my eyes for it. Definitely not a book for everyone, however.

See y’all on Friday with a new review!