About this book:
“Sarah Denning is a military journalist with the Army in the Middle East when her convoy is attacked and she's taken hostage. When former Army Ranger Gavin Black is asked by his old unit commander--Sarah's imposing father--to plan an extremely risky rescue, he reluctantly agrees and successfully executes it.
Back in the US, Sarah is livid when she's discharged on a false psychiatric evaluation and vows to return to the Army. Until she learns of her brother's suicide. Unable to believe her brother would do such a thing, she puts her plans on hold and enlists Gavin to help her discover the truth. What they uncover may be the biggest story of Sarah's career--if she can survive long enough to write it.”
Series: Book #2 in the “Danger Never Sleeps” series. Review of Book #1 Here!
Spiritual Content- Prayers & Thanking God; Sarah tells Gavin about the time her mother encouraged her to let God be her Father and her role model; *Spoiler* At the end, Sarah realizes the anger and rebellious attitude she’s had for a long time has cost her the peace that God had promised her *End of Spoiler*; *Spoiler* When a drug exiting her system, Sarah has suicidal thoughts and thinks that she doesn’t deserve God’s love *End of Spoiler*; Mentions of God; Mentions of praying & prayers; A few mentions of a cross tattoo of Gavin’s representing divine intervention; A couple mentions of being Blessed; A mention of seeing a loved one in Heaven (Sarah for her brother);
*Note: The phrase “Thank God” is said four times and are implied to be sincerely said by our main characters; A man calls Afghanistan a “godforsaken country”; A mention of playing devil’s advocate.
Negative Content- Minor cussing including: A ‘bull’, ‘heck’, a ‘stinking’, a ‘tick off’, a ‘what the heck’, a ‘dumb’, two ‘crummy’s, three ‘blasted’s, five ‘idiot’s, twelve forms of ‘shut up’ (need shut its), and eighteen forms of ‘stupid’; Mentions of curses (said, not written); Eye rolling & Sarcasm; A car crash/chase, a Fire/smoke, Being held at gunpoint (multiple times), Being shot at, Being drugged, Being kidnapped and tied-up (a couple times), Jumping out of a plane, Fighting, Shooting/killing others (self-defense), Gunfire, Injures, Pain, Blood/Bleeding, & Passing out (up to semi-detailed); Recalling & Nightmares (over the prior events listed, up to semi-detailed); Grief over the suicide of a loved one (Sarah for her brother, up to semi-detailed); Seeing others killed, nearly dead, shot, kidnapped, injured, & bleeding (and helping those bleeding out, up to semi-detailed); The first chapter starts with someone committing suicide by jumping off of a building (semi-detailed); Two scenes of suicidal thoughts include the person feeling as if they are a burden to their family members and the world would be better off without them (one on-page and one recalled about someone else); Gavin asks Sarah if she’s having suicidal thoughts and Sarah says she’s not, but can see “why people who struggle with PTSD can be pushed over the edge to spiral into that pit”; Sarah thinks about stealing an item (and plans to give it back) but feels guilt over it and does not; Sarah almost feels guilty about lying to someone, but realizes she wasn’t lying about her PTSD (she does feel guilty about taking an appointment away from someone else that could have needed it and confesses to the psychiatrist); *Major Spoilers but Important Content Note about Suicidal Thoughts* A company is making a drug to help those with suicidal thoughts and it works until the person is off of it and then they crash so hard that they are determined to kill themselves in whatever way possible to stop those thoughts; Veterans are the guinea pigs for the drug and many have died after their withdrawal symptoms; Sarah is given a dose against her will and when having a withdrawal, she has very negative thoughts (thinking about all the negative things that’s happened to her & that she doesn’t deserve God’s love and is worthless) and tries to run out in front of cars to end the thoughts *End of Spoilers*; In her opening chapter, Sarah is being held hostage in an Afghani prison with other women and girls; Sarah eavesdrops on a conversation; Gavin has tattoos (all of them have meanings); All about suicides, loved ones committing suicide, grief, suicide ideation, the causes, how the people did or attempted it (gunshot, jumping, hangings, overdoses, & self-harm like cutting and running through a glass door), veterans being diagnosed as a danger to themselves, self-harm, grief from family members, & many, many mentions of and discussions of it all throughout the book (semi-detailed); Many mentions of attacks, raids, kidnappings, being tied-up, hostage situations, deaths, being shot/being shot at, gunfire, injuries, pain, blood/bleeding, & passing out (up to semi-detailed); Mentions of drugs, deadly side effects, drug rings, drug addicts, someone being high, & addictions (barely-above-not-detailed); Mentions of the Taliban driving a van with explosives into an orphanage & many of the children being killed or seriously injured (mentions of the adults who were there living with the strong memories of it happening and guilt for surviving, border-line barely-above-not-detailed // semi-detailed on the injuries); Mentions of terrorists organizations & their violence and murdering others (up to semi-detailed); Mentions of a car crash & a death; Mentions of the possibility of being killed; Mentions of Sarah’s mother who died from stomach cancer and her pain (quickly and Sarah is very upset at her father for how things happened, up to semi-detailed); Mentions of kidnappings; Mentions of threats & being threatened; Mentions of prisons & arrests; Mentions of a patient at a hospital screaming, being afraid for her life, & being restrained and bleeding (barely-above-not-detailed); Mentions of a car crash/chase, gunfire, & being shot at; Mentions of a helicopter crash; Mentions of a school locking down because of a nearby killer on the loose; Mentions of crimes, crime scenes, & a crime-infested area; Mentions of burglaries, break-ins, & stealing; Mentions of a fire, smoke, & someone planning the fire; Mentions of a missing child (*Spoiler* which was a ploy for someone to kidnap Sarah *End of Spoiler*); Mentions of nightmares (including of killing someone, barely-above-not-detailed); Mentions of lies, lying, & liars; Mentions of hatred (including hating someone and hating yourself); Mentions of an alcoholic, the person’s addiction, getting sober, & a bar; Mentions of tattoos; A few mentions of an attempted murder with a parachute being sabotaged; A few mentions of a shootout where the shooter being killed, & two officers wounded; A few mentions of potential torture; A few mentions of comas; A few mentions of an ill mother having good and bad days; A few mentions of a deer being hit by a car; A couple mentions of an organ trafficking ring (Book #1); A couple mentions of an attack on a terrorist that killed the man’s family (including young children); A couple mentions of a body burned to a crisp (barely-above-not-detailed); A couple mentions of bombs/explosions; A couple mentions of a gas station tank exploding; A couple mentions of carjacking & vandalism; A couple mentions of someone stopping horrible memories with alcohol or some drug; A couple mentions of cigarettes & smoking; A mention of a possible attempted murder-suicide; A mention of a suicide bomber; A mention of a drone strike; A mention of someone becoming paraplegic after a car wreck; A mention of terminally ill veterans; A mention of stalking; A mention of a rumor; A mention of eavesdropping;
*Note: Sarah has PTSD and bad nightmares (some of her nightmares were interpreted by medical staff as her wanting to die, but she says she does not; She does not want to take medication because she doesn’t want to get addicted to it on top of everything else); Gavin doesn’t suffer from PTSD like many of the people he’s served with; Sarah has a very strained relationship with her father & this is a major part of the book (she feels guilt over finding satisfaction in riling him up and thinks that forgiveness for what he’s done isn’t an option for now, but doesn’t think she actually hates him; He disinherited her for going into the Army; Caden also tries to swallow his resentment towards their father; Sarah, Gavin, and Caden all try to talk to Lewis about his actions and that he is being a dictator towards his adult children; Lewis says he never wanted kids, but had Sarah and her brothers because their mother wanted kids (he adds that the kids eventually grew on him; Sarah recalls asking her father why they had them and he said “I agreed to shut your mom up. Kids were her idea. I just went along with it because I was tired of hearing her whine about it.”; Gavin believes that the General loves his kids, but Sarah disagrees; Sarah comments that if someone killed her, he would probably have some “weird relief”; *Spoilers* The General’s own father wasn’t a great man and he realizes that he’s turned into him; Sarah’s father says that he respects her and wants her safe, which we see actions of that towards the end of the book; Sarah’s mother grew up without a father in the picture and wanted Sarah to see that she could grow up with her own father and encouraged her to let God be her Father; Gavin asks Sarah if she’s ever tried to get past what her father’s done and she honestly responds that no, she’s been too busy being angry with him; Towards the end, she regrets how she’s acted towards him and wants to make it right; They apologize to the other at the end of the book *End of Spoilers*); Mentions of people (particularly veterans) being mentally ill (PTSD, panic attacks, anxiety, bipolar, hallucinations, & paranoia); Mentions of therapy; Mentions of brand names & items (Tylenol, M&Ms, iPad, & FaceTime); Mentions of car brands; A couple mentions of kissing someone’s rear end; A mention of someone having a seizer; A mention of Uber.
Sexual Content- Four forehead/head kisses, a not-detailed kiss, a barely-above-not-detailed kiss, a semi-detailed kiss, and a border-line semi-detailed // detailed kiss; Remembering a kiss (barely-above-not-detailed); Touches, Embraces, Nearness, & Warmth (up to semi-detailed); Noticing (including his muscles, up to semi-detailed); *Spoiler* Past the half-way point in the book, Sarah shares with Gavin that she wanted to hurt her father’s reputation, so in high school she slept around with anyone who would ask (She says she had a lot of nicknames, some that began with the letter S and that the least offensive one was “Sleep Around Sarah”; Sarah wonders if Gavin is repulsed by learning this about her, but he doesn’t think any less of her because she’s not that person anymore; Caden refers to it as her making a “lot of lousy choices that resulted in consequences she can’t shake to this day”) *End of Spoiler*; Mentions of thinking a student being “involved” with her professor & sexual harassment (*Spoiler but Important Content Note* It turns out that the professor is soliciting s*x for As and that a different girl complied, so the student put herself as bait and recorded their “…interaction” but he did not touch her; The professor is caught and facing changes of sexual harassment *End of Spoiler*); Mentions of kisses & kissing; Mentions of dates, dating, boyfriends, being dumped, & broken hearts; A handful of mentions of cruel men in Afghanistan selling women and them using the women as s*x slaves and punching bags (when Sarah is kidnapped, she’s aware this is a possibility of happening and/or being trafficked); A couple mentions of lewd looks and comments from men towards women (in Afghanistan); A mention of hitting on a girl; Some Love, falling in love, & the emotions;
*Note: Sarah believes that Gavin deserves better than her; Sarah wears a burqa while in Afghanistan; A couple women are told to remove their head coverings by their captors’ orders (one man says he will take a teen girl with him, but the girl says she would rather die); A mention of a man coming out of the bathroom in just a towel; A mention of a pair of boxers.
-Sarah Denning
-Gavin Black
P.O.V. switches between them, Caden, The General, & someone else in the first chapter
320 pages
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Pre Teens-
New Teens-
Early High School Teens-
Older High School Teens-
My personal Rating-
{ Trigger Warnings: suicides, suicide ideation, & grief over deaths of family members (all are both on-page and many mentions of them throughtout the book). }
I didn’t realize Sarah had two brothers, so I was in a false sense of security with thinking the brother that was mentioned on the back cover of this book was actually the brother we meet in the first book and would later see just fine in the fourth book. But no. It’s her younger brother discussed and it really hurt to read. Suicide is highly discussed in this book with the grief of siblings left behind. I cried. Let’s just leave it at that.
It was interesting dynamics in this book because not only do we see Sarah and Gavin’s points of view, we also see her older brother Caden and her father. Now, it’s the father that’s a problem and Sarah is completely game to push his buttons—hard. Now, I honestly can’t blame her at all. Her father was a jerk and I was very upset at his actions towards the end of the book, but he redeems himself and discussions happen, which was good to see.
I did totally see the plotline (not really a twist? The aim of the book and the villain would be more accurate to say) coming and I figured I wouldn’t be completely satisfied by the ending because there would still be the deaths of loved ones. I was right. It’s a bittersweet ending, for sure.
Like the first book in this series, I wouldn’t recommend this book either to those in BFCG’s target age range. This is definitely shaping up to be a harder series with rough topics heavily featured. I’m a bit scared to see what the next two books will have in them. The first book was hard because of the terrible and horrible topic of children being killed; this second book just hit hard to me personally because of the grief and suicide topics. Even with the content in the first book, I definitely liked it more than this second book because of the main chapter, humor, and while it tugged on my heartstrings, it didn’t make me cry like this book did. I’ll read the next two books in the series, but I’ll admit I’m a bit nervous going into them.
(I’m also confused as to why Ava has suddenly been added in, though? The friend group in book one was four girls and everyone is getting their own story except Kat because book four is Ava instead…? I couldn’t find that Kat is featured in a novella by this author, so I’m not sure what happened there.)
See y’all on Friday with a new review!
*BFCG may (Read the review to see) recommend this book by this author. It does not mean I recommend all the books by this author.
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