Books for Christian Girls: "Serial Burn" by Lynette Eason

About this book:

  “She's out for justice. But the arsonist she's tracking is out for retribution.
    Now the fire marshal of Lake City, Jesslyn McCormick is determined to find the person who started the fire that robbed her of her family when she was just seven years old. As the twentieth anniversary of the tragedy approaches, a string of fires--including at Jesslyn's church--brings up all those old feelings and offers new evidence.
    Because church fires are considered a hate crime, FBI Special Agent Nathan Carlisle is called in to work with local law enforcement. Nathan has his own past--one he'd prefer not to revisit. And focusing on helping Jesslyn track down the arsonist is a great distraction.
    As both the case and the chemistry between Jesslyn and Nathan heat up, memories will come flooding in from the past to bump up against hopes for the future. And when Jesslyn comes face-to-face with her worst nightmare, she'll have to confront her fears and rely on Nathan and her community of friends in order to survive.”

Series: Book #3 in the “Lake City Heroes” series. Review of Book #1 Here! and Book #2 Here! (Also connected to the novella “In The Dark” by this author.)

Spiritual Content- Isaiah 55:8 at the dedication; Scriptures are quoted & mentioned; Prayers & Thanking God; Talks about God, Him not stopping bad things from happening, believing in Him even if bad things happen, & accepting the forgiveness God offers; 'H's are not capital when referring to God; Nathan tells Jesslyn about when he was young and after a traumatic event, he decided he hated God and stopped believing in Him because God didn’t stop the awful thing from happening; Nathan also shares that he did start believing in God again, but when things go bad, he falls into old patterns again and believing the old lies, which Jesslyn knows that feeling and reminds herself that nothing is “going to be perfect until he [Jesus] comes back”; Jesslyn says that something wasn’t luck, but God; A woman tells about a wife that “never got the green light from God” about leaving her cheating husband; Many mentions of churches, churches going, & pastors (mostly because of the fires); Mentions of God; Mentions of prayers, praying, praising/thanking God, & blessings over food; A few mentions of having peace from God answering prayers; A few mentions of miracles; A couple mentions of those & events in the Bible; A mention of God’s plan; A mention of God “allowing evil” to take Jesslyn’s family, but giving her friends to love and love her; A mention of a sermon at a funeral; A mention of a blessing; A mention of a Christian Fiction author (Elizabeth Goddard);
             *Note: A few mentions of evil people (including someone deliberately burning a church nursery and someone leaving another to die in a fire); A couple mentions of superstitions & not tempting fate; A mention of Pandora’s box.

Negative Content- Minor cussing including: a ‘blasted’, an ‘ever-lovin’’, a ‘for the love of—‘, an ‘oh my word’, a ‘shucks’, a ‘stuff it’, a ‘what in the world’, three ‘rats’, seven ‘idiot’s, eight ‘shut up’s, nine ‘dumb’s, and twelve forms of ‘stupid’; A couple mentions of curses (said, not written); Some sarcasm & eye rolling; Shooting & Killing someone in self-defense (and some grief over having to do it, barely-above-not-detailed); A car accident, Gasoline-filled bombs, An explosion, Fighting/Self-defense, Being kidnapped, Being tied-up, Being injected with a sedative, Being shot at, Being held at gun-point, Being threatened, Having a stalker, Chasing criminals, Pain, Injuries, Blood/Bleeding, Almost passing out and passing out, & Throwing up (up to semi-detailed); Setting a fire, Going through fires, smoke, fire damaged buildings, & seeing how the fires started (semi-detailed); Going to a funeral and seeing a grieving family (up to semi-detailed); Nightmares (up to semi-detailed); *Major Spoilers about Jesslyn’s family* It’s said that Jesslyn’s father had a “lot of issues” stemming from his childhood and it made “living with him hard sometimes”; Later, it’s added that he grew up with alcoholic parents who neglected him and he was in and out of the foster care system; Because of her father’s affairs, Jesslyn’s mother said she would leave him and did but not permanently; When she tried to get a job, he figured out she was planning a future without him and gaslit her into not taking a job (she decided that their marriage was her priority and they did work it out and were better with counseling before their deaths); The fire that killed Jesslyn’s parents and sisters was set by the other women when her father wouldn’t go back to her and then she committed suicide *End of Spoilers*; *Spoilers about Nathan’s childhood trauma* When he was eleven, Nathan and his best friend started a fire in a storage building in his backyard and were trapped in there, leading to his best friend’s death which Nathan feels to major guilt and blame for happening; *Major Spoilers* It’s revealed later in the book that Nathan’s older brother was supposed to be watching them and trapped them in there as payback for not listening to him, he didn’t hear their screams until it was too late; After telling Nathan about his part in it, Nathan later finds his brother thinking about committing suicide while holding a gun; Nathan arranges his brother to stay with him after that and others to always be around him because he can’t be alone for a while after the close-call; Nathan’s brother says that he know that suicide wasn’t the right answer, doesn’t want to die, and wasn’t thinking clearly *End of Spoilers*; All about & many mentions of fires, arsonists, arson, how the fires started, damages, & crimes (semi-detailed); Many mentions of Jesslyn’s family (parents and younger sisters) dying in a fire & her grief and anger over it (up to semi-detailed); Mentions of a suicide, a supposed suicide, many not believing the person would kill himself, how it happened (gunshot & jumping off a roof), & grief (*Spoiler* One was murder as the person was pushed *End of Spoiler*, barely-above-not-detailed); Mentions of suicidal thoughts, possible attempts, & someone holding a gun while thinking about it; Mentions of abusive parents, alcoholic parents, & a sibling becoming physically abusive (barely-above-not-detailed); Mentions of kidnappings, an attempted kidnapping, being held at gun-point, being threatened, gunshots, & guns/weapons; Mentions of a sibling’s plan for their sibling to be killed (genders are written vaguely due to spoilers); Mentions of bombs & possible explosions; Mentions of thieves, stealing, & stolen items; Mentions of blackmail; Mentions of threats, hate crimes, & hatred; Mentions of injuries, blood/bleeding, burns, a medically induced coma, pain, & the concern over someone dying due to smoke inhalation (up to semi-detailed); Mentions of kids and teens coming from violent and broken homes with abusive and alcoholic parents; Mentions of nightmares; Mentions of lies, lying, & liars; Mentions of alcohol, drinking, alcoholics/drunks, & liquor stores; Mentions of drugs (medications); Mentions of a father leaving his family (Jesslyn calls him a “loser”); Mentions of parents fighting; A few mentions of a sister responsible for the death of her brother (due to a trick gone wrong) and her turning to drugs and alcohol; A few mentions of prisons & jail time; A few mentions of throwing up; A couple mentions of deaths in a car wreck; A couple mentions of an eighteen-wheeler accident crashing into a tour bus & pile-up involving many cars; A couple mentions of someone being majorly injured in a car accident; A mention of a husband leaving his wife and kids (the reason is not said); A mention of a possible overdose; A mention of rehab; A mention of jealousy;
             *Note: *Spoiler* Jesslyn learns about her father’s “mental health issues”, which are later said to be “PTSD, fear of abandonment, and so on” *End of Spoiler*; Nathan’s partner asks if a suicide victim was seeing a doctor for mental health issues; Jesslyn had years and years of therapy after the deaths of her family members; Nathan comments on each person having to decide for themselves about going to therapy; Nathan and his older brother have a strained relationship due to childhood trauma and his brother pushes for them to go to counseling together; Nathan thinks of his older brother as selfish and only cares about himself; Mentions of physiatrists, therapy, & counseling; Mentions of car brands; Mentions of brand names & items (Band-Aids, Keurig, Motrin, iPad, & Post-it notes); Mentions of a fictional character (Superman); A couple mentions of Airbnb; A couple mentions of Uber; A mention of a movie (Casablanca).

Sexual Content- Three not-detailed kisses and a border-line barely-above-not-detailed // semi-detailed kiss; Wanting to kiss (barely-above-not-detailed); Touches, Embraces, Hand holding, Nearness, & Smelling (up to semi-detailed); Blushes & Racing hearts; Noticing (barely-above-not-detailed); *Major Spoilers about Jesslyn’s family* About half-way, Jesslyn finds out from her aunt that her father was having affairs and seeing multiple different women, which started shortly after her parents were married; Jesslyn’s father bought her mother a new piece of jewelry every time to buy her forgiveness and while she never wore them, she kept them as an escape plan, but never felt the “green light from God to leave him”; Jesslyn is told that her mother always loved him and forgave him before they died and he broke it off with the other woman (they also went to counseling together and he wasn’t sneaking out at night); The night of the fire, the other woman begged him to come back to her *Major Spoilers* and when he wouldn’t, she came back and set his house on fire with him and his family in it and then committed suicide *End of Spoilers*; Nathan stays the night at Jesslyn’s house for her safety; A form of ‘hot’; Many mentions of affairs, infidelity, cheating, & a wife being prepared and planning on leaving her husband; Mentions of dates, dating, asking someone out, & boyfriends/girlfriends; A few mentions of kisses & kissing; A few mentions of acting like a lovesick teenager & crushes; A few mentions of blushes; A mention of a guy kissing his fiancée on her hand; A mention of Nathan pushing away woman “quite frequently” when they want something more than just a date; Love, falling in love, & the emotions;
             *Note: When he is injured, Jesslyn almost asks Nathan if he needs help getting dressed, but doesn’t as she figures“that might take things way past awkward”.

-Jesslyn McCormick, age 27
-Nathan Carlisle
                      P.O.V. switches between them & then someone else in the Prologue
                                                        320 pages
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Pre Teens-

New Teens-

Early High School Teens-

Older High School Teens-

My personal Rating-

After meeting Jesslyn in the prior books of this series, I’ve been looking forward to reading her story as soon as it released. Unfortunately, this book had some elements that kept me from really enjoying it.

Let’s first note that I would say that this series would be better to binge read because of the friend group and how they all meet and know each other happens in the first book. Which is nice because it’s not a classic “we’ve only known each other for three weeks and someone was shooting at us during that time but we’re in love anyway” plotline, but it also can feel lacking in “sparks” between the main couple’s first meeting or soon-after events. Because of this and the large friend group, I was lost at times and trying to remember what happened in the prior books to the prior couples. Binge reading this series back-to-back would probably cause better enjoyment of the series, I would imagine.

This book is actually connected to the author’s recently released novella “In the Dark” and that couple is mentioned in this book. I don’t think they were mentioned in the prior books of the series, but it’s been a while since I’ve read them, so I’m not sure.

“Serial Burn” struggled to keep my attention, unfortunately. It felt a little off at times to me? I think it was because the characters are talking in a very modern, around-my-age kind of way and it was throwing me. It almost felt unprofessional at times, but that sounds odd to say. I’m not sure if the author was trying to make these characters “hip with the times” (which I’m aware is *not* a current phrase) but that’s what it felt like to me, and a little heavy handed too.

I was bummed that I figured out the culprit pretty quick, around 50% in and even made a note then of my suspicions, which turned out to be broadly correct. It was messy, to say the least, and I didn’t really like it. It brought my rating down.

I could understand where Jesslyn was coming from in the way she was determined (some might say obsessed) with finding out who her family’s killer was. Which made some of the romance elements feel poorly timed (a complaint I often have with Romantic Suspense books) and then some sappy comments and conversations between her and Nathan had me rolling my eyes at times. By the end of the book, I still didn’t feel like I knew either of them outside of their childhood traumas.

Overall, I’m disappointed in this third book, but I still plan to read the fourth (and final?) book in the series when it releases.

See y’all on Friday with a new review!