About this book:
“In
the little town of Walton, Georgia, everybody knows your name--but no one knows
your secret. At least that's what Lane Kent is counting on when she returns to
her hometown with her five-year-old son. Dangerously depressed after the death
of her husband, Lane is looking for hope. What she finds instead is a dead
body.
Lane must work with Walton's newest
deputy, Charlie Lynch, to uncover the truth behind the murder. But when that
truth hits too close to home, she'll have to decide if saving the life of
another is worth the cost of revealing her darkest secret.”
Series: Book #1 in the “Harbored Secrets” trilogy.
Spiritual Content- A handful prayers & thanking God; Lane thinks that God doesn’t
hear her prayers or that He doesn’t care, there’s a mention of when “she was
naïve enough to believe there was something bigger watching out for her”,
how she used to search for an answer to why God would make her broken, later
she wonders if “God predestined these individuals with a [mental] sickness
that made them a danger to others? Did that mean she was just as dangerous?”,
and if God made a mistake allowing her to live (Ms. Byrdie replies that God
never makes mistakes and she’s here on a purpose, that Lane was perfectly made
and that she needs to stop punishing herself for “the way God made you—even for
your depression”); Ms. Byrdie witnesses a bit to Lane and tells her that she
and God love her and that God makes all things new, that they need to put their
hope in Him; *Spoiler* Lane says at the end that she’s going to live her life
with a purpose and thanks Charlie for saving her, but there’s no mention of God
in her statement *End of Spoiler*; A handful of talks about God; ‘H’s are not capitalized
when referring to God; Mentions of God, His purpose for you, & faiths; Mentions
of prayers & praying; Mentions of churches, church going, a pastor, & a
benefit being at a church; A couple mentions of saints; A mention of thanking
God; A mention of a hymn; A mention of a missionary trip;
*Note: A few mentions of looking
like cave people; A couple mentions of taking money from the devil & making
a deal with the devil; A couple mentions of Mother Nature; A mention of facing
demons in wars; A mention of a hellish nightmare of war; A mention of thinks
that his nightmares are atonement of his sin.
Negative Content- Minor cussing including: a form ‘biddy’, a ‘crap’, a ‘heck’, a
‘sheesh’, two forms of ‘shut up’, and six forms of ‘stupid’; A couple mentions
of curses (said, not written, one held back by Charlie); Eye rolling &
Sarcasm; Lane has depression and anxiety & battles the darkness, suicidal thoughts,
and self-blame (this is a very important part of the book and we see her
struggling with her worth throughout the whole book, if she should even be alive
since she’s “broken”, and her telling someone else that she’s never going to
get better (she goes to a psychiatrist and has pills/medicine to take; her
family isn’t supportive/helpful, choosing not to discuss her depression) *Spoiler*
Two years prior to the book starting, she tried to commit suicide by overdosing
and back when she was younger, she wanted someone to listen to her and to “explain
that she wasn’t the same as those people on the news who went on killing sprees”
*End of Spoiler*); Miguel struggles with PTSD after being in the Vietnam war
(up to semi-detailed); Finding a body (of a teen girl), the smell, & how
the murder happened (border-line semi-detailed // detailed); A nightmare that’s
a combination of a murder and being in a war (the person is injured by themself
during the dream, up to semi-detailed); Cars racing around to terrify someone &
two car crashes (and panicking, semi-detailed); Being held at gunpoint, Being
drugged, Being hit, Self-harm (Miguel), Pain, Injuries, & Blood/Bleeding
(up to semi-detailed); Fighting, gunshots, & seeing people shot and killed
(up to semi-detailed); Throwing up; Many, many mentions of suicides (including
those who have attempted to commit suicide and those who were successful), suicidal
thoughts, a bridge that many people go to to commit suicide (the book opens
with Lane at the bridge), depression, anxiety, & PTSD (including military men)
(there is a comment that hits Lane hard from her brother about not being able
to understand why a person would commit suicide since life’s not that hard); Many
mentions of the murder, the killer, & how it happened (semi-detailed to
detailed); Many mentions of wars, fighting, bodies being torn apart, seeing
many deaths, deaths, & those coming home struggling with PTSD (including a
woman calling a Nam vet a “baby killer” because his unit was told to kill a
village (though he tried to stop the violence), up to semi-detailed); Many
mentions of drugs (including meth and marijuana), drug lords, cartels, & teens
going to a place to get high; Mentions of a car accident, death, & the grief
of the family (up to semi-detailed); Mentions of terrorists; Mentions of random
attacks at schools, nightclubs, and shopping centers being almost always
centered on a person suffering from a mental disorder and Lane wonders if she
is just as dangerous; Mentions of gunshots, someone being attacked/hit, self-harm,
injuries, pain, blood/bleeding & nightmares (up to semi-detailed); Mentions
of criminals, jails/prisons, thieves, stealing, & stolen items; Mentions of
a judge threatening to take a child away from his mother due to her mental
health (*Spoiler* Lane and her son and she thinks that her father (the judge)
is manipulating her because of it *End of Spoiler*; Mentions of computer
hacking; Mentions of smoking, tobacco, cigarettes, & pipes; Mentions of alcohol,
an alcoholic, bars, drinking, social drinking at dinner and events, & teens
going to a place to get drunk; Mentions of throwing up; Mentions of lies, lying,
& liars; Mentions of gossip & rumors; Mentions of tattoos &
piercings; Mentions of hitting a deer with a car & blood (barely-above-not-detailed);
A few mentions of betting; A couple mentions of criminals in jail having their
own code of justice and that the murder of a beautiful young girl is a crime
they don’t tolerate; A couple mentions of fires & smoke; A couple mentions
of a potential break-in; A couple mentions of jealousy; A couple mentions of a
teen saying her parents are jerks & later sneaks out of the house; A mention
of those that double-cross drug lords head up naked and headless; A mention of a
story of a saint being decapitated and then carrying his head for six miles; A mention
of a robbery; A mention of a bully; A mention of cyber-bullying;
*Note: Some women (who mean well) tell Lane that she’ll be ready again
for a man/marriage; Mentions of social media & other technology (Facebook,
Twitter, Instagram, Google); Mentions of celebrities, actors, & authors
(Paula Deen, Audrey Hepburn, Jennifer Aniston, John Wayne, Gizzly Adams, Prince
Harry, Laila Ali, Mark Twain, ); Mentions of car brands; A few mentions of brand
names (LEGO, Converse shoes, J.Crew magazine, iPhone, & Tic Tacs); A few
mentions of sports teams; A couple mentions of Disney Princesses; A mention of Hallmark;
A mention of the TV show Friends; A mention of someone being a Trekkie (Star
Trek fan).
Sexual Content- Quite a few fingers/hand
kisses, three forehead/head kisses, an almost kiss, two barely-above-not-detailed
kisses, two semi-detailed kisses, and detailed kiss; Remembering kisses (up to semi-detailed);
Wanting to be kissed & to kiss; Charlie stares at Lane’s lips “with a
hunger” and later battles temptation for her; Touches, Nearness, Embraces, Dancing,
Hand holding, Warmth, Smelling, & Butterflies (up to semi-detailed); Blushes
& Winks; Noticing & Staring (including Charlie with Lane’s skin between
her shirt and waistband, and Lane with his bare chest, up to semi-detailed); Mentions
of dating, dates, girlfriends/boyfriends, & crushes; Mentions of flirting, a
flirt, & winking; A few mentions of a playboy; A few mentions of jealousy; A
couple mentions of men staring at Lane with hunger in their eyes & Charlie
feeling possessive; A couple mentions of making googly-eyes at someone; A mention
of rapists in jail; A mention of a man knowing better than to touch a girl that
would be jailbait; A mention of an older woman looking at Charlie’s bare chest
& saying that she’ll enjoy the view; A mention of a man eyeing another man’s
wife; Love, falling in love, & the emotions;
*Note: Mentions of postpartum depression;
Mentions of a teen girl’s tiny shorts & revealing top and her mother’s
outfit not leaving much to the imagination either; A few mentions of hunks
& chicks; A couple mentions of hot/haute women; A couple mentions of a man
in his boxers; A cut-off mention of “posters with women who—” (in context of a playboy’s
art taste); A mention of a wife suffering depression after being told her and
her husband couldn’t have kids.
-Lane Kent, age 28
-Charlie Lynch
P.O.V.
switches between them & Miguel (x3)
335 pages
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
New
Teens-
Early
High School Teens-
{ Those
who have a heart for those struggling with mental illnesses may find this book
insightful, but those struggling with suicidal thoughts or depression could
find it triggering. }
This was my first book by this
author and I wasn’t sure what to expect. Christian Fiction Suspense is one of
my favorite genres, but it’s also the genre I have the most pet peeves about—particularly
when it comes to the romance elements.
This book dealt with a lot of
serious topics such as depression, anxiety, mental health, suicide and suicidal
thoughts, veterans, and military men coming home a shell of themselves with
PTSD. There’s a lot of potential triggers and is definitely not a book I
would recommend for younger readers.
It’s hard to say that I “liked”
this book because of such serious—and important—topics found in it, but this
book definitely gave me more perspectives on these topics and made me a bit more
aware of them. So, yes, I “liked” this book because I learned while reading but
also because it was very different from the typical CF Romantic Suspense books
I’ve read before.
However. There’s a few other
things I need to note that is the cause for the low ratings.
-The body and murder were more
detailed than I was expecting. If I would have dwelled on those parts or the family
of the victim, it would have been really hard to get through. Regardless, I
would say that this was pushing the envelope for me personally, and those with sensitive
stomachs might need to pass on this one.
-Secondly, the attraction between
Lane and Charlie. At only a few pages in, Charlie noticed Lane’s blouse riding
up and the bit of skin between it and her waistband showing. I think that gives
you an idea for how the rest of the book was. If this was a secular book, I probably
would have just rolled my eyes, but for a Christian Fiction book, I wasn’t
happy with this or a scene of Lane noticing his bare chest.
-And finally, I can’t say I’m
happy with the ending. I purposely did not read about the next book, thinking
that it would still be about Lane, but I now know that it’s not. And that’s the
problem I’m facing because I was really expecting a faith scene. As I was nearly
the end, I was thinking, “Oh, okay, it’s going to be lighter in this book—realistic
for everything that Lane is going through—and we’ll see the faith elements in
the next book.” Well, no. Don’t get me wrong, I did like Charlie and his
manners (minus the…noticing and desires mentioned above), but I’m not thrilled
with him being looked at Lane’s hero and rescuer. That’s the Good Lord’s place,
not another human that will inevitably fail you and let you down—we’re humans,
we’re flawed, we make mistakes. While there was more faith content towards the
end than the beginning, I wish there made been more for Lane. Especially as I’ve
seen that those struggling with depressing or anxiety still have hard times, but
pulling their attention back to God is what truly helps…not putting their trust
in a fellow human.
-Also on that note, I don’t
personally agree with the mindset that those with mental illnesses (is that the
correct word? Forgive me if it’s not) were made that way by God as a couple
parts of this book implied. Something I’ll need to pray about, think on, and
research in my Bible.
Would I read more by this author?
I think so, yes. After seeing that the second book in this series features Deputy
Frost, I’m more apt to do so because he was easily my favorite character.
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.
