About this book:
“Detective James Cross has been honorably discharged from the Army Criminal Investigation Division due to wounds sustained when an IED blew up near him. Now with the Lake City Police Department, he's rooming with this good buddy and partner, Cole, while he figures out his family dynamics.
Physician Assistant Lainie Jackson is eighteen months out from an attempted murder perpetrated by her ex, which ended when she managed to grab the weapon and shoot him. When he appears to have survived and is back to finish the job he started, Lainie insists it's not possible. But someone keeps trying to kill her, and she keeps seeing his face.
Together, Lainie and James must work together to find out who, exactly, is after her and why he wants her dead. And failure is not an option.”
Series: Book #1 in the “Lake City Heroes” series.
Spiritual Content- A few Scriptures are remembered & quoted; Prayers, Thanking God and Jesus & Blessings over food; Talks about God & praying; 'H's are not capital when referring to God; When Lainie wonders why caring for her parents feels like such a chore, a Voice tells her to “serve them out of love”; James thinks about the verse about the love of money being the root of evil and takes it as meaning that it’s not the money that evil, but the people that chose to worship money instead of their Creator; Lainie’s father was paranoid of any church or God, so she wasn’t raised religious and found Jesus herself (through a teacher; Now her parents and sister are Christian & her father no longer focuses on the end-of-the-world mentality); Mentions of God & Jesus; Mentions of prayers, praying, & blessings over food; Mentions of churches, church going, & a youth group; A few mentions of Bibles & Bible reading; A few mentions of spiritual differences in a relationship (Lainie’s ex only expressed an interest in God and church because of her); A mention of an event in the Bible; A mention of a prayer warrior; A mention of a woman praying with her rosary; A mention of eternity; A mention of divine intervention; A mention of a Christian Fiction author (Lynn H. Blackburn);
*Note: The phrase “has hell frozen over?” is used once; A mention of someone having a god complex; A mention of ghosts (Lainie not believing in them); A mention of someone “channeling” an actress for her hairstyle; A mention of Santa Claus.
Negative Content- Minor cussing including: a ‘dang’, a ‘heck’, a ‘holy cow’, a cut-off ‘oh my—‘, a ‘rats’, a ‘sucked it up’, four ‘shut up’s, five ‘idiot’s, seven forms of ‘dumb’, and fifteen ‘stupid’s; Eye rolling & Sarcasm; Seeing others shot and killed, Being held at gunpoint and held hostage, Being shot, Gunfire, Pain, Injuries, Blood/Bleeding, Fighting/Self-defense, Passing out, Almost passing out, Being trapped in a fire, Being threatened with a gun and death, & Seeing others being held at gunpoint (all up to semi-detailed); Being run off the road, Car chases, Car accidents, Precarious situations, Doing CPR on a car accident victim, & Seeing others in car accidents (semi-detailed); Receiving threatening notes (including one with a dead mouse, barely-above-not-detailed); In the Prologue, we see Lainie wake up to see her ex-fiancé trying to shoot and kill her (she gets shot and also shoots him in self-defense; James also reads the detailed report of it and we see it on-page, all up to semi-detailed); James responds to a domestic violence case where a father is threatening to shoot his wife after hitting her and uses his children as hostages (James acts as a hostage negotiator, semi-detailed); Both Lainie & James have PTSD from past events (his is military related and he has an episode on-page, up to semi-detailed; They both see therapists for it; They both comment once on their “messed-up heads”); Lainie feels ashamed that she was in an abusive situation; Lainie has a couple panic attacks and near ones (up to semi-detailed); A woman says that a suicide prevention program can’t help those who really want to kill themselves (she lost her sister to suicide; Lainie and another talk about the programs can help some people after she leaves the conversation); Many mentions of Lainie’s ex-fiancé that tried to kill her, her shooting him in self-defense, her believing that she’s seeing him again (some believe he is still alive but she does not), & someone stalking her (all up to semi-detailed); Many mentions of guns/weapons, using those to harm and threaten others, bullets, gunfire, being shot, blood/bleeding, & injuries (up to semi-detailed); Mentions of James’ military career involving an IED, the deaths of his friends, & his injuries/scars from it (along with PTSD, up to semi-detailed); Mentions of murders & bodies (including poisoning someone, barely-above-not-detailed); Mentions of the death of teenager & his grieving family (barely-above-not-detailed); Mentions of domestic violence of both women and men, their injuries, & suicides (including a woman committing suicide after her boyfriend dumped her and an abuser threatening to kill himself after killing his wife, up to semi-detailed); Mentions of car wrecks, a death, & injuries (up to semi-detailed); Mentions of a man being afraid someone would “finish him off”; Mentions of autopsies & digging up a grave; Mentions of explosions/bombs, fires, being trapped in a fire, vandalism, & injuries (barely-above-not-detailed); Mentions of crimes, arrests, & jail/prison; Mentions of break-ins, thefts, thieves, & stealing; Mentions of drugs, being drugged/poisoned, junkies, & a drug dealer; Mentions of lies & lying (including James not wanting to lie); Mentions of hatred; Mentions of nightmares; Mentions of divorce & a man not divorcing his wife because of her money; A few mentions of a house fire & most of the family dying in it; A few mentions of an attack & the victim being in a medically induced coma; A few mentions of cigarettes & smoking; A couple mentions of stealing someone’s identity; A couple mentions of a con-man; A couple mentions of a bar & drinking; A couple mentions of betting (Lainie saying she doesn’t bet); A couple mentions of vomiting; A mention of Lainie thinking that her dad might walk out on her mother at one point; A mention of a man making derogatory comments about his wife; A mention of jealousy; A mention of rumors; A mention of skinning a deer (barely-above-not-detailed);
*Note: Lainie thinks her ex-fiancé was a psychopath or an antisocial personality disorder sufferer; Lainie & James both see therapists for their PTSD (Lainie says she thinks it’s helping); Lainie describes her childhood as full of “uncertainty, fear, and drama” and because of her parents being prepper & hoarders, it has made their relationship difficult with her and her siblings very difficult (most of her siblings avoid them and her & call Lainie an “enabler” because she tries to help their mother with her hoarding tendencies and mental health; Their mother was always “pretty nasty” to Lainie’s sister, so she has anger issues towards their mother); Lainie comments on her mother being better when she takes her medication and while she knows they can have unpleasant side effects, “it seems like those are the lesser of the two evils”, but then rethinks her comment and says “I’m not the one dealing with it, so I can’t say”; Lainie admits that she resents her mother because of it, but tries to understands that it’s based on her mother’s trauma of her father’s murder; James’ father has shunned him for years after James decided to become join the military police as his father’s brother was killed by a police officer (due to him pulling a gun on an officer) and has hated all types of cops since (this has caused a division in their family and James hates it; Lainie talks to his father about the emotional abuse he’s done towards his son; *Spoiler* Towards the end, his father apologizes and asks for forgiveness from James *End of Spoiler*); Lainie & James talk about having boundaries with their families due to unhealthy relationships (*Spoiler* At the end, with the help of her therapist, Lainie creates boundaries for her siblings, her parents, and some people at work *End of Spoiler*); Lainie feels like a victim and a doormat because of everything and James talks with her a few times that she’s not (*Spoiler* Lainie’s ex-fiancé picked her because she was an easy target and the perfect victim without an interfering family to interfere *End of Spoiler*); A friend of Lainie is the only female on her SWAT team and feels like she constantly has to prove herself to the men (a couple mentions of this); Mentions of car brands; Mentions of brand names (Scrabble, iPads); A couple mentions of FaceTime; A couple mentions of an actress (Josephine Baker); A mention of Google; A mention of a football team; A mention of Mona Lisa; A mention of a fictional character (Rip Van Winkle); A mention of Lainie saying that even if some people don’t find it “terribly current”, she wanted to get married and have a family.
Sexual Content- A hand kiss, four forehead/head kisses, two not-detailed kisses, two barely-above-not-detailed kisses, and two semi-detailed kisses; Remembering a kiss (barely-above-not-detailed); Wanting to kiss & embrace (barely-above-not-detailed); Touches, Embraces, Hand holding, Nearness, & Smelling (up to semi-detailed); Blushes & Winks; Noticing (including muscles, barely-above-not-detailed); Lainie feels like she’ll have a lot of baggage in a new relationship and is worried that a guy would “get tired of [her] “issues” and decide...that [she’s] not worth it”; Lainie had a crush on James growing up; A female doctor tries to touch James longer than he is comfortable with (barely-above-not-detailed); Mentions of a husband’s affair, mistress, & child through that affair (it’s been happening for a long time, and he won’t divorce his wife because of her money); Mentions of kisses & kissing; Mentions of boyfriends, dating, exes, & breakups; Mentions of crushes; A few mentions of ex-fiancé’s father hitting on her & saying something inappropriate to her (she told him that if he ever said anything like that again to her, she would tell his wife; Her ex-fiancé brushed it off and said that his father has always been like that); A few mentions of a patient trying to hit on & touch Lainie; A few mentions of flirting; A couple mentions of illegitimate children; Love, falling in love, & the emotions;
*Note: Mentions of a woman having an ectopic pregnancy, a miscarriage, & her not being able to have biological children because of a scarred tube; A few mentions of Lainie’s ex-fiancé’s obsession with her and controlling her to not be able to hang out with her friends.
-Lainie Jackson
-James Cross, age 32
P.O.V. switches between them & the stalker (x3)
320 pages
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Pre Teens-
New Teens-
Early High School Teens-
Older High School Teens-
My personal Rating-
Trigger Warning: Domestic Violence, Stalking, PTSD, & Panic Attacks
Having really enjoyed some of this author’s recent books, I was excited to read the start of this new series! Based on Laney’s friend group I would say this is going to be a 4 to 6 book series, which is fun. Kenzie, a SWAT medic; Jesslyn, a fire marshal, Kristine, an air marshal; and maybe even Allison, a doctor, and Stephanie (who I’m not sure what she does?).
I liked Lainie because she was realistic in the way she reacted and responded to everything that was happening and what she was going through. I really liked a certain scene of her standing up for James. I do wish she would have carried her gun on her where she could, as that could have helped in some cases. She told him her story (with domestic violence) very fast, but I guess it was okay because they kind of already knew each other because she’s his little sister’s best friend? It just seems like a lot of information being thrown at us at once, but it wasn’t too much to handle, which I appreciated!
It really felt like my brain was working overtime trying to figure things out and who was bothering Lainie. I had figured part of it out (the reason) but not all of it (the who). One piece of the puzzle felt a little too convenient at the end and the ending was a little off to me (they made a decision that didn’t feel like a smart one, but it all worked out because of the people they were with), but elsewise was very intense most of the time. I’m obviously not a violent person, but I would have liked to join James in smacking a certain person. ;)
So while this book is not a new favorite by this author, I did really enjoy it. Definitely has a trigger for domestic violence, stalking, PTSD, and panic attacks, though. Because both main characters have PTSD from past events and we see it on-page. Older girls that aren’t extremely sensitive to those topics and like suspense books, may really enjoy this one. I’m looking forward to Kenzie and Cole’s story releasing later this year.
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.
*I received this book for free from the Publisher (Revell) for this honest review.
