Reviewed by Rachel: 8 out of 10.

When Anna decides it’s time to leave her abusive boyfriend, she doesn’t know where to turn. Rob has completely won over her parents and the entire community, with his good looks and smooth charm. Only Anne has seen his dark side.

Desperate, she runs to the only place she’s ever felt completely safe – the Amish Brenneman Bed and Breakfast, where Anna met life-long friend Katie Brenneman. The family welcomes her in and with few questions asked allows her to stay, dressed in Plain clothing, and help around the inn.

Katie’s older brother Henry is the only one who doesn’t take too kindly to the intrusion. He tries to ignore Anna, knowing no good would ever come from caring for an Englisher like her. But as he gets to know Anna, he discovers her good heart and is surprised with her readiness to accept their lifestyle.

The more time Anna spends with the Amish, the more she feels like she’s found a true home. But how can she deny the life she left behind? And will her chance for happiness be stolen away by the man from her past?

I saw this book in our local library, took one look at the cover and thought, “Oh yeah that’ll be a typical romance novel…”, but decided to give it a try anyway. What followed was indeed so much more than just a soppy love story.

It gave insight into violent men and how hard it can be to get out of an abusive relationship. How even men who look so charming on the outside and say all the right things to people can be like a volcano waiting to erupt given the right (or wrong) conditions. How anger and the need to control, left unchecked can often lead to violence.

It offered a beautiful look at the Amish people and the way they do things so differently from Western society. Nothing is rushed, their relationships with God are so real and personal, and they don’t rely on modern technology to get things done. A rewarding lifestyle.

It covered how true-love transcends race, culture, differences of background and how, if you are willing to work hard at a relationship, it really doesn’t matter if you have any of those things in common or not. It’s the same with God, a relationship with him is indifferent to race, culture, gender, what our past has been like.

The author has written this book in such a way that I was gripped right from the start and came away at the end with a feeling of satisfaction that even with all the cunning twists and turns in the plot-line, it turned out just right and didn’t leave me disappointed.

Hidden is book one in the Sisters of the Heart series.

Reviewed by Rachel: 6 out of 10.

Firefighting burns in Aidan O’Neill’s blood, but his innate gift for reading flames has made him overconfident and sometimes puts lives in danger. When one call goes horribly wrong and a rookie is hurt, Aidan ends up suspended and finds himself questioning everything.

An arsonist is targeting Reno, leaving a scorched path of destruction. The department needs Aidan back, but his return is troubled. The gift he relied on for so long has gone silent . . . and it’s as though the fires are coming for him, hunting him down. Teaming with a beguiling fire investigator who may know more than she’s saying, Aidan must discover where his trust rests as the flames burn ever closer.

This book had the potential to be really really good. Unfortunately, it seemed to lack something and filed to grab me right from the start. Usually I love books about fighting fires, but I wasn’t so impressed with Through the Fire.

The twists and turns, instead of leaving me wanting more, left me more confused.  I loved the ending, but felt it needed to be a bit longer and perhaps in other parts shorter to keep interest high and concentration levels from waning.

In spite of my disappointments though, I did enjoy this book.  If you are in for a light thriller/mystery, with a little bit of ‘life’ drama and romance thrown in, then this book is for you.

Reviewed by Symon: 9 out of 10.

When Heaven Weeps is Book 2 in the Martyr’s Song series, contains almost the entire prequel The Martyr’s Song, and should be read before Book 1: Heaven’s Wager, despite the Editor’s blurb before Chapter 1 saying otherwise .

Confused yet?

In a small Balkan village near the end of World War II, a band of soldiers play a cruel game of ultimate stakes with a priest and his flock. Jan Jovic reluctantly participates. But he’s prepared neither for the incredible demonstration of love, nor the terrible events that follow. Now, many years later, that game will spring to life in Jan’s own heart. He will fall madly in love with the wrong woman, her name is Helen. Now it’s Jan’s turn to play the game. But there is a price.

Dive into a romantic thriller like none you’ve ever read. Drink deeply of a love that will bring a tremor to your bones. Go ahead, it’s your turn to play the game. But remember…there is a price. And no one could possibly prepare you for that price.

As mentioned before, the first 55 pages of When Heaven Weeps is practically a word for word reprint of The Martyr’s Song novella with minimal variance.  If you are anything other than a Ted Dekker fanatic, I would recommend that you skip reading The Martyr’s Song and dive right in to this book, for the reasons aforementioned (unless you like reading the same book twice in quick succession).

I must confess that When Heaven Weeps is the first true romance novel I have read.  I was sucked into reading it because of the guns and violence, but romancenovelaphobes, please don’t be put off – this story is not your average Mills and Boon (as if I would know).  This story is about God’s romance with… you.

It really is an incredible read – and once again, Dekker infuses an amazingly original story with an even more amazing insight of the unconditional love of God, and mankind’s adulterous character by comparison.

Stephen gave this story a Hall Of Fame rating for good reason.  If I hadn’t read The Martyr’s Song and Heaven’s Wager before I read this, I may have done the same.  Unfortunately though, and like many of his books, Dekker left the ending too late with too few pages to give it the impact it really deserved.

Still a highly recommended 9/10 rating from this Ted Dekker fan(atic).

Revewied by Rachel: 9 out of 10.

Across the China Sky by C. Hope Flinchbaugh involves believable characters battling selfish desires, lust-thirsty cult members, torture and much more. Anyone interested?

While Mei Lin spend her summer rescuing orphans in Shanghai, her fiancé Liko is being seduced into a secret cult by a young woman who claims to be a new house church Christian. How will Liko escape the brainwashing, seduction, and coercion of this evil cult? Will Mei Lin lose both her father and her fiancé to the clutches of the vicious Eastern Lightning Cult?

A sucker for novels regarding China and also great inspirational stories of faith, Across the China Sky was a winner in my books (excuse the pun) as it combined the two ideas in a vivid and realistic way, leaving the imagination running, piercing thoughts for hours after putting it down.

Although it is the second book in the series by C. Hope Flinchbaugh (Daughter of China being the prequel, and I’ll Cross The River being the third in the trilogy), one can still read it as a single story and get a lot out of it. Not knowing that it was a sequel before picking it up, I had a little trouble at first to follow the characters and who they were, but quickly got over it and into the very believable plot line! After having read the back cover blurb, I knew that there was going to be a twist brewing, but when it finally came to fruition I got a fabulous shock and was totally hooked, made a line for my favorite armchair and sank into it until finishing the book!

Not many books tend to scare me, but I must say, this one had my heart racing as the pace of the book picked up and I almost couldn’t get to sleep that night (house-sitting on my own didn’t help). The cult themes it produced were literally torturous and I am so thankful I don’t live in China.

All in all, my faith was challenged, the blood was pumping and it was a great read that I couldn’t put down. As one reviewer put it…

“Sweet scenes of Mei Lin showering Christ’s love upon unwanted children are interjected by scenes of temptation and torture creating a riveting combination.”

Click here to visit C. Hope Flinchbaugh’s site.

Reviewed by Symon: 8 out of 10.

Blink by Ted Dekker, is no ordinary good-guy-gets-chased-by-bad-guy suspense novel. Blink is a good-guy-sees-multiple-potential-futures-and-protects-the-Muslim-princess-while-being-chased-by-bad-guy suspense novel, and a very good one at that. The back cover blurb follows:

Seth Borders isn’t your average graduate student. For starters, he has one of the world’s highest IQ’s. Now he’s suddenly struck by an incredible power – the ability to see multiple potential futures. Still reeling from this inexplicable gift, Seth stumbles upon a beautiful woman named Miriam. Unknown to Seth, Miriam is a Saudi Arabian princess who has fled her veiled existence to escape a forced marriage of unimaginable consequences. Cultures collide as they’re thrown together and forced to run from an unstoppable force designed to kidnap or kill Miriam.

Here are some reasons why I recommend Blink…

• Blink educates the reader about the fundamental beliefs of Islam.
• Blink educates the reader about the fundamental beliefs of Christianity.
• Blink illustrates the power of prayer in a very unique way.
• Blink’s plot is very original.
• Blink is written by Ted Dekker and is therefore at least above average.
• Blink as a suspense/thriller/romance story (I think that’s a good thing?)

Although I really enjoyed Blink, it does not come close to my favourite Dekker novels. Perhaps Dekker thought so also, as interestingly enough, Blink Of An Eye was released in 2007. Apparently it is a re-written, updated, and expanded version of the original story of Blink. I’m interested to see if it improves on the original… Anyone read both versions?

Reviewed by Jon: 6 out of 10.

[Kiss, by Ted Dekker and Erin Healy] A new kind of suspense from Dekker and Healy – where Heart Pounding meets Heart Warming.

The title of this book would, under normal circumstances, be somewhat of a stereotypical put-off for my tastes as a reader. But with someone like Dekker as a co-author, I simply dove into it headlong and asked questions later.

Seeing my rating you are probably wondering what those questions are. Chief among them would have to be why on earth this book simply did not strike any chords with me. It had every element you could possibly hope for in a good book: a well thought out story, somewhat inspiring characters, action, underlying themes of strong Christian morality, and to top it all off, a nice blazing conspiracy.

One of the things I disliked most was the whole business about memory stealing. Without giving too much away, one of the characters has this rather odd ability to steal memories from other people given the right circumstances (it all kind of ties into the title of the book in its own way). But, in all honesty, whenever I read anything about this bizarre ‘gift’ I felt like someone on the outside observing text on sheets of paper in a glue-bound book; I didn’t feel involved in the circumstances at all, possibly because my suspension of disbelief came crashing to the floor when this character first started stealing these memories.

The action side of things felt like a flat rollercoaster with corkscrews every quarter mile. You would think that things were finally starting to heat up, and then, just as quickly, it would simmer back down again like a faulty element. I do love the fact that Dekker worked on something besdies a thriller and expanded his scope a rather large amount, but it felt too much like the action was supposed to be the driving force of the book, and so when it failed to deliver the goods and entice you, the other great factors of the book seemed disappointing by comparison.

This, I suppose, is where it all comes down to personal taste and opinions, and since this book does indeed have a good story I am not at all surprised at the ample five star ratings it is receiving from many book review sites. If you like romance mixed with a medium sprinkling of suspense and possibly a little drama, then definitely read this book. If I went into it knowing it wasn’t going to be a typical Dekker boil-over I probably would have enjoyed the ride far more. So if you go into it expecting a dramatic love story, you will probably be pleasantly surprised.

Click here to visit ErinHealy.com
Click here to visit TedDekker.com

Reviewed by Kristy: 7 out of 10.

The Negotiator is Book 1 in Dee Henderson’s O’Malley Series.

Kate O’Malley’s specialty is hostage situations, and she’s learned to depend only on herself in a crisis. But now Kate’s a target. Someone’s been sending her black roses…

The Negotiator follows Kate O’Malley, a hostage negotiator, on an thrilling adventure. The story is fast-paced from start to finish and I found myself constantly looking back to previous pages I had read, trying to solve the mystery. Laced throughout the story, are deeper issues including illness and soul searching questions about Life and God. Dee Henderson does a great job in the thoughts she presented here through her characters and unlike the prequel to this series, there wasn’t as much mushy romance either.

On the negative side, I felt that some of the plot and themes covered in this book were too similar to the prequel Danger In The Shadows, but as a whole, the plot is good and the suspense is great (although still not Dekker . The lessons weaved in through the story line were thoughtful and impacting.

Reviewed by Kristy: 6 out of 10.

Danger in the Shadows is the Prequel to Dee Henderson’s O’Malley Series.

Her life is not her own… The bureau owns her. Under FBI protection, Sara isn’t even Sara Walsh anymore. Her name is what they tell her. Her home is where they send her. And she’s never there for long.

A stranger owns her. Though faceless, he haunts Sara’s dreams. He’s the man who abducted her as a child and continues to stalk her. He’s the one who is determined to end their connection – and Sara’s life.

But most of all, fear owns her. Which makes falling in love with a man as high profile as Adams Black a bad idea. And a dangerous one. For both of them. Sara’s world is an unsafe place for love – and certainly an unsafe place for the children Adam longs for. No one knows that better than Sara, and she can’t take the risk… But if she doesn’t, her life will never be her own. Where will she find the courage to name her terror and face her fear?

This is the first Henderson book I have read (I found it in the local library). I liked the cover (I think covers are pretty important) and my eyes caught a statement on the back of the book… “I highly recommend this book to anyone who likes suspense.”. “This book is for me”, I thought to myself.

Danger in the Shadows is about Sara and her battle over fear. It does have a good storyline and was very easy to get into. But, to be honest, I was disappointed with it. Although the book was hard to put the book down, the bottom line is that ‘Henderson suspense’ is no where near ‘Dekker suspense’. I also found it a bit too mushy for my liking (I probably should have taken into consideration that it was from the romance section). Other reviewers have commented that this book is not the author’s best, so I have already started The Negotiator (the next book in the series) to see what her other books are like, and am loving it already.

On a more positive note, Danger In The Shadows is still a good book with a good story. There is definitely a theme of having faith and trust in God throughout the book, which is great, and would encourage anyone who struggles with fearfulness or lack of trust in God and His plans for their life.

Looking forward to seeing what her next one is like… I will let you know soon.

Reviewed by Rachel: 7 out of 10.

Welcome to Justice… and good luck leaving alive.  Sheriff Nathan Justice loves the town he serves. Founded by his family generations before, Justice, Illinois, is mostly a peaceful place. But the tranquility has just been shattered.

Women visiting Justice are being murdered. Tourists in nice hotels, money still in their billfolds, jewelry still on the dresser. Quiet kills—they go to sleep and never awaken.

Rae Gabriella left the FBI after an undercover investigation turned terribly wrong. She’s seeking to rebuild her life, and working as a private investigator alongside her former boyfriend Bruce Chapel in Justice, Illinois, seems like a place to start. But she suspects finding some peace and restoring her shaken faith will take more than just a change of location.

The sheriff is not pleased to find Rae working a case on behalf of one of the victims’ families. Rae is staying in the same hotel where one of the women died, and her looks suggest she could be the next victim. Now that Bruce, Rae, and Nathan are forced to work around each other, the situation is threatening to become something much more personal … and it will test the faith of everyone it touches before it is over…

Dee Henderson is one of my favorite authors. She writes along the lines of thriller/action/romance novels. Just enough romance to add to the plot, and not too much to be sickening like some of Francine River’s books.

Anyways, this particular book is called ‘Before I Wake’ It’s set in a small town called Justice where nothing much exciting ever happens, but in the space of a couple of weeks, there happens to be three deaths put down as natural causes. A mere coincidence, or something more sinister perhaps? This novel tells the story of a sheriff, a retired undercover cop and her new business partner all trying to solve the mystery and find the killer while trying to stay alive. I found this to be a great read although the ending was a tad anti-climatic, as Jon would say. It sets itself up for a sequel so here’s hoping. On the whole though, a good way to spend what would have otherwise been a very boring Sunday afternoon sick on the sofa!

Click here to visit Dee Henderson’s website.