Amber Alert: Book Review

Amber alert: (Dangerous Series book 1) by Linda K. Rodante

Contemporary Christian Romance / Suspense

Synopsis:

After a disastrous engagement to an abusive boyfriend, Sharee Jones tells God that she’s not dating anymore. If he has someone for her to marry, he’d better just drop the man in front of her. She’s not thinking of the tall, handsome man who moonlights as the church’s maintenance crew of one—a man she feels sure doesn’t know the Lord.

Since the tragedy in his own life, John Jergenson wants nothing to do with God, but every time he turns around lately, Sharee is in his face—wanting help with her Christmas program, needing help with her car, even threatening him with a pair of stakes—and talking about God. He’s not sure what to do about her, but he doesn’t like the mutilated dolls they’ve found, or the homeless hitchhiker she picked up, or the fact that she never watches out for herself. With someone terrorizing the new mom at the church, and Sharee playing detective, can he keep his past secret and keep her safe long enough to figure out if he’s ready to love again?

My thoughts

This was a fascinating christian romantic suspense novel. I’m stoked that it’s actually part of a series. I didn’t even know that fact until I got to the end of the book.

Overall, the book was well written, save a few missing words here and there. No glaring errors. A few confusing sentences.

The level of romance and suspense balanced out well. I enjoyed that tension. I did like the choice of centering the story on two characters who were unrelated to the particular character being threatened. Though they were unrelated and not being threatened themselves, near the end everyone is pulled into this massive missing persons’ case, which I found fascinating, full of tension. The highs of the romantic scenes coupled with increasingly tense situations made this a page turner for me. Every word, every bit of information was written purposefully and utilized at the end of the story, tying up loose ends. Though the ending did kind of feel too tidy…but it wasn’t horrible.

In the beginning of this story, my first impression was that it is extremely preachy. The more I read, however, the more I discovered that that is just the way Sharee is. She is devout in her faith. She is die-hard and uncompromising and whole-heartedly a believer in Christ. I did not feel that the author was trying to ‘preach’ to the reader. I felt that that is how she wrote her character. Of course, Sharee is certainly not without her faults. I appreciated that all of the characters throughout the story displayed plenty of faults.

I really enjoyed this story. I recommend this if you are a fan of Christian fiction, with a helping of Suspense.