Hidden Agenda, by Christy Barritt, was released under Harlequin's Love Inspired Suspense line in March 2015. I picked up this title because I liked Ms. Barritt's novel, Dubiosity, which I reviewed earlier in January of this year.
The protagonists in Hidden Agenda are Bailey Williams, a home care nurse, and Ed Carter, a CIA agent. They are brought together by the death of Ed's father, when Ed returns to Smuggler's Cove, the island which his father retired to after a lifelong career with the State Department. Bailey is less than impressed with the son who did not make it home in time for his own father's funeral. She isn't even certain of Ed's identity, because Mr. Carter, Ed's father, did not keep any photos of Ed in his home. She had been told that Ed is a lawyer, but he doesn't seem to behave or act like one. Ed, who is convinced that his father's death was actually a murder, is suspicious of Bailey, wondering if she played any part in Mr. Carter's death. One of Mr. Carter's friends had left Ed a cryptic message, but had died under mysterious circumstances, just as his father had.
As the novel progresses, the attraction between Bailey and Ed grows, but several factors prevent them from trusting each other. Ed needs to search through his father's belongings to find out if his dad was hiding classified information on his estate, and wonders why Bailey is remaining at Smuggler's Cove even though her duties towards his family are finished. Bailey has been threatened several times by an unknown assailant who also promises to hurt and kill her relatives if she does not help him to recover secret information that Mr. Carter has hidden away on his estate. She is also warned not to tell Ed about the threats, otherwise her family will be harmed. Ed, who has been burned before by an ex-girlfriend who turned out to be a spy, senses that Bailey is holding back information from him and continues to wonder if she is working for the people that were responsible for getting his father killed, even though he gets to know her character better. His mistrust doesn't encourage Bailey to ask him for help against the threats that she is facing in spite of her developing feelings for him. Will Ed and Bailey be able to trust and help each other? Will they find out who killed Mr. Carter, and will they find what he hid on his property?
I found this novel to be fairly suspenseful and fast paced. There are secrets, danger, intrigue, espionage, death threats, and attempts against people's lives, unsuccessful, and successful. I would also say that there seems to be no character that is wasted; each seems to play a fairly significant role in the plot, however minor it may be. I thought that this made the novel tightly written and I appreciated the development of the plot and the economic use of the characters that were introduced in the story. I did not guess the identities of the antagonists; I don't know if this was just laziness or fuzziness in my thinking, but when they were revealed, I had a moment of, "Yeah,...of course...that makes sense...," for one of them, and for the other, I appreciated the author's use of another character that had been fleetingly introduced earlier in the story and of whom I had not expected to hear about again.
I enjoyed reading Hidden Agenda, and will probably read more of Ms. Barritt's work in the future.
Showing posts with label Love Inspired. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Love Inspired. Show all posts
Friday, 5 June 2015
Sunday, 18 January 2015
Review: Her Stolen Past by Lynette Eason
Her Stolen Past is a Love Inspired Suspense novel written by Lynette Eason. The novel is about Sonya Daniels, a hospice nurse who has a mystery to solve. While going through the personal effects of her late mother's home, she finds a birth certificate for a baby who had been kidnapped but never found. Brandon Hayes is a police detective who also works as an investigator for Finding the Lost, a private agency. He is hired by Sonya to find Heather Bradley. As Sonya and Brandon attempt to uncover the mystery of the missing child, their lives are endangered, and it becomes obvious that someone doesn't want Heather Bradley to be found.
Sonya, the daughter of a pastor and his wife, has her reasons for wanting to find out what happened to the Heather. Without finding out the truth, there will be a cloud of uncertainty over her family's past.
Having his life threatened has made Brandon more determined to discover why someone wants to keep Heather Bradley hidden. However, the more time he spends with Sonya, the more he falls in love with her, even though he knows that it is unprofessional to get into a relationship with a client. He's also gun shy about getting into a relationship with a woman since he was previously burned by his ex-fiancée. There's something about Sonya that makes him reconsider his thoughts about women, though, and he becomes interested in the idea of developing something with her, if only they can keep themselves safe from the deadly danger that results from their search for Heather.
In the past, I've found Lynette Eason's books enjoyable to read. This one was definitely filled with suspense and mystery. This novel also tossed in the issue of forgiveness; Brandon's character needed to come to a place where he could forgive the people who had hurt him in the past. The discussion of forgiveness by the characters and the resolution seemed a bit stilted and sudden, but I think that it may be due to the constraints of the smaller size of this kind of novel as compared to ones that are longer. Brandon's forgiveness of the people who hurt him took place over two months, but only over five pages in the book. I think that a longer novel would have given the forgiveness storyline a bit more developmental room to feel more natural. As it is, I'm pleased to read about a spiritual issue in addition to the suspenseful storyline.
Besides the tackling of a spiritual topic in this novel, I felt that there was something else different about Her Stolen Past as compared to other Love Inspired novels that the author had written. The first few chapters really drew me in with the mystery and plot development of the story because it starts off with a bang; Sonya is in danger of getting shot by a sniper. The danger continues in the book, but after a few chapters in, something changed in the writing style, although the pacing continued to move quickly. I'm still trying to decide if it was just a reflection of the character of Brandon with his aloof, no-nonsense, keep-to-the-point speech that gave a simpler and plainer feel to the story telling, or if the cause was due to something else.
Nevertheless, I enjoyed reading the rest of novel; it kept my interest right to the very end. I loved the character of Sonya; she was a strong woman who stayed true to her faith in the Lord in spite of the tumult that was brought into her life because of her search for answers. I also liked that she stuck to her principles, even though it meant sacrificing the possibility of a relationship with Brandon.
Her Stolen Past is the final installment of Lynette Eason's "Family Reunion" Series.
Sonya, the daughter of a pastor and his wife, has her reasons for wanting to find out what happened to the Heather. Without finding out the truth, there will be a cloud of uncertainty over her family's past.
Having his life threatened has made Brandon more determined to discover why someone wants to keep Heather Bradley hidden. However, the more time he spends with Sonya, the more he falls in love with her, even though he knows that it is unprofessional to get into a relationship with a client. He's also gun shy about getting into a relationship with a woman since he was previously burned by his ex-fiancée. There's something about Sonya that makes him reconsider his thoughts about women, though, and he becomes interested in the idea of developing something with her, if only they can keep themselves safe from the deadly danger that results from their search for Heather.
In the past, I've found Lynette Eason's books enjoyable to read. This one was definitely filled with suspense and mystery. This novel also tossed in the issue of forgiveness; Brandon's character needed to come to a place where he could forgive the people who had hurt him in the past. The discussion of forgiveness by the characters and the resolution seemed a bit stilted and sudden, but I think that it may be due to the constraints of the smaller size of this kind of novel as compared to ones that are longer. Brandon's forgiveness of the people who hurt him took place over two months, but only over five pages in the book. I think that a longer novel would have given the forgiveness storyline a bit more developmental room to feel more natural. As it is, I'm pleased to read about a spiritual issue in addition to the suspenseful storyline.
Besides the tackling of a spiritual topic in this novel, I felt that there was something else different about Her Stolen Past as compared to other Love Inspired novels that the author had written. The first few chapters really drew me in with the mystery and plot development of the story because it starts off with a bang; Sonya is in danger of getting shot by a sniper. The danger continues in the book, but after a few chapters in, something changed in the writing style, although the pacing continued to move quickly. I'm still trying to decide if it was just a reflection of the character of Brandon with his aloof, no-nonsense, keep-to-the-point speech that gave a simpler and plainer feel to the story telling, or if the cause was due to something else.
Nevertheless, I enjoyed reading the rest of novel; it kept my interest right to the very end. I loved the character of Sonya; she was a strong woman who stayed true to her faith in the Lord in spite of the tumult that was brought into her life because of her search for answers. I also liked that she stuck to her principles, even though it meant sacrificing the possibility of a relationship with Brandon.
Her Stolen Past is the final installment of Lynette Eason's "Family Reunion" Series.
Tuesday, 16 December 2014
Review: Her Montana Cowboy by Valerie Hansen
A few years ago, Harlequin's Love Inspired line started running multi-month continuities. For its regular line, the continuity would run from July to December, and for the Love Inspired Suspense line, the continuity would run from January to June. There is usually one book that is published each month for the continuity, resulting in six episodes. A mystery is also spread out throughout the books, which is resolved in the final installment. In the meantime, a person following the continuity will read about the romances of six different couples, where each couple is featured in their own book/episode. The most recent offering for the regular line is titled "Big Sky Centennial," which is based on the hundredth year celebrations of Jasper Gulch, Montana.
Harlequin offered a sneak peek into the series by offering a free novella for Kindle, titled, "Montana Reunion," which is also written by Valerie Hansen, the author of the first book in the Big Sky Centennial continuity. It has been on Amazon since July, and is likely a marketing tool for attracting attention for the series. I am wondering if its status will change by the end of the year, because this is the last month for the continuity.
When I first saw the Kindle offering, I thought that Harlequin was actually offering the first book of the series online, so when I was at Walmart in August checking out the Love Inspired titles, I was puzzled about the cover for, "Her Montana Cowboy," which was July's offering. I knew that there were two people on the cover for, "Montana Reunion," but there was only one extremely handsome cowboy on the book that I was staring at in the store. After checking on Wifi, I realized that they were two entirely separate books, both written by Valerie Hansen. Walmart had just brought back its marketing tool of buying three Harlequin books for $15, versus $6.75 for one (yes, we have higher prices in Canada), and besides having "Her Montana Cowboy," on the shelf, there was also August's "Her Montana Sweetheart," (the second installment) by Ruth Logan Herne available. That was the moment when I decided that I would swallow the bait and start buying the books for the continuity. That impulsive decision to buy three books at once was helped along by the fact that I was going to be stranded on a campground with no transportation for the following six days. The funny thing is that I actually read the third book which was unrelated to the series while I was stuck on the campground, and did not get around reading any of the Big Sky books until much later. In fact, I just finished reading, "Her Montana Cowboy," a few days ago.
The handsome cowboy on the cover of "Her Montana Cowboy," is Ryan Travers, a rodeo star who breezing through the circuit as it passes through Jasper Gulch just in time for the start of Big Sky's Centennial. He connects with Julie Shaw, a sheep farmer in the middle of cattle country. Her business is growing, but it is still rather small; she relies on the good graces that are extended towards her by her influential father, Jackson Shaw, a ranch owner who also happens to be the mayor of Jasper Gulch. Daddy wants to see all his children married and settled nearby; he has been trying to match Julie up with a well-to-do banker who doesn't spark her interest. Mayor Shaw is less than impressed with the itinerant cowboy who doesn't have any roots to speak of. Even Julie has her qualms about Ryan; although she recognizes the attraction between them, Ryan has turned away from God due to a crisis in his past, and she knows that she cannot go forward in a relationship with him when he doesn't hold much stock in believing in God. However, the light that Julie brings into Ryan's life is so attractive. The two of them can't seem to keep away from each other, even though Ryan has every intention to just keep things light and friendly so that there will be no hard feelings when he is ready to leave Jasper Gulch in a matter of weeks. Will Ryan come back to God, and if he does, will he and Julie be able to make a relationship work, even though he is a travelling rodeo star?
In general, I find the Love Inspired books to be fairly light reads; I can finish them in about two hours, and they don't often inspire a lot of deep thought, but I wanted to comment about this particular book, because I found it to be a little bit different than the other books that I have read that were written by Valerie Hansen. Most of the time, even though her Love Inspired titles are written with Christian characters, I have found her stories, to be just exactly that: romances with Christian characters whose conflicts are centered on whether the couple in question will get together or not. That is what I found happened in, "Montana Reunion." However, in "Her Montana Cowboy," I was a bit more engaged in the faith conflicts that the characters experienced. Maybe this is just because of the nature of this particular plot. In this case, a serious believer realizes that she cannot be yoked to an unbeliever/backslider even though she is sliding into a relationship with him, and the backslider realizes that God is real and truly cares about him, and is not as distant as he thinks.
I liked the difference that I found in this particular novel as compared to what had happened in an earlier novel of Ms. Hansen's titled, "The Hamilton Heir." In that novel, the hero is also a backslider, but his faith status is still unresolved and remains static by the end of novel. The couple gets together and even discusses marriage, but we don't know for certain if he has come back to God, or if he is just starting to believe. However, that novel was released over seven years ago, and in general, I've noticed changes in the content of what appears in the Love Inspired books since then. There seems to be more of a trend towards an active practice of Christianity in the characters lives, as opposed to a cultural one, in which the tenets of the Christian faith might not necessarily be translated into active practice in the characters. This is an improvement that I've appreciated over the years of reading from the Love Inspired lines.
I'll close off by mentioning that the mystery that appears in the Big Sky Centennial series involves a missing time capsule that was supposed to have been opened at the town's big celebration at the start of the summer. I'm guessing that the rest of the series will build upon this mystery about why the time capsule was stolen and by whom.
July Montana Reunion (prequel)
Her Montana Cowboy (1)
Aug. His Montana Sweetheart (2)
Sept. Her Montana Twins (3)
Oct. His Montana Bride (4)
Nov. His Montana Homecoming (5)
Dec. Her Montana Christmas (6)
Harlequin offered a sneak peek into the series by offering a free novella for Kindle, titled, "Montana Reunion," which is also written by Valerie Hansen, the author of the first book in the Big Sky Centennial continuity. It has been on Amazon since July, and is likely a marketing tool for attracting attention for the series. I am wondering if its status will change by the end of the year, because this is the last month for the continuity.
When I first saw the Kindle offering, I thought that Harlequin was actually offering the first book of the series online, so when I was at Walmart in August checking out the Love Inspired titles, I was puzzled about the cover for, "Her Montana Cowboy," which was July's offering. I knew that there were two people on the cover for, "Montana Reunion," but there was only one extremely handsome cowboy on the book that I was staring at in the store. After checking on Wifi, I realized that they were two entirely separate books, both written by Valerie Hansen. Walmart had just brought back its marketing tool of buying three Harlequin books for $15, versus $6.75 for one (yes, we have higher prices in Canada), and besides having "Her Montana Cowboy," on the shelf, there was also August's "Her Montana Sweetheart," (the second installment) by Ruth Logan Herne available. That was the moment when I decided that I would swallow the bait and start buying the books for the continuity. That impulsive decision to buy three books at once was helped along by the fact that I was going to be stranded on a campground with no transportation for the following six days. The funny thing is that I actually read the third book which was unrelated to the series while I was stuck on the campground, and did not get around reading any of the Big Sky books until much later. In fact, I just finished reading, "Her Montana Cowboy," a few days ago.
The handsome cowboy on the cover of "Her Montana Cowboy," is Ryan Travers, a rodeo star who breezing through the circuit as it passes through Jasper Gulch just in time for the start of Big Sky's Centennial. He connects with Julie Shaw, a sheep farmer in the middle of cattle country. Her business is growing, but it is still rather small; she relies on the good graces that are extended towards her by her influential father, Jackson Shaw, a ranch owner who also happens to be the mayor of Jasper Gulch. Daddy wants to see all his children married and settled nearby; he has been trying to match Julie up with a well-to-do banker who doesn't spark her interest. Mayor Shaw is less than impressed with the itinerant cowboy who doesn't have any roots to speak of. Even Julie has her qualms about Ryan; although she recognizes the attraction between them, Ryan has turned away from God due to a crisis in his past, and she knows that she cannot go forward in a relationship with him when he doesn't hold much stock in believing in God. However, the light that Julie brings into Ryan's life is so attractive. The two of them can't seem to keep away from each other, even though Ryan has every intention to just keep things light and friendly so that there will be no hard feelings when he is ready to leave Jasper Gulch in a matter of weeks. Will Ryan come back to God, and if he does, will he and Julie be able to make a relationship work, even though he is a travelling rodeo star?
In general, I find the Love Inspired books to be fairly light reads; I can finish them in about two hours, and they don't often inspire a lot of deep thought, but I wanted to comment about this particular book, because I found it to be a little bit different than the other books that I have read that were written by Valerie Hansen. Most of the time, even though her Love Inspired titles are written with Christian characters, I have found her stories, to be just exactly that: romances with Christian characters whose conflicts are centered on whether the couple in question will get together or not. That is what I found happened in, "Montana Reunion." However, in "Her Montana Cowboy," I was a bit more engaged in the faith conflicts that the characters experienced. Maybe this is just because of the nature of this particular plot. In this case, a serious believer realizes that she cannot be yoked to an unbeliever/backslider even though she is sliding into a relationship with him, and the backslider realizes that God is real and truly cares about him, and is not as distant as he thinks.
I liked the difference that I found in this particular novel as compared to what had happened in an earlier novel of Ms. Hansen's titled, "The Hamilton Heir." In that novel, the hero is also a backslider, but his faith status is still unresolved and remains static by the end of novel. The couple gets together and even discusses marriage, but we don't know for certain if he has come back to God, or if he is just starting to believe. However, that novel was released over seven years ago, and in general, I've noticed changes in the content of what appears in the Love Inspired books since then. There seems to be more of a trend towards an active practice of Christianity in the characters lives, as opposed to a cultural one, in which the tenets of the Christian faith might not necessarily be translated into active practice in the characters. This is an improvement that I've appreciated over the years of reading from the Love Inspired lines.
I'll close off by mentioning that the mystery that appears in the Big Sky Centennial series involves a missing time capsule that was supposed to have been opened at the town's big celebration at the start of the summer. I'm guessing that the rest of the series will build upon this mystery about why the time capsule was stolen and by whom.
July Montana Reunion (prequel)
Her Montana Cowboy (1)
Aug. His Montana Sweetheart (2)
Sept. Her Montana Twins (3)
Oct. His Montana Bride (4)
Nov. His Montana Homecoming (5)
Dec. Her Montana Christmas (6)
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