Yay! it’s Friday!
And that means a book review!
About the Book
The man Cristina Torres has fallen in love with kisses her and then disappears for ten years. Now he’s back but with two detectives as shadows, and someone’s trying to kill her.
Should she trust him or run for her life?
Dr. Chase Richards has fled his Christian roots long enough. He’s returning to his hometown in Tennessee to make amends—at what he thinks is God’s direction. But the way is not just hard, it’s almost impossible.
The girl he once loved is now a woman—and she wants nothing to do with him.
In addition, the opioid study he started and left in Virginia has followed him across state lines. The police have warned him that he’s in imminent danger. His well organized life is no longer safe or ordered—and neither is Cristina’s.
Can he discover who’s trying to kill them before she becomes collateral damage?
GOODREADS | AMAZON
My Thoughts
“So what if free sometimes felt like lonely…”
Pursued is my first book by Linda Rodante but it won’t be my last! And while it’s the 6th book in her Dangerous series, it can be easily read as a stand alone. Characters from book #4 – Looking for Justice – play a role in Cristina and Chase’s story but, other than feeling like Luke and Alexis had a story of their own somewhere, you don’t ever feel lost or like you’ve missed something important.
Cristina is a strong heroine who does battle in the courts as a children’s advocate lawyer. She’s not easily intimidated but she carries a lingering burden of abandonment by the man she fell in love with at 16. Completely understandable since he kissed her and then pretty much immediately disappeared with no contact for 10 years. If I was Cris’ friend, Chase would be in my purse-whomping sights. Just saying.
Chase is a good guy who made some stupid decisions in his young adulthood (and who hasn’t?) – decisions that cost him a lot of relationships. After dealing with the grief that made him act out and renewing his relationship with God and others he hurt in the grief process, he has one remaining name on his list – Cristina. I love love LOVED his gentle pursuit of her in Pursued. Coincidence? I think not 🙂
The way the author framed the title throughout the story has many great layers. Cris and Chase are not only being pursued by some malicious-minded person (perhaps the same one?), but Chase is intent on pursuing Cristina’s heart once again. In the meantime, God has been unceasingly pursuing Cristina since the day she walked away from Him in anger and disillusionment. He hasn’t given up on her, and neither has Chase. And while the first pursuit clearly means her harm, the wooing from both Chase and God has only the best of intentions for her tender heart. I always love it when a book’s title has more than one meaning to the story, and Rodante nails it in this story!
Bottom Line: A Tennessee mountain setting, tense suspense, sweet romance, diverse & compelling characters. My kind of book. The story is well-paced, and you’ll want to be friends with all the main characters. While some parts of the plot become a bit predictable toward the end, you won’t care because of the smartly-drawn action and character development. It deals with timely real-life issues like opiod/prescription drug addiction from more than one angle. A swoony ending will put a smile on your face, and the message of restoration is clear without being preachy.
I voluntarily reviewed a complimentary copy of this book which I received from the author.
All views expressed are only my honest opinion.
About the Author
Linda was born and raised in Florida. She is married with two grown sons, a daughter-in-law, and three grandchildren. At twenty-six, she discovered the miraculous love of Jesus Christ. God blessed her with a passion for the written word—especially mysteries and romantic suspense novels, from Nancy Drew to Agatha Christie, from Dee Henderson to Kristen Heitzman. She speaks about and works against human trafficking. Visit her blog on this subject: Writing for God, Fighting Human Trafficking.
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What about you, dear readers? How have you been pursued by God?
La Familia Es Todo by Kathi Macias
Diversity Between the Pages 