Collateral Damage

Lynette Eason's new series, Danger Never Sleeps, has started off with a bang - yes, quite literally!

Collateral Damage will keep you up late reading because as expected - it's a page turner. Lynette Eason always delivers on her suspense & mystery. I thoroughly enjoyed the settings jumping back and forth from overseas to South Carolina. You could almost feel the emotion, energy and intenseness of the climate and surroundings. It brings to light the darkness and pain of being in war situations that leave so many with PTSD. Eason did a beautiful job of highlighting the healing that can happen when getting the necessary assistance of professionals in order to manage the pain.

I'm a big fan of strong female characters who have military careers. Not only does Eason do a great job of showing female strength, but she showcases incredible female relationships - no catty behavior in this book! I could write so much more as there are many more details I could highlight, but these are the ones that stood out to me. If you enjoy Colleen Coble, Irene Hannon or Dani Pettrey, you will enjoy Collateral Damage. This is a series that I will be waiting (not very patiently) for the next book to be released!

Maybe I shouldn't restart my search for a Christian romance book–ANY CHRISTIAN ROMANCE BOOK–worth reading while I'm also processing Kristin Kobes du Mez' Jesus and John Wayne, but I did. (I mean, we've got the shades of evangelical culture, conservative politics, gender roles, militarism, and merch: all on display here.) Seriously, guys: there must be some really good authors out there writing in this genre!! I keep cross-referencing book bloggers' recommendations with what my library catalogue has, and yet... Meh.

So, this book: At first I tried a book written a decade ago and quickly dropped it. The author has grown in skills and this title was better all around, especially in characterization and believably compared the the older one (about a firefighter, a high school reunion, a crooked senator, etc.; got through a few chapters.). I appreciated the researched detail about the military experience in Afghanistan. I liked that the group of badass women friends are capable of rescuing themselves, even when they do it in partnership with burly warrior types. The heroine did have a few TSTL moments when I was all: “Come on! You have a degree in psychology and training in surviving in conflict situations, and you make THAT choice?!?” (I guess after living overseas in some countries that the State Department doesn't recommend travel to I'm hard to impress.) I didn't really believe that the heroine was a psychologist, so I wished the author had researched that more.

I was also disappointed that (spoilers!) in the last chapter the romantic leads were like “I've loved you for ages!” “No way; me too!” and I was like “...??? ...Really???” No BTUs in that slow burn. It legit was a big surprise that they were supposed to be into each other the whole time.

In all: Plot tripped along. Characterization could be much better (some 2-D characters who just moved the plot along) but wasn't a deal breaker. Capable women (mostly) who engaged their world and worked in partnership with capable men to solve problems. (Capable people! With specialized training! So attractive!) I won't be seeking out more by this author, so my quest for books in this genre continues.

What an intense story! This one's a thriller with no-holds-barred action! The story starts in Afghanistan, but when the characters come back to the US, the mystery only grows bigger. When Brooke comes back to the states after her assignment, she isn't expecting the war to follow her home.

I sympathized with Brooke easily, especially as she sees friends hurt and killed by the relentless folks after her. While I did manage to work out what was going on fairly early, I didn't feel that the plot was easily figured out—I've simply been reading a lot of Eason lately and even reread several parts on the instinct that there was some clue on that page.

The crime is gross and tragic. In the light of recent events news reports of Chinese political prisoners, especially Christians, being sold for body parts the premise of the crime was sadly not far-fetched in the least. Black-market organs is something that both scares me and grosses me out, and it wasn't a shock to find out the bodies in the mass grave were from that.

The action is very intense and at times they don't even have an inch to spare in their escape. And at the end, when there isn't an inch, I was ready to audibly yell at the characters to avoid the obvious (to me) trap. Sarah and Brooke both walk into one of those at some point and I was on the edge of my seat and a nervous wreck during those scenes!

An excellent thriller.

Thanks to the publisher for a free reading copy. A favorable review was not required.