**I received a copy of this novel for review through Netgalley.**
The premise of this story appealed to me, which is why I applied to read it through Netgalley. To be honest though, had I been aware that this was actually Christian fiction (which wasn't overtly obvious on that site) then I highly doubt I would have ever requested it in the first place. It's certainly not a badly written read, but for me, the constant references to God, Jesus and forgiveness were just far too much and really dominated the storyline. I realise that comes down to a matter of personal taste however and I'm sure a lot of readers will really love this book.
This is the second in the 'Justice Seekers' series (nope, I haven't read the first) and focuses on journalist Riley, whose career is hanging by a thread. When personal circumstances allow her path to cross with that of teenager Jasmine, she realises that the potential scoop for a story could lie right under her nose: Jasmine's father has been imprisoned for a crime that no one in his family believes he committed- and after a bit of digging, Riley starts to believe it too. With the help of local Police Commissioner Hayden, Riley sets out to prove the man's innocence, never questioning the danger that it may pose to her own life in the process...
See, great premise- and the writing was actually well done too and certainly held my attention. I have to say though, that I wasn't exactly wild about any of the characters; Riley, the main female protagonist is self-centred and Emily, one of the secondary characters is a complete spoiled brat. I suppose the male lead, Hayden, was sweet enough, albeit a bit 'goody goody.' The strongest character was actually teenager Jasmine, who makes a few fleeting appearances and definitely wasn't utilised enough in this book. I personally think its hard to care about what is happening plot-wise when the characters in the action just don't excite you at all, which was regrettably what I found here.
Speaking of the plot, there was some good tension and a few well-paced twists and turns, though I did find the ending obvious and 'whodunnit' was evident part-way through when a not so subtle hint was dropped as to one of the main features about him. CLANG. Also, I feel I must add that the Kindle format that I received for review was completely screwed up, with no page breaks whatsoever and scenes that ran into each other continually, which did make the reading process a bit harder for me to understand. This did not have any bearing on my overall rating of the book, but certainly affected the ease of me reading the novel itself- so Kindle readers beware!
This aside, I think that if you are a fan of the crime/suspense genre and you aren't too picky or not as to whether Christian themes impinge on the plot, then this is a novel that will appeal to you. There are a lot of themes covered throughout, the main ones being redemption, acceptance and forgiveness. It was fairly easy reading that posed some interesting questions too, though unfortunately I don't think I would be in a rush to read further books from this author.