Jason is not the kind of guy you would want to take home to mom. He’s foul tempered, a bit of a womanizer and has a conscience that has been collecting dust for years. All that is shaken up though, when he unearths a package of carefully preserved love letters and a portrait while diving off the coast of Africa. So many unanswered questions, the letters snag something inside of him. Intrigued despite himself, he begins to unravel the mystery caught up in pages. He finds himself tangled up in the life of a girl he’s never met... a girl who is in desperate trouble.
Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free ~ John 8:32
Dianne J. Wilson writes across genres including YA Fantasy and Romantic Suspense. Weaving Invisible into words, she explores spiritual truth woven through ordinary life with equal dashes of breathless adventure and tongue-in-cheek humor, all soaked in God's Grace. She writes in stolen moments, usually in the back seat of her tiny car.
Her home is in Makhanda, a South African university town, where she lives with her hubby and three daughters who all take turns at being home. Her love-language is tea and taking long drives to listen to new songs with her girls. When she’s not stuck in her car writing, you can find her feeding all the hungry people in her house who gaze at her expectantly around mealtimes.
Incredible story! This book is very honest about struggles with trusting God and had me hooked from the beginning. Watching Jason and Rebecca come closer and closer to finding each other and seeing the other characters' lives woven together was a joy. Great read!
Rebecca wakes in the middle of the night to a fright, and an audible warning to get out — to run.
While diving, Jason finds preserved letters and a picture of a woman in a shipwreck from nearly 20 years before. The letters were from a man named Stanton to his love. In the letters he talks about the baby, Rebecca, their baby. The letters were so private and compelling that even this playboy can't help but feel a deep connection and empathy for Stanton and his lost love. This starts a search, a very complicated, bordering on convoluted search for Rebecca, who could still be alive, and for her father, Stanton.
Aided by bizarre visions, dreams and voices, Jason, through charm and honesty, finds clues. Apparently Jason isn't the only one looking for her. A bad guy was hunting her. The family she worked for realizes she's missing and one member tries to find her. Once Stanton becomes aware she's alive, he funds the search for her as well.
Meanwhile, a whole cast of people enter this story, some with recurring roles, some just for a time to help Rebecca or Jason.
Much of the story was interesting, but much of it was just too far fetched and disjointed. A number of things didn't add up, and towards the end, even though the gospel is told in detail, there were just too many "signs" and puzzle pieces that didn't work well for me to appreciate the Christian Fiction part of the book.
I don't know. This is a story I'd never read again, nor would I recommend it. It doesn't compare to so many really good books I've read, so two stars is all I can offer.
I thoroughly enjoyed this book! It is refreshing to read a work of Christian fiction that is written with both passion and intelligence. Wilson has a gift for description and vernacular which make her characters come to life layer by layer in a believable and relatable way. The various plots come together in a complex and seamless way leaving no frustration of loose ends. I love the unexpected plot twists and the raw emotions. So often in Christian fiction, the characters and storylines are overly sugar-coated as if to distinguish them as Christian. But just because one decides to follow Christ doesn't mean his or her life will be easy or void of struggle. Christians still face pain, hardship, loss, grief, ridicule, anger, confusion, doubt, longing, love...all of it. It's all about having Faith in the One who sees you through it and helps you overcome it! That is why this book resonates with me.
Jason is not the one who goes to church every Sunday and follows the Ten Commandments. Jason is reckless and a bit of a womanizer with his good looks and charming smile. But, when Jason goes diving and finds love letters, his life is changed forever. These letters are to a woman whose child might still be alive. Jason sets off to find this lady he has never seen before. Throughout his journey, Jason realizes one thing, and it is that "The truth will set you free"
It wasn't bad. This book was confusing with the way It changed the POV all of the time. I thought I would be able to get used to it, but it was hard. The actual storyline was very entertaining and insightful. Some of the things that happened to Rebecca didn't seem believable, but you never know when it comes to God. I found a lot of great things in here that I could use as prayers at night or in the morning. My favorite character was... I don't know. There was too much POV going on that I got lost in all the confusion. Guess that means I don't have a favorite character either. I did like Hazel though. The way she would pray all the time was refreshing. When she didn't know what to do, she prayed, and it helped by drastically changing the situation, which didn't make sense at all. ***SPOILER*** I personally didn't like the relationship between Rebecca and Jason. I think she would have done better with Shane because they knew each other and got along very well.
What happened to the officer when he confessed? Was there a marriage after the end of the book? How did a hermit become part of society again? I need a sequel to this well-written story! I couldn't put the book down!!!
Love this book from the beginning to the very end. There are lots of Mystery and Suspense. God's word "remove the shackles that bind you and the truth will set you free" when you accept his amazing love. I highly recommend this book to the young and old.
This was painful to read. As a non-religious person I have no problem reading books with religious themes. However, religion is more than a theme in Shackles. It’s the entire story. The characters are painfully stereotypical and the only character development is whether or not they find God. The storyline could have been interesting, but the characters were so flat and the writing so dull that the story quickly lost any interest. If this weren’t one of the only free books available on Kindle in Indonesia I would never have picked it up.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
First, I have to say I had never read a book written by a South African author, nor a story set in that country before. Dianne Wilson made a pleasant first impression.
The author definitely began her tale with a great "hook": Rebecca awakens from sleep with the intense urge to flee from her home. At that precise moment, someone is at the door of her bedroom, trying to force his way in. She climbs out the second floor window and hurts her shoulder, and then runs out to the road and is struck by a car. The kindly Christian couple who found her takes her to a hospital. But she doesn't remember who she is.
Meanwhile, Jason, a college professor and night club DJ, has a strange dream of his own. He finds a box full of love letters in a sunken ship while diving and is determined to track down the lovers who penned them and the identity of the dark-haired, blue-eyes beauty in the portrait he found with the letters. He starts hearing a voice in his head, guiding him to a series of divine appointments that keep him on track, and He keeps seeing strange visions that his mother tells him are from God.
Jason's quest involves his two roommates, whose personalities and senses of humor provide wonderful comic relief. While they get closer to finding the girl, her former employer's son is searching for her, too. However Claude's motives are more sinister. Her wants to force Rebecca to be his.
Although resistant toward God at first because He let Jason's sister die, Jason eventually yields to the Lord's leading. He is instrumental in helping several others learn the truth and experience healing and freedom--including the object of his affection.
I read this free eBook on my Kindle and was quite absorbed by it for three days. I did find several typos in it--primarily words omitted here and there, and a homophone that meant something entirely different than the author meant to say. I loved how she included words from Afrikaans and other South African languages with links to a glossary at the back of the book.
If you are looking for a unique, but compelling story with romance, action, mystery, suspense and humor, this is delightful combination of all of the above. For a bonus, you get several love stories and a Christian message! Due to the subject matter, I would recommend that it not be read by anyone under the age of 16, though.
Shackles: The truth will set you free was an inspiring tale that was filled with interesting characters, and an increasingly intriguing plot that kept me from putting the book down. The story was fast paced and held my attention to the point where I almost finished the whole thing in one sitting. The plot was thrilling and not overly complicated which I liked. I thought it was so cool how Jason discovered the secret of the shipwreck and how it led him all over Africa as he searched for the missing piece of the puzzle. I really enjoyed watching the characters develop and grow throughout the story, and I grew to love them deeply (though it was just a little hard with Jason at first, though I didn't dislike him it was just hard to love him at first). I love that the story was set in Africa which was interesting and new, but I also really liked how the characters were closely related to me in age which was refreshing (most YA novels that I've read recently are more geared toward 13-17 year olds, so it was nice to have some twenty something characters for a change).
I also found the novel very encouraging, and I was sad when it ended, but my heart was lighter and I felt really refreshed after reading it. The theme of Christianity is strong, but it's not preachy or in your face. I myself am a Christian, but sometimes even I find it hard to read some Christian books because they're overly religious. Christianity is about following Christ, not about religion and hard hearts, and in this novel I wholeheartedly saw the former and not that latter. It was filled with love and encouragement that was both sensible and kind and I really enjoyed that about it.
Even though this book's characters are a little older I think that teens and even pre-teens would find this book appealing. It's clean and not inappropriate in any ways that would make me not want to share it with the younger people I know. I would recommend this book to anyone who enjoys a good story.
I'm hoping to see more books like this one from Dianne J. Wilson in the future!
I loved this book. I was intrigued by the title and the description. It was so much better than both. This story is of a young girl running for her life and how she is saved by God through human means. It is a Christian read that uses scriptural references to help with the best points. The story is for teens to older folks like me. No swearing and very minor typing errors. I chose this book as my free selection of the month and want to keep it in my personal library forever!
I have read many Christian books that are great, however this one makes you truly stop and ponder how great our God is and how He works.
If you are in doubt about understanding the lengths He will go to to make you His, please read this book. Read it slowly and with much thought. Digest it completely, then pass it on to someone who has doubts as to whether God can work in their life! It is comforting reading! Get the years ready though!
I had a really hard time getting into this book. There were so many characters and points of view but you never knew who was actually talking when it switched between them.
Overall it was a good story line but there were too many things I couldn't get past to fully enjoy it.
I thought it was well written. As someone else mentioned, the story jumps around a lot and its had to follow the different characters. Once you get past this, the story picks up. It does talk a lot about God and the path to finding him. So best suited for people who believe in God.
This book is great. Set in South Africa in the mid-80s, Shackles tells the story of a young orphan girl, Rebecca, who longs to discover who she really is.
Meanwhile, Jason discovers a package of carefully preserved letters that will change his life forever. Filled with curiosity, he begins to unravel the mystery between the pages. Soon, he finds himself entangled in the life of a girl he’s never met, a girl who is in trouble. Her story not only inspires him to become a better person, but also awakes in him a desire to finally listen to his conscience.
I couldn’t stop reading this book from the moment I opened it. One of the things I liked the most about it was the way in which the characters mature throughout the story. As I read the book, I came to love Jason and Rebecca deeply. Besides, I found them to be really relatable and authentic characters.
I was also inspired by how they learned to be faithful despite the difficulties, and how this helped them when facing challenges.
It is a story packed with warmth, gentleness, and a powerful message. If you are looking for a mysterious, deep story, you should definitely read Shackles.
Shackles is a Christian Romantic Suspense novel set in South Africa. Jason is a history teacher who has a passion for diving. He recently discovered a metal box under a floorboard on a submerged ship. Inside the box are letters and two pictures. He becomes obsessed with figuring out the story behind the box’s contents. He has a recurring dream in which he sees a group of people with shackles on their arms and legs heading toward an abyss. Then he begins to hear a voice and he see shackles on people around him. The pages turn rapidly as he tries to unravel the mystery.
I really liked the storyline in this book. It was intriguing and the pages almost turned themselves. I did not, however, buy into all the supernatural elements of the story. The book is relatively clean. It does have a few curse words and there is some non-graphic violence. There are no sex scenes, though there is a rape plotted. I recommend this to anyone who likes a good mystery with a bit of romance.
On a diving expedition, Jason found a box with letters and a portrait. From there, he felt pulled to find out who the girl from the portrait is and if she was still alive… Unfortunately, I found the whole plot too unrealistic and preachy. I know and believe God can use anyone to speak to and through. But I did not connect to a character who, for years and until his eyes fell on this specific portrait, had no personal relationship with God and all of a sudden, decided to obey His voice. The character became a believer very fast and just as abruptly, was mature in his faith. I don’t feel comfortable sharing this book with friends who are not believers or have a shaking foundation. Though it describes a certain way God can speak to His children, the journey the characters went through are rare in its simplicity (in my experience at least, life is not that easy, not even for believers). However, the story was fascinating.
This is really a beautiful read that I found hard to put down. The anticipation and the excitement kept up till near the end. The title is very apt, and the story does convey the clear message about learning, accepting and living the truth. The story line is not very predictable, and that does make it a good read. There were a few typographical errors, but that is no cause to let up on a book like this!!! I'd recommend it to anyone who would like to draw inspiration to trust in God, even thought this may be a work of fiction, God's ways are really just as it depicts, and his thoughts are as high above ours as are the skies, and his watch care and protection like his love, never fail.
Jason Halloway likes to go diving, it's a hobby of his. One day while diving he comes across a carefully preserved portrait of a woman and her daughter, as well a strong box, in a ship wreck. Upon going back to his boat, he starts to read the letters that are contained in the strong box, and looks at the portrait into the eyes of the little girl in the portrait. It soon becomes his mission to find out who the mother, daughter, and apparently the father, according to the letters, are, and he won't stop, until he's successful. This a great book, I found hard to put down. I hope you enjoy it as much as I did.
This was a good story and actually I found it related to a problem I’ve been dealing with regarding fears. While logically I know and believe God is watching over me and guiding my life, my fear of airplanes could equate to Rebecca’s fear of the ocean. This was a long, complicated story with a lot of characters to keep track of. I had to keep reminding myself who they were and how they fit into the story. It all came together at the end and the author was able to tie up all the loose ends and characters. The way the author worked God’s Word into the story was natural and faith-based, a reminder is all of God’s love for each of us.
This book was a really good book about doing something for someone but not knowing the outcome but having faith that it will work out for good. When Jason started the journey he was hopefully he would find Rebecca but in what condition he wasn't sure. He refused to listen to the voice he was hearing or he would have found her faster but when he did everything fell into place. Glad that Rebecca decided to save Claude as well despite what his intentions were. For me this book showed persistence regardless if there would be a positive outcome, faith even though there was hopeless at one point and forgiveness although the person didn't deserve it.
One of the most engaging and compelling books I have ever read. I really had a hard time laying it down. It realistically shows how the Holy Spirit works in our lives. I can identify with the use of visions experienced by characters in the story. It is exciting seeing the building of suspense as the story unfolds. It encourages one in faith and the relationships that we need to have with our Lord and the people in our lives. This book would make a fantastic movie! I look forward to reading more books from Dianne J. Wilson.