Dangerous Alternative

by Kelli Hughett

Summer in Southern California doesn’t get any hotter than this.

When Levi Boulter agrees to work for the FBI behind the scenes in Hollywood, he never plans on becoming an operative—or on keeping a deadly secret from the love of his life.
On the night he plans to propose to his girlfriend, Mahari Gillaspie, he’s attacked by a killer and thrown into fully operational status. Despite his lack of training, his job is to thwart a plan to assassinate the President’s wife, putting everyone he knows, including Mahari, in danger. He’s determined to keep the woman he loves safe, even if it means losing her forever.

When Mahari steps off the cruise ship she’s worked for months, she dreams of a future with Levi and an acupuncture practice of her own. Mahari’s faith in Levi is shattered when she stumbles upon Levi and a beautiful actress. Their relationship lays in ashes, but she feels called by God to silence her broken heart in order to treat Levi’s injuries after he’s injured in an explosion, but he slams the door on her efforts. Later, she’s plunged into the heart of the trouble when she finds Levi’s landlord murdered.

Will Levi’s secret divide them forever, or will they come together in time to stop an assassination?

Genres: Suspense

130 pages, Kindle Edition

Published September 23, 2016

Reviews

[Cate · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 stars. This one wasn't my favorite among the Smoke and Mirrors collection. This one felt very edgy (as opposed to some of the other Christian suspense books in this collection) and the plot was a little confusing to keep up with. But the characters were both well-written, and the ending was satisfying.

[Joleen · Rating 3 out of 5]

The premise of this novella was hard to believe. And FBI agent who has kept his job, a secret from the woman he loves (Mahara) for four years was a bit far-fetched. He didn't do anything that she couldn't know about. I mean his missions could have been kept a secret, but she could've known that he was an FBI agent. Plus he was in intelligence gatherer. He wasn't an operative, but suddenly he's thrust into dangerous situations with a pharmaceutical company that wants to kill the president's wife, and they seem to think he's dangerous and need to kill him too. They succeed in wounding and killing people around him but not him. All of that made no sense to me. Plus when he thinks his girlfriend might be in danger, instead of just telling her she needed to stay away, and pretend they were breaking up, he sets up an actress to pretend they were having an affair and Mahara was to walk in on it and then break up with him. It was all so stupid.
And it got worse.
The author actually writes quite well, but the plot was not well thought out. I'd pass on this one.

[Patricia · Rating 2 out of 5]

The idea that a huge conspiracy was a foot lead by big pharmaceutical companies because the president supported alternative medicine just seemed far fetched to me, so I struggled with that throughout the book. Also, I do not think the author convinced me of the necessity of Levi having to do the work he did for the FBI (exactly what WAS he doing?) nor fully convinced me as to the mistake of the level of his involvement by the bad guys. Consequently, I scan read the entire book--an automatic two-star rating.