Book Review - The Price of Valor

The Global Search and Rescue series from Susan May Warren goes out with a bang... a ka-boom... a ka-plow... and a whole lot of action for the entire team. The Price of Valor focuses on Hamilton Jones; we finally get Ham's book and learn more of his story. I love the way Warren writes her fiction as the story of what God does in the lives of Ham and the people around him. These characters, our GSAR family and friends, build each other up and support each other when things get hairy... and things get hairy in The Price of Valor, for sure!

We learned in The Heart of a Hero (Global Search and Rescue, book 2) that Hamilton Jones has been reunited with the darling daughter his wife Signe kept secret from him. Now he is more convinced than ever that Signe is alive and he is determined to find her, to bring her home, to redeem her to the family they could be together. The choices he has to make are unenviable, and the lessons in forgiveness and redemption are more easily said than done. 

With her trademark realism and frank conversation, Warren handles the struggles we all find in the depths of our human hearts and the truth of our Savior's love, grace, forgiveness. She calls out our own confusion through the struggles of her characters, who tend to feel (like we all do sometimes) that the battle is ours. When we, and they, are tempted to believe that our responsibility is to BE Jesus, we're refocused and reminded that our responsibility is to SHOW Jesus. Her characters may have much greater adventures than I do, but their struggles and lessons they learn are very relevant.

The Price of Valor by Susan May Warren releases October 6, 2020. You can preorder now from your favorite bookseller to make sure your copy lands in your hands ASAP.

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Thank you to Susan May Warren and Revell for allowing me a copy to read and review. Please know, dear reader, that the opinions stated in this review are my own and are completely unbiased.

Book Review - The Heart of a Hero

Susan May Warren's upcoming release, The Heart of a Hero, reunites us with our Global Search and Rescue family. Picking up on relationships we built in the first book, The Way of the Brave, this one focuses on the stormy one between Jake Silver and Aria Sinclair. But here's the deal, this is so much more than adventure. This is so much more than romance. This is...

Aria has been fighting all her life just to thrive, sometimes just to survive. But what really makes her Aria? And why can't she shake the need to be a bit Kia, as well?

Jake is the devil. Or is he? And he knows about grace, but is he really worthy?

And the bigger question: Are we defined by one part of who we are or by the whole? By our vision of ourselves or by God's?

When Jake and Aria are caught in the storm, what's left in the aftermath is well worth reading The Heart of A Hero. There's beauty to be found among the destruction, because sometimes we have to be broken to find the truth.

Thank you to Susan May Warren and to the publisher for allowing me a copy to read and review. Please know, dear reader, that the opinions stated in this review are my own and are completely unbiased.

Book Review - Way of the Brave

The Way of the Brave is the first installment of Susan May Warren's Global Search and Rescue series. We are introduced to a very interesting, if not immediately lovable, cast of characters. Orion Starr has his own demons to wrestle and he's not prepared to join ex-military buddies Hamilton and Jake on their global search and rescue team. Like Denali, the mountain that overshadows his very existence, Orion is cold, hard and unconquerable. Jenny Calhoun spends her life trying to outrun the demons that haunt her. Those demons collide when Orion, Ham, and Jake find themselves on a rescue mission to save Jenny and her friends, who have become lost on Denali. And when the falling ice finally settles, we get to the heart of the matter. "What if God lets us suffer so we can reach out to him for comfort and in that moment receive everything he wants for us?"

I have to say that I did not like Orion for most of the book. But then, he began to melt and crack, revealing his true nature and becoming more the man I had hoped he would be. Warren is a master at divulging just the right amount of information at just the right time to move the story along and keep the reader interested. She had me from the first sentence and holds me in anticipation of the next book in the series.

Thank you to the publisher for allowing me a copy of this book to read and review. The opinions stated in this review are my own and are my completely honest assessment.