A week late-a review and giveaway!

So I was supposed to post this LAST Monday, but unfortunately life got in the way and I didn't even finish this book until late, late Saturday night (as in two days ago). I don't remember the last time it took me that long to finish a book that was just over 300 pages! But this past week was so busy that I went two, three days in a row without reading! That's just unheard of for me. But, without further ado, here's my review:






Enduring Justice
by Amy Wallace
313 pages



Official Summary:
In Enduring Justice, Hanna Kessler’s childhood secret has remained buried for over two decades. But when the dark shadows of her past threaten to destroy those she loves, Hanna must face the summer that changed her life and the man who still haunts her thoughts.

Crimes Against Children FBI Agent, Michael Parker knows what it means to get knocked down. And when the system fails and a white supremacist is set free, Michael’s drive for retribution eclipses all else.

A racist’s well-planned assault forces Hanna and Michael to decide between executing vengeance and pursuing justice. When the attack turns personal, is healing still possible?

This thought-provoking novel deals with healing from sexual abuse, the balance of justice and mercy, and maintaining mixed-race friendships in the midst of racial tension. Readers who enjoy investigative thrillers by Dee Henderson, Colleen Coble, and Catherine Coulter, and who watch crime dramas like Law & Order: SVU, Criminal Minds, and Without a Trace will love this book—and the entire series.



My thoughts:



This book definitely had a lot going on. There was a lot of action, some technical FBI-style jargon to keep it real, and a lot of emotion coming from the characters. The characters themselves, well first, there were a LOT of them. Lots and lots of characters which I think would have been much easier to keep track of if I would have been able to read this book in a few days, rather than over an expanse of 7 or 8. But it was fairly easy to get them all straight again once I got back into it.

Different sections of the book were written in the point of view of three of the major characters. This was kind of interesting because you got the POV of Hannah, the woman surrounded by FBI guys her whole life who gets the sacrifices they make for the job, but who can't quite understand why, Michael, the FBI guy just trying to find some justice in the world, and Sean, the white supremacist. Switching the POVs ended up being a really good tool for Amy Wallace to use to create several different story lines, get the reader invested into each one, then bring them together at the end.

I felt like the back story to the characters was really important, but very slow to come out. I think that I would have liked to have known more about the past of the three main characters in larger chunks. For example, Sean kept referring to his father and finishing what he had started but then you'd only get a little snippet of what his father had done, then maybe another little snippet a couple chapters later. The same went for Hannah and Michael's past relationship, how they met, and what had happened between them. I feel like I would have liked to know MORE! But, regardless, I did find myself really rooting for Hannah and Michael, and hoping the Sean got caught sooner rather than later.

What I didn't know when I read the summary of this book was that there was going to be a Christian theme to it, which is something that I really don't normally read. I lot of times, I feel like they can tend to get a little preachy. But, this one really wasn't at all. There were several mentions of God, and praying, but it was pretty much all things that I could expect in any storyline involving a character dealing with the intense stuff in this book. So, it ended up being a good reminder of how difficult it can sometimes be to "keep the faith" and believe that everything will come out right and that justice will prevail, and sometimes things are just out of your own hands. It definitely didn't come off as preachy, and really most of what was mentioned could be applied to any religious background since you don't have to be any particular religion to have faith or pray that things will work out. (I guess the only exceptions in this book being a mention of a christian singer and Veggietales, but hey, can't blame someone for a pop-culture reference).

Overall, I'd give this book 7 out of 10 stars. I know there are certain people that I would recommend it to, and others that I probably won't. But, it was a good read especially if you are into to crime-FBI style dramas.

Now, I'm giving away a copy of the book Enduring Justice by Amy Wallace! Just leave a comment for this post for one entry, follow this blog for an extra entry, or blog about this giveaway in your blog for another entry (please post extra entries in the comments as well)! Contest ends Friday at 4pm EST. Thanks all!!

And if you don't win the book, you can find it here.