Review: No One To Trust

No One To Trust (Hidden Identity - Book 1) by Lynette Eason

Publication Date: 01/07/2014
Publisher: Baker Publishing Group
Imprint: Revell Books
Genre: Christian/Inspiration
Pages: 336
ISBN-10: 0800722086
ISBN-13: 978-0800722081

(Received for an honest review from Revell Books)

Purchase: Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Book Depository, ChristianBook, Indiebound

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Excerpt from, No One To Trust, courtesy of Amazon's Look Inside feature.

Synopsis:

Summer Abernathy wakes up one morning to find her husband missing, three men in her home intent on finding him, and the life she's been living based on a lie. Which Kyle Abernathy did she marry? The computer programmer she met in line at the bank? Or the one who was apparently using that image as a cover story?

The search for her husband--and answers--takes Summer ever deeper into a world of organized crime where people are used one moment and discarded the next. And with her deepest relationship of trust already shattered, Summer doesn't know who to believe.

Always thrilling, Lynette Eason outdoes herself in this taut, breakneck story of lies, loyalties, and love that will have readers up all night to discover the truth hidden in the shadows.

Thoughts:

Lynette Eason takes readers on a thrill ride with the first book in her Hidden Identity series, No One to Trust. With a high speed pace and so many secrets and lies to untangle, this one is a suspense lover's dream. Eason is able to not only entertain readers with the secret identity of Kyle Abernathy, but also teach a lesson about the importance of truth and honesty and where to place ones trust. Eason's trademark short chapters, surprising twists are present in this one in high doses and readers will be on the edge of their seats from start to finish.

What I liked:

I like a good suspense novel to be sure and this one was beyond my expectations, as far as, the action and drama was concerned. Lynette Eason grips the reader on the first page of this book and races to the finish. I liked hanging on for dear life in this one. Eason has a knack for making her books read like action movies and this one is no different. It was like a reel playing in my head and it was very difficult to put down. Eason uses a lot of different plot devices to keep the reader flipping those pages including a mafia theme and plenty of twists and turns that reader won't see coming. I think that is the beauty of writing at such a frantic pace, the reader never knows what to expect and almost always is surprised.

I loved Summer, she was such a good lead character. Her world is being completed turned on it's head, yet she hangs in there and does what she has to do. I liked the fact that Eason makes this story all about truth and trust. Summer has been fed a pack of lies here and she has a hard time sorting through all of it, but throughout she knows she loves this man no matter who he is. She stood her ground and kept her faith as the basis of everything she did. She was strong and courageous and such a good heroine. I took an instant liking to her and really pulled for her to be able to figure this all out.

I was on the fence about Kyle/David for awhile here. I understand that he needed to have been involved with these terrible, terrible people in order for the story to work. But I ask myself a time or two how someone could get involved with pure evil. How he could lead a completely double life and not tell is wife, who he obviously loves any of this. Even if it was a WITSEC issue, I don't know if I could have kept all of that to myself knowing that the person I loved was in danger. But when it came down to it, he loved her and he was trying to get past a dark time in his life when he wasn't doing the right thing ad I admired that about his character.

One of the things that gave me the heebie jeebies about this book was the fact that it was believable. We don't want to think about these kinds of things happening in the real world, but it's obvious that this one could have been a real headline. The villain was about as evil a character as I have seen in any of Eason's books to date. He just exuded cruelty and his penchant for snakes was a bit on the creepy side. Altogether that made it a little hard to digest because of the reality factor. Eason did a fantastic job of driving that point home.

The pace was sooooo fast. I loved every second of it. The short chapters remind me of one of the greats in the genre, James Patterson. His chapters are really short to and boy does it work. It works for Eason to here, driving the reader to keep reading. You just have to know where Summer and Kyle for from here. I loved the preview of the next book in the back of this one as well, because it kind of starts you out on another break neck speed journey and then boom... it's over. Can't wait to read it.

What I didn't like:

There wasn't anything I didn't like about this one. It will most certainly appeal to the Christian Inspirational crowd, but it will also cross the barrier and make the romantic suspense bunch take notice. Eason is a fantastic writer and she is certainly in her stride right now, with three great series'. 

Bottom Line:

If you like romantic suspense, you can't afford to miss this one. It's one of the best I've read in a while.

Available January 2014 at your favorite bookseller from Revell, a division of Baker Publishing Group. 

I'm giving this one 5 out of 5 apples from my book bag!

About the Author:

Lynette Eason is the bestselling author of the Women of Justice series and the Deadly Reunions series. She is a member of American Christian Fiction Writers and Romance Writers of America. She has a master's degree in education from Converse College and she lives in South Carolina. Find out more at www.lynetteeason.com.