Serial Burn by Lynette Eason Book Review

About the Book:

Now the fire marshal of Lake City, Jesslyn McCormick is determined to find the person who started the fire that robbed her of her family when she was just seven years old. As the twentieth anniversary of the tragedy approaches, a string of fires--including at Jesslyn's church--brings up all those old feelings and offers new evidence.

Because church fires are considered a hate crime, FBI Special Agent Nathan Carlisle is called in to work with local law enforcement. Nathan has his own past--one he'd prefer not to revisit. And focusing on helping Jesslyn track down the arsonist is a great distraction.

As both the case and the chemistry between Jesslyn and Nathan heat up, memories will come flooding in from the past to bump up against hopes for the future. And when Jesslyn comes face-to-face with her worst nightmare, she'll have to confront her fears and rely on Nathan and her community of friends in order to survive.

My Review:

I liked this inspirational romantic suspense. I liked that Nathan and Jessyln have the potential for romance but do their necessary work first. It was interesting that both characters had tragedy caused by fire in their history. Nathan had to face his past and develop, with the help of counseling, his own well being. It was a bit odd that Nathan's brother, a psychiatrist, had not come to the same place of well being. The character development of the heroes was done well and the plot kept the story moving along. The climax is suspenseful and required exact arrangement of timing by the villain. Jessyln wondered how it could have worked out and so did I. I am not sure the character development and revelation of the villain was entirely consistent.

Eason covers a number of issues in the novel. Healing from past mistakes is a big one. Along with that is the necessity of forgiveness for past actions, including a strong faith message. The plot includes marital infidelity and allusions to child mistreatment in foster care.

This is a good inspirational romantic suspense and continuation of the Lake City Heroes series. Each novel in the series focuses on a different character so each can be read alone. You can read my reviews of the earlier books in the series: Double Take and Target Acquired.

My rating: 4/5 stars.

 

About the Author:

Award-winning, best-selling author, Lynette Eason writes for Harlequin's Love Inspired Suspense line and for Revell, a division of Baker Publishing Group. Her books have hit the Publisher's Weekly, CBA and ECPA bestseller lists and have won numerous awards such as the prestigious Carol Award, the Selah, the Daphne, the IRCC award and more. Lynette is married, has two children, and lives in Greenville, SC.

Revell, 320 pages.

I received a complimentary egalley of this book from the publisher. My comments are an independent and honest review.