I received this book for free from the library in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.
Source: the library
Backfire
by
Elizabeth Goddard
contemporary romance in Paperback edition that was published by Love Inspired on June 2, 2015 and has 224 pages.
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Third in the Mountain Cove Christian romance series and revolving around a small, almost inaccessible small town in Alaska. The couple focus is on Tracy Murray and David Warren.
My Take
Christ, this was bad. The story is cute enough, but the execution…yeah, execution is the right word. Keeping in mind that I’m an agnostic and don’t particularly enjoy religious anything (so it may color my review), Goddard was an annoying writer.
She kept repeating thoughts and conversations. Enough so, that my eyes started rolling without thought from me. In some respects, I think Goddard has had some sort of therapy that requires restating what someone has said to you to ensure you’ve heard it correctly, giving the other speaker a chance to correct any misunderstandings. It’s a great technique in boss-underling or an argumentative situation, but please, not in ordinary conversations.
Then there’s the premise: a witness who has gone into hiding but not in WITSEC. Fine and good. I can understand not wanting to cut all ties to one’s family. But she keeps whining on and on about WITSEC, hiding from the bad guy, worrying about her family, oh woe, the trouble she has brought onto the town. She must leave, disappear, and then the bad guy won’t come after her family or friends.
Huh? You mean, if she disappears, then the bad guy’s interest in her family will disappear? I don’t think so. He’s gonna keep taking people out whether she’s there or not. The way Tracy leads David on is so annoying, even if it is consistent with Tracy’s stupidity. Goddard does not make this believable at all. I know that writers do make I want him, I don’t want him a part of the conflict, but they do a much better job.
Then there is their similar but separate guilt over how they caused the deaths of their loved ones. Dang, that called for an eye roll that sank mah eyes down to mah toes. Gag. Yes, it means they can never love again. And, yep, it means that melodrama is rife, only this melodrama is really low key. I suspect it’s because Goddard is all tell. There is no show in this, so Goddard doesn’t pull you into the story.
There’s no lead-up in the small things as Goddard jumps without her characters needing to think. Hmm, okay, that’s not fair of me. Goddard doesn’t have her characters doing any productive thinking, so she is being consistent. So am I. Being consistent. I do not like Goddard’s writing at all.
How can anyone be so lame as to not think of where strangers might be congregating?? Duh. More duh, is that solution at the end. Why wouldn’t she have thought of it before? At the least, she could have changed her name on her own. It wouldn’t mean abandoning her family. Major duh.
I do like the town and the people are very nice. But it’s not worth suffering through the story. I’d only recommend this to people who love Christian romances and don’t pay attention to how it’s written. And don’t want to be emotionally involved in it.
The Story
He’s found her, and he’s burning down businesses and homes of anyone who has contact with her.
She has to leave.
The Characters
Tracy Murray was an editor in her other life. Now she’s the whiny, stupid, lame-ass woman in hiding from the man she put away in prison and working as a maid-of-all-work at a B&B in Mountain Cove. Solomon is her air-scenting search-and-rescue dog. He rescued her as well. Derrick was the investigative reporter she’d almost married. Her family (Gina is her mom; Carol is her sister) refused WITSEC, so she did too. Jewel is her friend and runs the B&B.
David Warren is a firefighter these days, retired from his days as a wildfire fighter after he lost his wife, Natalie, in a house fire. The guilt is killing this whiny man. To be fair, he is a decent man who wants to help. Adam, Isaiah (he’s married to Heidi), and Cade (Leah is his wife and Scott is their baby son) are his brothers. Katy is their beloved grandmother.
Jay Woodall is the hiker who’s shoved off a cliff. Veronica is a grocery store clerk. Billy is a float plane pilot. Winters is the chief of police in Mountain Cove. Marshal Hanes is Tracy’s contact regarding future WITSEC possibilities. Detective Palmer is running the investigation in Missouri. John and Kari Nash are David’s friends on the Kenai Peninsula.
Carlos Santino is the gang leader in jail because of Tracy’s testimony. Clarence Mercado is one of his.
The Cover and Title
The cover is a forest fire with leaping, roiling flames and smoke in a stand of tall pines.
The title is how Tracy is rescued, a Backfire of biblical revenge.
