A Book Review

I’m finding e-books on my Kindle frequently contain formatting errors. Usually it’s the page format that’s off with the page number and page title appearing in the middle of the “page” on my Kindle. In this instance, any word spelled with two f’s, the f’s were omitted. So office appeared as o ice, suffice appeared as su ice, etc. It was a tad bit difficult to read.

Here’s the book description from Amazon.com:

Charlotte Graham is at the center of the most famous kidnapping in Chicago history.

The task force of FBI and local cops found her two abductors, killed them, rescued her, but it took four very long years. The fact she was found less than three miles from her home, had been there the entire time, haunts them. She's changed her identity, found a profession she loves, and rebuilt her life.

She's never said a word--to the cops, to her doctors, to family--about those four years.
A family legacy has brought her back to Chicago where a reporter is writing a book about the kidnapping. The cops who worked the case are cooperating with him. Her options are limited: Hope the reporter doesn't find the full truth, or break her silence about what happened. And her silence is what has protected her family for years.

Bryce Bishop doesn't know her past, he only knows she has coins to sell from her grandfather's estate--and that the FBI director for the Chicago office made the introduction. The more he gets to know Charlotte, the more interested he becomes, an interest encouraged by those closest to her. But nothing else is working in his favor--she's decided she is single for life, she struggles with her faith, and she's willing to forego a huge inheritance to keep her privacy. She's not giving him much of an opening to work with.

Charlotte wants to trust him. She needs to tell him what happened. Because a crime cops thought was solved, has only opened another chapter...

Yeah, it sounds like a really interesting read. Unfortunately there’s too much going on. About a third of the book involves Charlotte selling coins to Bryce. Ms. Henderson provides detail upon detail upon detail upon detail about the coin selling business. It completely bogs the story line, which is particularly unfortunate.  I found myself skimming most of these pages.

Then we learn Charlotte has inherited a lot of money. A. Lot. Of. Money. She doesn’t want a single dime of it. Bryce knows there’s a lot of good that could be done with the money so he and Charlotte marry and Bryce takes on giving the money away to various charities.

In between all this, a reporter is writing a book about Charlotte’s kidnapping. She’s never told anyone the details, because the kidnapper is still at large. As if that’s not enough, we learn two of Bryce’s friends are looking into a cold case – a baby that was kidnapped around the same time as Charlotte.

Whew! Like I said, there’s a lot of stu  (see what I did here? Deleted the double f’s? Lol.) happening in this book. The additional plotlines tended to reduce the natural flow of the book. Charlotte’s kidnapping is resolved but in no way satisfactory to the reader.

What I did like about the book was Charlotte’s struggle with her faith. God forgives and Charlotte has trouble with Him forgiving the men who kidnapped and hurt her. It’s a very real struggle and Ms. Henderson handles it beautifully through Bryce.

I received this e-book from Bethany House in exchange for an honest review.