If you are looking for a fast-paced romantic suspense with strong faith elements, then you need to check out Cascade by Linda Rodante. The book starts out running and never really lets up. There are gunshots, arson, and bears (plural), oh my! And while not targeted at first, main characters Crista and Sid are all in on the investigation and the danger. What first attracted me to this novel was the setting — the mountain area of Tennessee. So similar to my home in northeast Georgia with its abundance of hiking trails and waterfalls, my hometown doesn’t have the level of nefarious goings-on that Crista and Sid face. I like my criminality fictional. LOL! And there is plenty to keep the two on their toes and watching their backs. The romance is sweet, but not without its obstacles. Both of the main characters carry baggage that they must work through. That’s where the strong reliance on God comes in. With prayer and the wise counsel of friends, the two achieve their happy ending. No spoiler there — this is Christian romantic suspense. I felt their relationship developed naturally with checks on their attraction and the knowledge that God needs to lead. Cascade is book 3 in The Waterfall Mysteries and the first in the series that I have read. The only thing I felt I missed out on was the backstories of the secondary characters. But that’s the beauty of a series with ensemble casts. Each book can stand alone, while readers can catch up at any time. There was one issue I had with the book. I’m not sure if it has to do with ebook formatting (which I read) or is present in the paperback copy. There were typos and grammatical errors that seemed to be clustered on several pages in the middle of the book. While this English language nerd was taken out of the story for a bit, it wasn’t long before I was right in the middle of the mystery again.
Recommended.
Audience: adults.
(I borrowed the ebook from KindleUnlimited. All opinions expressed are mine alone.)
A fresh start in the Tennessee mountains was supposed to bring peace. Instead, it brought a killer.
Crista Henson fled to a quiet Tennessee town to rebuild her shattered life, trading her past for a fresh start as a vacation planner and a deeper reliance on God. She wants peace. Instead, she finds herself tangled in a deadly web of secrets with enough suspects to challenge Hercule Poirot himself. She never planned on playing amateur sleuth—and she certainly didn’t plan on Sid Martin.
Sid is running from his own devastating past, swearing off the wilderness forever.
But when a friend lures him back, a desperate cry for help and a brutal attempted murder force him to confront his guilt and his fears.
As their investigation expands and danger closes in, can Crista and Sid narrow the suspects in time to prevent their own demise?
Linda Rodante was born and raised in Florida. She is married with two grown sons, a daughter-in-law, and three grandchildren. At twenty-six, she discovered the miraculous love of Jesus Christ. God blessed her with a passion for the written word—especially mysteries and romantic suspense novels, from Nancy Drew to Agatha Christie, from Dee Henderson to Kristen Heitzman. She speaks about and works against human trafficking. Her author blog is www.lindarodante.com. Her human trafficking and commitment to God blog is at https://lindarodante.wordpress.com/.
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