Book Review: "Deliver Us From Evil" by Robin Caroll

A beautiful yet tough woman working in a beautiful yet tough setting, Brannon Callahan is a search and rescue helicopter pilot for the Great Smoky Mountains National Park. Strong faith and a decorated history of service have kept her one step ahead of on-the-job dangers, but there's no precedent for what's about to happen. After a blizzard takes down a small plane carrying U.S. Marshal Roark Holland (already haunted by a recent tragedy), Brannon must save him in more ways than one and safeguard the donor heart he's transporting to a government witness on the edge of death. Otherwise the largest child trafficking ring in history-with shocking links from Thailand to Tennessee-will slip further away into darkness along the Appalachian Trail.

I have been reading Robin Caroll's Love Inspired Suspense books for years and have greatly enjoyed them. Therefore when I heard she was having her first trade paperback release come out this year, I knew I would be wanting to read it. The story is quite thrilling as it involves daring rescues, quickfire escapes and a storyline with an important message that needs to be told. There's a lot of action and fast paced storyline right from the get go as we follow the adventures of Brannon and Roark and witness their growing relationship.

I had a bit of trouble with the story as I felt it was VERY heavy on the romance and not so much on the suspense. I'm the type of person that actually prefers more emphasis on the suspense with just a touch of romance to enhance the story. Therefore with this read, I didn't feel very engrossed in the romantic subplot. I felt that the characters weren't very developed in terms of their relationship. I just personally thought it seemed that Brannon and Roark didn't have that much chemistry. There will probably be others that disagree with me, but I just did not feel the connection.

However the sections on child trafficking and sex trade were very informative and very powerful to read. It's so sad that this happens even in the US under our noses. More attention needs to be brought to this plight and this book does an excellent job with informing unaware readers about the situation. This is information that needs to be made more public and I applaud Caroll for taking an extremely uncomfortable and difficult subject and making it mainstream. I felt so bad for the girls who were subjected to this lifestyle. It is disgusting how people condone this behavior and treat other humans as pawns in their money making schemes. Overall I did enjoy reading Caroll's first novel with her new publisher and I'll be looking forward to reading future readings from her.

Deliver Us From Evil by Robin Caroll is published by B and H Publishing (2010)

This ARC was provided by the publisher