Thursday, May 3, 2018

Chasing Secrets by Lynette Eason

Chasing Secrets (Elite Guardians, #4)

Chasing Secrets by Lynette Eason

My rating: 2 of 5 stars



Suddenly confronted with a past she can hardly remember, Haley Callaghan must fight for her life as an unknown killer (or possibly killers) take aim. Detective Steven Rothwell can't believe the beauty and spirit of this woman he's just met, and gets taken on the ride of his life as he tries to keep her safe.



Characters


As I've come to expect with Lynette Eason's stories, the woman is all powerful and super amazing and the man is standing in awe in the shadow of her majesty. Male characters come across as weak and inferior, wanting for validation and seemingly bowing before the women. Steven's remark about the opulence of Haley's car wasn't out of the ordinary, and yet he apologized for making a "snap judgment". There were more male characters who actually felt masculine in this book, such as Richie (to an extreme) as well as the glimpses of Ian and Hugh.

Why do all of the women in these books have to have super powerful aggressive jobs like police officers and bodyguards (all of the Elite Guardians, Steven's mom, Quinn's mom, Maddy's sisters, and even the hospital hostage)? Even after they have families, it still mentions that they miss their work. Naturally they would have an extremely rare job for a woman that the silly dumb men would question the validity of. I am woman. Hear me roar. I was realizing part of the way through that I have a hard time picturing the male characters in these books, and figured out that it's because the author doesn't take the time to develop a good image of them.

Plot


Their initial meeting is corny and includes a clunky explanation of the Elite Guardians. The action is good and keeps the story moving, but why are the male supervisors always betraying their female underlings? It's like every one of the Elite Guardians had somebody in authority (shockingly, a man) who betrayed her. Also, there's this trend of the women always doing the right thing and the men wishing they could be more like the women.

I enjoyed the villain reveal and actually hadn't accurately predicted who it would be, which was a fun and interesting surprise.

Setting


As usual, Eason does a great job with the descriptions of surroundings, really allowing you to picture the environment, buildings, and other surroundings. The action scenarios really have a good feel to them.

Style


As for technical writing, the grammar and sentence flow worked well and I enjoyed the way the author wrote the Irish brogue. There are, however, the occasional slip ups where she switches point-of-view mid-segment.

Theme


The spiritual aspect of this book falls on the light side of the spectrum. There's a history of distrust and anger toward God on Steven's side of the story while Haley is in a pretty good place overall. The biggest place that spirituality takes a stand is when Steven faces a man who played a part in an earlier trauma, swearing he'll never forgive him. It seems that he finally comes to a place that resolves his issues with God and the man who destroyed his life, although his conversion seems to lack depth.




My Thoughts


Forgiveness is a hard concept. I know that I've struggled with this over the years in many different forms on many different occasions. Sometimes it's hardest to forgive people that are the closest to us because their betrayals or shortcomings have the biggest effect on us, but they are the people to whom we really should be quickest to grant pardon.

Society tells us that we are justified in unforgiveness. We have a right to our anger and bitterness because we have been wronged. After all, who is going to look out for #1 if not ourselves? The most detrimental aspect of this line of thinking is that those negative emotions that we hold on to instead of forgiveness are like poison. It doesn't hurt the person that offended you or make it all better - quite the contrary. Resentment traps us in a cage that limits our ability to function healthily. Forgiveness, on the other hand, frees us from the burden of worrying about justification or vindication and allows us to lead an unfettered life.

There are people and events that I still daily have to choose to lay down so they don't deter me from my focus on why I'm on this planet, and it's definitely not always easy, but it's always better.

"Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light." Matthew 11:28-30

Hoping you find rest in Him.

TheModestMillennial

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