Review: Digitalis by Ronie Kendig

There was a period in my life when I read and most enjoyed romantic suspense. Now I read it much less frequently, but when I do find a good romantic suspense it's still a complete delight. While all romances are heavy on emotions and feelings that seem to sit just underneath the surface, the suspense element of romantic suspense books seems to make everything that much more urgent. After all, someone's life is usually in danger so there's no time to waste waiting to fall in love. Romance is one area where I generally prefer the Christian marketplace--there's usually just enough sexual tension to be believable and delicious but no explicit sex scenes.

Ronie Kendig's Discarded Heroes series is about a black ops military group. These fine men have all suffered for some reason from their military service and are now in an off the record group. This serves them well...they have missions but they are tightly connected and don't have to bare the military name outside of their missions. Each story focuses on a different member of the team and what is really interesting about that is how hero-centric these books are. While we do get the heroine perspective and point of view, it feels like they tip in favor of the hero.

Digitalis focuses on Colton "Cowboy" Neeley. Cowboy suffers from PTSD flashbacks mainly centered around the death of his sister five years ago. He's also a single dad who has some guilt over what happened with daughter's mother. He's really attracted to Piper, a young cashier at a local store, and the two form a tentative relationship. But Piper is hiding some pretty serious secrets of her own. When these secrets lead to tragedy, can Colton and Piper find a way forward in love?

I love Ronie Kendig's writing because it's everything this kind of book requires. Every sentence is just bursting with charged emotion which enables you to imagine the scene and the feelings of the characters. The pace moves forward steadily with many different twists and turns thrown into Colton and Piper's path.

If there was one thing that gives me pause about this book, it was just how angry Cowboy was. There were times he was so angry with Piper and said things to her I felt were unfair...she was almost unwavering in her love of him. Even so, given his background, he was extremely lucky to find a woman patient enough to endure the hurt he threw her way and of course, his occupation.

Fans of Christian romantic suspense are sure to love this story of two people coming together despite the different and difficult circumstances in their path and the way they learn to trust God and each other.

Rating: 4/5
Things You Might Want to Know: Christian fiction
Source of Book: Review Copy Received from Publisher
Publisher: Barbour

Wolfsbane, the third book in the Discarded Heroes series will be available in July.

In other news, Ronie Kendig recently announced a new series she'll be doing! While there are still two books left in the Discarded Heroes series, I think these look pretty awesome!



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