*Note that this review was written based on a personal book purchase.
In Lynette Eason’s romantic suspense novel When The Smoke Clears, Alexia heads to her estranged mother’s home to recuperate after a near-death experience on the job. But she can’t seem to escape trouble and danger. Within hours of arriving at her mother’s home, Alexia stumbles upon a murder victim and the mysterious villain. When help arrives, she gets confronted with her past.
Alexia is thrown into helping solve the crimes happening so very close to her to help clear her name of any involvement, while simultaneously confronting the ghosts from her past while trying to stay alive.
“What would these people think of her? Would they just remember the girl accused of setting fire to her family home, or would they be willing to know who she was today?”
Lynette Eason does a good job connecting her readers with the internal struggle of each human: to the core of who we are, we want to be seen. We want to be known. We want to be accepted and loved for our imperfect selves.
Alexia is accepted by several people from her past high school days despite rumors of her family history. She is baffled by this show of acceptance and love.
Does God really love her then too? Is He there? Is she worthy? Her questions of this God her newfound friends so desperately want her to know are challenged by the ongoing peril caused by this mysterious villain out to destroy Alexia.
Will she clear her name and reputation? Will she mend the broken, estranged relationship with her mom? Will she survive as the attempts on her life increase in intensity?
Trigger warning: Alexia does work through lost memories of physical, nonsexual abuse from her father. Also, if you are sensitive towards house fires or fire trauma I would not recommend this read.
Here’s the short of it:
Genre: inspirational Christian fiction, romantic suspense for adults
One-line review: a beautiful redemption story
Initial gut-reaction: I’m definitely curious to read the next books in this series. The story is not over.
Rating: 4.5 out of 5 stars as I personally didn’t care for the timeline of this story which was one week. I find it hard to believe that all the intense crimes could happen in that short period of time. But I also guess that’s part of the freedom of fiction.
I kept it at a high rating though for the twists and turns throughout the plot. I was constantly second guessing myself as to who I thought the villain could be. Needless to say I was very surprised when the villain was revealed! I definitely did not see that one coming.
This is definitely a great read for those who love a good mix of mystery and romance!
You can find Lynette Eason and her books here. Or if you’re an Amazon buyer, you can find this book here.
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