Skip to main content

Review: Watch Your Back - Crossroads Suspense #3

Watch Your Back book cover on blue background

What a ride this book took me on where it felt like nearly every chapter, something was happening that kept me wondering what would be next! Watch Your Back by Kristen Hogrefe Parnell fits the theme of the book perfectly and is the third book in the Crossroads Suspense series.

Many thanks to Mountain Brook Ink for providing a complimentary copy of this book for review consideration. All opinions are my own.

Book Synopsis

You can’t watch your own back.

Private Investigator Avery Reynolds leads the charge to expose Tampa's supposedly “extinct” mob. The crime boss responsible for her foster brother’s death is within her grasp—until she hits a wall in the form of Ethan Bridger, a Coast Guard veteran who unknowingly derails her sting operation. When the elusive “Big Eddie” comes out of hiding, he targets their mutual friends about to tie the knot.

Avery sets aside her angst toward Ethan to focus on ending the crime boss’s reign of terror. But working together exposes her trust issues and his PTSD stemming from a comrade's tragedy. When Avery goes solo into a prisoner exchange operation, she discovers her vulnerability too late—and must lean on Ethan and the God she thought had abandoned her. But will that help reach her in time?

Source: Amazon

Book Thoughts

It’s a good thing that Watch Your Back is book three in the Crossroads Suspense series because the suspense kept me riveted in guessing how everything would wrap up! I loved meeting Avery and Ethan and getting to see their faith journeys progress as they reluctantly join forces to take down a nebulous mob. Though I haven’t read the first two books in this series, this book acts as a great standalone and make you want to read the previous titles where you can get to know some of the side characters even better. I enjoyed seeing how well-supported Avery and Ethan are by their wonderful friends and family who watch their backs and how they take the time to give back through their volunteer efforts. This is a book that contains just as much soul as it does action, making it both a heartwarming and a heart-stopping reading experience.

When it comes to Christian content, the scenes are top-notch in that they flow so naturally between the characters. In between the chases and the tension, Avery and Ethan take the time to reflect on what they’ve been learning about the Gospel from others, which contributes to the overall richness of the book. Miss Martha is a formidable figure to behold as she loves others well through her faith in Jesus Christ. I appreciated how the author addressed issues of morality as a subplot in this book and how things were resolved. If you are looking for a romantic suspense that will keep you on your toes as you root for the characters to experience God’s life-changing love, Kristen Hogrefe Parnell will be a name to seek out!

Book Summary

  • Format of book: 📱
  • Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
  • Recommendation: 👍

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Christian Book Review Programs

Over time, I've been on the hunt for Christian book review programs that readers can join. As a result, I've been able to compile the following list which may be of interest if you are seeking review copies of Christian books. This list mostly applies to print and ebooks, although some publishers offer audiobooks as well. If further information is available for any of the publishers below (or any missing publishers), please let me know as I am happy to update this list—thank you! Please note that you can also search for these publishers on NetGalley and other review sites in case there are no review programs available or you don't qualify for one 😊 Christian Publishers B&H Publishing Group Previously offered the B&H/Lifeway Blogger program which has since closed Availability: Professors and instructors Link:  B&H Academic Book Requests Baker Publishing Group Availability: U.S. and Canadian residents Genre: Christian fiction, Christian non-fiction Imprints: Bet...

Happy Chinese Language Day!

Today is Chinese Language Day! It’s a day that has meaning for me because I speak a Chinese language (a language that isn't easy to learn as an adult), so I'm grateful I didn't have to go through the process of mastering tones later in life! At the same time, I acknowledge that it also brings about mixed emotions when I reflect on my journey of language discovery. Despite Chinese being my first language, I still feel like an outsider to the culture and world because I don’t speak the main Chinese languages that everyone thinks of. It’s been one of my pet peeves over the course of my life where a lot of non-Chinese people have attempted to guess what I speak, maybe not realizing that there are so many languages that exist (guessing for other people doesn’t always bode well 🫠). Lacking Mandarin and only knowing select phrases in Cantonese, this feeling of separation from other Chinese people is even more pronounced in living overseas as part of the Chinese diaspora. While...

The Rise and Fall

I've shared before that being on Threads has been an interesting experience. It's certainly helpful in better understanding book trends as a whole, but a lot of the controversies I read about about are—in a word—awful. Awful for readers and authors alike, which is somehow a unique shared experience. I suppose that with symbiosis, when one falters, it affects the other. I'm likely not alone in my observation that there appears to be a lot more authors who are caught in the crosshairs of being popular one day and then being cancelled the next day. It's an interesting phenomenon where, with shared accountability, there is an increased demand that authors get things right, which I can't fault or disagree with. However, the speed at which the tides turn amazes me where people will spend a lot of time and resources on a particular author, only to "dump" them as soon as there is a hint (or more, way more) of controversy. I'm not questioning whether it's l...