Happy Friday, friends! I hope you all have a good book to read and plenty of time to read it this weekend 🙂 Today I’m joining Hoarding Books for First Line Friday and sharing from Terri Blackstock’s upcoming novel, Smoke Screen:

“He left me for a size-two selfie star and didn’t want me to make a scene.”

Smoke Screen by Terri Blackstock

The Basics

Title: Smoke Screen by Terri Blackstock

Genre: Christian Romantic Suspense

Release Date: November 5, 2019

My Rating: 3/5 Stars

From the Back Cover: One father was murdered. Another was convicted of his death. All because their children fell in love.

Nate Beckett has spent his life fighting wildfires instead of the lies and rumors that drove him from his Colorado hometown. His mother begs him to come back now that his father has been released from prison, but it isn’t until he’s sidelined by an injury that he’s forced to return and face his past. But that means facing Brenna too.

Fourteen years ago, Nate was in love with the preacher’s daughter. When Pastor Strickland discovered Brenna defied him to sneak out with Nate, the fight between Strickland and Nate’s drunken dad was loud—and very public. Strickland was found murdered later that night, and everyone accused Roy Beckett. When the church burned down not long after, people assumed Nate set the fire to get even for his father’s conviction. He let the rumors fly and left town without looking back.

Brenna is stunned to learn that the man convicted of murdering her father has been pardoned. The events of that night set her life on a bad course, and now she’s fighting a brutal custody battle with her ex and his new wife where he’s using lies and his family’s money to sway the judge. Brenna is barely hanging on, and she’s turned to alcohol to cope. Shame and fear consume her.

As Nate and Brenna deal with the present—including new information about that fateful night and a wildfire that’s threatening their town—the past keeps igniting. Nate is the steady force Brenna has so desperately needed. But she’ll have to learn to trust him again first.

My Thoughts

Terri Blackstock’s last three books, the If I Run series, are some of my favorites in the suspense genre, so maybe my expectations were too high for this one, but I didn’t love it. The premise sounded really interesting, but it ended up being more family drama than suspense. That’s fine and has its place, but not the action-packed suspense I was hoping for. When the suspense aspect did come into play, the crimes were solved almost by coincidence more than any investigation. Nate was a great hero, but Brenna wasn’t that likeable to me for the first half of the book. It’s still a solid, engaging story with a satisfying ending, and some people might love it, but it didn’t quite live up to my hopes. I will definitely keep reading Terri Blackstock’s books, though!

I received a complimentary copy of this book from the publisher via NetGalley. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own.