Honor Redeemed Virtual Blog Tour

From Press Release:
With more than 3,000,000 copies of her books in circulation, best-selling author Loree Lough’s titles earn 4- and 5-star reviews and industry/reader’s choice awards. She has received nearly 10,000 letters from fans who write to say she’s “a gifted writer whose stories touch hearts and change lives.” Her 9/11 series, First Responders (From Ashes to Honor, Honor Redeemed, A Man of Honor) is no exception, and it’s raising awareness and funds for organizations that assist soldiers and first responders, and their families. (For more information about these worthy groups, visit http://www.loreelough.com)

Honor Redeemed: First Responders Book #2
Abingdon Press
First Responders Series
2nd Book in the Series

I feel the book synopsis on the back of the book and web sites tells you the whole story. I like a synopsis to tempt me and make me anxious to read the book, so here is the synopsis I would have written.

Honor Mackenzie trains search and rescue dogs and participates in several Search and Rescue missions. Honor meets Matt, a journalist at the site of a plane crash. After that their lives change, making them face their pasts and think about their futures. Can they have a life together?

Dollycas’s Thoughts
I was so excited when I received this book. I grew up around firemen, the first group of search and rescue teams before the specialized teams of today. My dad was the fire chief, my husband was a volunteer fireman as were most of his friends. It was kind of the family business, and they took part in many search and rescues and I even took part in one. Maybe my hopes were just too high. At first I thought it was because I had not read book one of the series. I am usually quite rigid about reading books in order but then decided the problem wasn’t that I missed something brought to light in the first book, other reviewers that had read both books had the same issues I had.

I thought the theme of this series was Search and Rescue so most of the book would be about searching and finding people using the wonderfully trained dogs. That was not the case. The searches really took a backseat. Instead it was a story about the relationship between Matt and Honor or the non-relationship.  Within the last few pages there is a major development that gave me hope about the whole story,  then the story abruptly ends and a page and a half epilogue tries to bind up the loose ends. I wish the author would have left off the epilogue and left the ending to the reader’s imagination because I hated the ending.

I understand from press releases that Loree Lough has several bestsellers and this is my first experience with her books. The subject matter, Search and Rescue, is a wonderful theme and I have read the press release material that says her books are raising awareness, but I just didn’t get it from this book.  I do commend her for trying to honor the first responders and giving us a glimpse into their lives but at the end I felt cheated. Too many things glossed over and left unresolved. Maybe they will be addressed in Book 3 of the series. I hope so. Maybe this is her writing style and her idea of a cliffhanger. I just didn’t like it.

Disclosure of Material Connection: I received this book free from the publisher. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own. Receiving a complimentary copy in no way reflected my review of this book. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255 : “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.”