Saturday, October 15, 2011

SHADOW IN SERENITY by Terri Blackstock

Zondervan Publishing
Grand Rapids Michigan
315 pages

When Logan Brisco blew into Serenity Texas, he planned on scamming the people of the town for all he could get, then escape before he was found out.  He meets Carny Sullivan, the daughter of a carnival owner, who recognizes him for what he is, because she's seen all the scams, working for her father's carnival, until she left, married  and moved to Serenity when she was 17.
Carny tries to tell everyone that he is scamming them, but no one wants to believe her.  They want to believe he is representing a company who plans on building an amusement park, which they will be part owners.  She starts investigating the information she has, trying to figure out the truth.
He hires Carny to give him flying lessons, and goes fishing with Jason, Carny's son.  He attends church, goes to the town picnics, and before long, Carny isn't sure whether she had him pegged right, or not.

I don't want to give away much of the plot, so just suffice it to say that I really enjoyed this book.  I'd give it 5 stars, it is well written, the story line is really good.  And the message of redemption, both in Carny's life, Ruth, her friend's life, and others in the plot is very real feeling, not overdone at all..  Terri Blackstock, and her publisher, have every right to be proud of this book.

I was given a copy of this book, to read and review.  No other compensation was given.  I am not required to give favorable reviews, all opinions expressed here are my own.

1 comment:

NanaDiana said...

That sounds like a good book, too, Jettie. Do you know that something very similar happened here about 15 years ago? A local fellow scammed several men in church out of money to build a water park here. He got a LOT of money upfront and hauled some stuff onto a plot of land that he said he had purchased....then left town. The men were each out from $25,000 to $40,000 and the stuff he had hauled there eventually rotted away...and the property was never sold to him to begin with.

I think I would really enjoy reading this one! xo Diana