Double Take (Lake City Heroes Book 1)
Lynette Eason
Detective James Cross has been honorably discharged from the Army Criminal Investigation Division due to wounds sustained when an IED blew up near him. Now with the Lake City Police Department, he’s rooming with this good buddy and partner, Cole, while he figures out his family dynamics.
Physician Assistant Lainie Jackson is eighteen months out from an attempted murder perpetrated by her ex, which ended when she managed to grab the weapon and shoot him. When he appears to have survived and is back to finish the job he started, Lainie insists it’s not possible. But someone keeps trying to kill her, and she keeps seeing his face.
Together, Lainie and James must work together to find out who, exactly, is after her and why he wants her dead. And failure is not an option.
USA Today bestselling author Lynette Eason will leave you breathless with this fast-paced first book in a brand-new series.
Genre: Christian Romantic Suspense
Availability: Lynette Eason
In Double Take, physician’s assistant, Lainie, is healing after a tragic ending to a traumatic relationship with a narcissistic boyfriend. After he proposed and she turned him away, their relationship turned violently abusive and ended with him attempting to murder Lainie. She protected herself by taking the gun and turning it on her boyfriend. Now, Lainie is fighting to reclaim the pieces of her life, working at the hospital, caring for her mentally ill mother, and turning those fragments of herself into a normal existence once again.
Into Lainie’s hospital walks an injured James, a previous interest of teenage Lainie and now a retired military member fighting PTSD. As a brand new cop, James is working to blend his war experience into something useful here on home soil. With the support of his lovable, good friend who monitors James’s care, James struggles to keep his chin up and the flashbacks down while receiving care that might trigger him.
Their meet-cute incorporating how they grew up together was masterful, and as James remembers Lainie as his sister’s best friend, Lainie remembers James as her long-time crush. Both characters are curious about the recent changes in the other, but when James discovers Lainie is being hunted, he shifts into protector. However, Lainie refuses to believe she could be the center of another plot against her life.
Action & Adventure: Get ready because you will only have a select few moments to breathe. The pace in this novel was tight and action-packed. So, if you’re looking for an edge-of-your-seat kind of ride, this is it. It wasn’t scary in the sense of horror, but it was a thrill to the end. I kept turning pages, wanting to know who was, in fact, hunting Lainie and why. And, of course, there was James fighting while injured and the question of whether Lainie and James were going to actually fall in love or not. The entire book was an adventure into the what-ifs, and this psychological thriller delivers in all the key elements.
Content: Double Take is rated “G” due to the thematic content of domestic abuse, stalking, PTSD, and panic attacks discussed throughout. and the nature of the fight scenes. The handling of all content matter was from a Christian worldview.
Romance: Romance was a smaller element in this novel. There were some sweet moments that James and Lainie shared, and more than anything, their relationship built not just on attraction—though that was there—but more on this budding friendship with kindness, true gentleness, and care for one another, which was really sweet as it developed. It showcased the development of a healthy relationship.
Religion: Both characters were believers, so faith was apparent throughout. Both characters were Christians, and their experiences incorporated biblical references, prayer, and scripture.
Final Thoughts: I highly recommend the novel. It was clean throughout, had moments that required quick page-turning skills, and was incredibly enjoyable. I appreciate something with depth and trauma, and watching the characters, both with their backstories—how James was battling issues with his father while Lainie was battling issues with her mother—was refreshingly complex. There was a bit of a parallel between the two. James and his dad reached a place of understanding, but the issues with Lainie’s family were not resolved, which felt realistic.
Lainie did, however, address her flaw in the story. Originally, Lainie believed that allowing loved ones to make mistakes and hoping they’d grow made her a doormat because that’s what her abusive boyfriend said. But she redefined that in the end, which I was grateful for. I don’t think that loving someone through their mistakes and waiting for them to come around makes you a doormat. It’s giving them time to grow and change as the Holy Spirit moves them to change. Change doesn’t happen because you say it or want it—it happens because they’ve accepted and moved into that position of readiness with the help of God. The story effectively outlined and evidenced that which I enjoyed. I look forward to the next book in the series, and I highly recommend this one to all romantic suspense thriller type readers.
Originally posted in Clean Fiction Magazine Winter 2024 Edition.