The View from Rainshadow Bay

Two stars for “it was okay.”

Much of the story was fast-paced and enjoyable, but honestly the stuff in between was not. Evidently no one read it over for consistency. I also had some issues with character/theological aspects. It made it into a real disappointment, because the cover is stunning, and I had planned to buy a hardcover copy. Money well saved.

I'm going to put the inconsistencies in spoilers, just so no one's clues are messed up.
-Shauna is former Navy. Not one bit of Navy, but ten years of it. We are given to assume that's where she learned to fly. She shrinks from danger and doesn't want to do more than keep Mace in her purse. She whines about carrying a gun, even though her son's safety is at stake. She continues to be a fearful milksop until the very end, when she becomes Wonder Woman and is ready to use her dad's arsenal to take out the bad guys. Absolute character shift. -Shauna goes into the house unprotected and finds her husband's cell phone dead in a jacket pocket. The bad guy is hiding in a closet to snatch her. But somehow she has time to charge the phone up from being dead (probably fifteen minutes or so) and walks out the front door without harm.-Her lavender allergy. She sneezes any time Karl, who uses lavender oil, is near her outdoors, except when he sits directly behind her in church and reeks of lavender oil.-The blob in the water. Yeah, that blob in the water. "Shouldn't we get a closer look?".....What was the blob in the water???-"Why is my truck dying?? Why won't it go any farther?" Yeah, baby, your gas gauge is down. You mean to tell me you don't have an indicator light to get your attention? You don't just run out of gas without seeing something light up on the dash.-"Give me the box." He knows everything, right? Then how did he not know the sheriff had the box all along?-Kidnapping Marilyn. Why not just tie her up in her own closet so she doesn't hear you speak? Dumb bad guy award. This guy's wall is decorated.-He's a pilot who flies to rural places to pick up people for hospital transport, etc. Yet somehow he can't fly a helicopter? Granted, I'm not a pilot, but I would like a word of explanation why you can fly one thing professionally but not the other.-Bad guy partner gets three strong guys at gunpoint. Next scene: she escorts them along the way, tied up securely with vines. Can someone tell me how she can harvest vines and tie people's hands without getting close enough to have the gun knocked out of her hands? Without letting her gun down when she is supposedly tying those special knots?It goes on and on. Missing clues, changes of attitude, etc, which make it hard to mentally assemble clues or get comfortable with the characters.

Next is a moral issue. First, I'm tired of reading books where characters get mad at God because something happened in their lives. It is SO cliched and overdone. It's done here. Second, we jump right into having FMC move into MMC's home. When she protests, he says, “People will say what they want to say. A little gossip won't hurt us...[your safety is most important.]” If he wanted to be honorable, why not ask a friend to come stay with them? Christians are told to refrain from even the appearance of evil. This does not make the guy a hero in my eyes at all. Then he “forgets” he should perhaps be wearing more than shorts to sleep in when he has a single woman in mortal danger in his house. And, yes, he went running into the yard in nothing but shorts to chase an active shooter. Sounds really smart, no?

Then Zach comforts Alex by telling him his daddy is “watching him from heaven.” He quotes the verse about “encompassed by a great cloud of witnesses” to back himself up...and Shauna loves him for the words to her son. Whew!! What a case of eisegesis. No, that's not what that verse means. Does anyone really think it does? Reading that chapter was like nails on a chalkboard.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for a free review copy. Favorable review not required.