Ransomed Dreams by Amy Wallace

I met Amy Wallace at the 2007 American Christian Fiction Writers conference. I was one of the many in line to get her autograph. Amy’s face lit up when I met her. She’s encouraging and a very sweet person to talk to. But her talent speaks for itself. After reading her novel, I found that her writing is superb and her story is gripping.

This year, she’s a finalist in the suspense category of ACFW’s 2008 Book of the Year contest. That category is, for me, quite interesting and will be one to watch. The winner will be proud to have triumphed against extremely tough competition.

Here’s my review of Ransomed Dreams, book one in the Defenders of Hope series.

It was an accident. Gracie Lang didn’t lose her life, but she might as well have. The drunk driver of the truck that hit her family never stopped. How many others were in danger of losing their live s with him still on the road?

Although she find nothing but dead-ends, Gracie’s driven to find the one responsible and can’t seem to give up on her search. But it was time to rejoin the human race and begin to live again. Date again.

Steven Kessler is raising his son without the help of his ex-wife who abandoned him. His parents help out when Steven’s job as an FBI agent in the Crimes Against Children Unit pulls him out of dad-duty. Steven’s partner keeps planting verbal seeds and waits for him to return to God, but Steven doesn’t see the point.

Steven’s job and his son brought him and Gracie together since she’ll be his son’s teacher when school starts. He’ll be seeing a lot of her in the coming months. Something he wouldn’t mind. But it can’t get serious. Not with his ex back in the picture.

The villains are wretched and scary. And real enough that I wanted to get to the end of the book where they wouldn’t be running around loose anymore.

Amy Wallace weaves superbly, showing the many hold-my-breath conflicts at the right time and allowing me to catch my breath before I fall over from lack of oxygen.

I finished reading this book a few months ago and set it aside. The story was still on my mind when I started writing this review, but I skimmed through the prologue anyway. Having already read the entire book, you’d think I could get through a few of the beginning pages without tears coming to my eyes. No chance. Wallace’s writing makes Gracie’s story real enough that Gracie’s emotions became mine.

For more information, visit her website and her blog.