lostinthepages_35's review against another edition
5.0
Loved this book!
First time reading this authors work and I can’t wait to read the next book in the series! I started reading Convenient Lies and couldn’t put it down until I was finished with it. If you’re looking for a good mystery and love story written by a Christian author Robin is the right author for you!
First time reading this authors work and I can’t wait to read the next book in the series! I started reading Convenient Lies and couldn’t put it down until I was finished with it. If you’re looking for a good mystery and love story written by a Christian author Robin is the right author for you!
always_reading_a_novel's review
5.0
This book was great! The suspense, as well as the character development, kept me flipping the pages as quickly as I could to finish the book. I definitely want to read the other books in this series!
dedasab's review
2.0
It wasn't for me, I didn't like it from the beginning. Once I read the word Tunis and terrorism, I knew it wasn't for me.
I was worried to read this book and find some Anti-Arab or Islamophobia, fortunately, there was non; however, some lines discussing the middle east has actually triggered me.
One has to mention that the author tried to sound nice and not throw any judgment while discussing these themes, but I wish she had sensitivity readers to read the book first. Sentences like: “About as much as I knew about living in the African desert surrounded by Muslims. I’m adaptable.”
What am I to refer from such a statement? That Muslims are some kind of insects, animals or a disease that live aimlessly at the desert?? we are humans with old civilizations for God sake. Some trips prefer to sleep in tents in the middle of the desert, but the majority of us live in buildings, well built and air conditioned buildings. We are HUMANS just like you, but with different traditions, so stop being the entitled American that you are and start realizing that other races have their own traditions that don't necessarily agree with your ideals. If one is speaking about another race, one should be careful how to state things, this book was published in 2018 for God sake, not in the 90s. And for a person who has visited the "whole world" she should have known better.
In another statement she says: " walking into that Tunisian cafe. He’d thought she must lack sense to not be nervous, surrounded as she had been by locals, Muslims who hated the very sight of her, a woman proudly sporting her modern clothes."
Are you kidding me? In Tunis people are more liberal (something the author had said herself) and many Muslim Tunisian women actually leave their houses WITHOUT hijab and they wear revealing clothes. So no, the people wouldn't hate her because of her color nor her clothes unless she did something extremely wrong to annoy the locals. If this book was supposed to take place in a more reserved Islamic country, I would have swallowed this line, but not in Tunis or in any of the Northern countries of Africa, which are all Islamic and liberal countries.
One thing that the author did and it had calmed me down was mentioning that Julian wasn't a Muslim, I was scared that she would make such a horrible mistake. Am I saying that the terrorists in the Middle East aren't Muslims, no. Unfortunately, the majority of them are Muslims, but many westerners don't do the research and believe whatever they hear in the news and there are more than 1.8 billion Muslim around the world and trust me not all of them are terrorists. On the contrary, the Middle East suffers more than any other place in the world from terrorism, so no, white people are not the main target for terrorists attacks.
Technically speaking the way the story ended was so unrealistic, the terrorist has a big heart and would destroy his family for a woman is quite far fetched for me.
As for the characters, I didn't give a dang about any of them especially Rae, part of me actually disliked her.
I was worried to read this book and find some Anti-Arab or Islamophobia, fortunately, there was non; however, some lines discussing the middle east has actually triggered me.
One has to mention that the author tried to sound nice and not throw any judgment while discussing these themes, but I wish she had sensitivity readers to read the book first. Sentences like: “About as much as I knew about living in the African desert surrounded by Muslims. I’m adaptable.”
What am I to refer from such a statement? That Muslims are some kind of insects, animals or a disease that live aimlessly at the desert?? we are humans with old civilizations for God sake. Some trips prefer to sleep in tents in the middle of the desert, but the majority of us live in buildings, well built and air conditioned buildings. We are HUMANS just like you, but with different traditions, so stop being the entitled American that you are and start realizing that other races have their own traditions that don't necessarily agree with your ideals. If one is speaking about another race, one should be careful how to state things, this book was published in 2018 for God sake, not in the 90s. And for a person who has visited the "whole world" she should have known better.
In another statement she says: " walking into that Tunisian cafe. He’d thought she must lack sense to not be nervous, surrounded as she had been by locals, Muslims who hated the very sight of her, a woman proudly sporting her modern clothes."
Are you kidding me? In Tunis people are more liberal (something the author had said herself) and many Muslim Tunisian women actually leave their houses WITHOUT hijab and they wear revealing clothes. So no, the people wouldn't hate her because of her color nor her clothes unless she did something extremely wrong to annoy the locals. If this book was supposed to take place in a more reserved Islamic country, I would have swallowed this line, but not in Tunis or in any of the Northern countries of Africa, which are all Islamic and liberal countries.
One thing that the author did and it had calmed me down was mentioning that Julian wasn't a Muslim, I was scared that she would make such a horrible mistake. Am I saying that the terrorists in the Middle East aren't Muslims, no. Unfortunately, the majority of them are Muslims, but many westerners don't do the research and believe whatever they hear in the news and there are more than 1.8 billion Muslim around the world and trust me not all of them are terrorists. On the contrary, the Middle East suffers more than any other place in the world from terrorism, so no, white people are not the main target for terrorists attacks.
Technically speaking the way the story ended was so unrealistic, the terrorist has a big heart and would destroy his family for a woman is quite far fetched for me.
As for the characters, I didn't give a dang about any of them especially Rae, part of me actually disliked her.
adventurousbookworm's review against another edition
5.0
Well, Robin Patchen had me hooked. It was a struggle to set this down so I could do important stuff, like homework.
I found the pacing to be quite good. There was time between the action but never enough that my interest wandered.
All the different aspects of the story were engaging and I really enjoyed as Rae recounted her past throughout the novel. It brought a lot of insight as to who she is and why she made the choices that she did.
Patchen proved that she can write a great suspense novel and I will definitely be coming back for more of her books in the future.
Rating: 5/5
Crude Language: one use of the 'a' word
Romance: a kiss
Spiritual: not much, Rae prays sometimes
Violence: quite a bit but nothing detailed
*I received a copy of this novel from the author/JustRead Tours. A positive review was not required and all thoughts are my own.
I found the pacing to be quite good. There was time between the action but never enough that my interest wandered.
All the different aspects of the story were engaging and I really enjoyed as Rae recounted her past throughout the novel. It brought a lot of insight as to who she is and why she made the choices that she did.
Patchen proved that she can write a great suspense novel and I will definitely be coming back for more of her books in the future.
Rating: 5/5
Crude Language: one use of the 'a' word
Romance: a kiss
Spiritual: not much, Rae prays sometimes
Violence: quite a bit but nothing detailed
*I received a copy of this novel from the author/JustRead Tours. A positive review was not required and all thoughts are my own.
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