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List five of your absolute favorite male characters: (that you have not created)
Mitch Rapp (Vince Flynn/Kyle Mills)
Roman Velasco (Francine Rivers)
Cole "Tox" Russell (Roni Kendig)
Jon Reznick (JB Turner)
Luke Dempsey (Becky Wade)
Father, you are the Author of Life, the Creator, and you give gifts and talents to your creation. Thank you is never enough. In the Name of Jesus, Amen.
If you're a romance lover and a reader of romances and love stories, Sweet Release captures the love stories of six people. Each one has a unique circumstance that brings them together. Each individual wasn't expecting to find the person with whom their love stories began. Sordid pasts, traumatic events, sadness and sorrowful situations, loneliness and confusion, all leading to the one person with whom real love became an honest possibility.
Father, thank you for every story, word, character, and inspiration. Thank you is never enough. In the Name of Jesus, Amen.
Hard Fire by J. B. Turner is Book 10 in A Jon Reznick Thriller Series.
Jon Reznick is your atypical anti-hero. Unlike some anti-heroes, he is likable for many reasons, and, although he goes his own way and does his own thing, often fueling himself with Dexedrine, there's that sometimes lawless but moral code governing his actions pursuing those who think murder is justified because they can get away with it, or because someone got in their way, owed them money, or was a bargaining chip for what they thought they couldn't have.
When Jon arrives at the home in the aftermath of a brutal double murder of his close friends, he wants to know who's responsible and will not heed his romantic interest and sometimes co-worker FBI Assistant Director Martha Meyerstein when she continues to insist he basically let the FBI handle it and stand down. When Jon points out to her what a hypocritical effort is being used against the discovery of who made the order to kill his friends, Martha's argument is pointless. And when Jon goes on the warpath, no one is safe. He may be only one man, but he's a lethal missile of a man, and no matter how hard they try, he will not be stopped, always willing to suffer the consequences if he has to even if that includes his death.
Knowing this time after he's accomplished part of his goals, he should let this thing go, there's a threat to his daughter Lauren, now an FBI agent. That clinches his decision as he calls his former military associates for help. Along with his ace in the cyber world assisting everything Jon asks him to do, Jon makes a final decision.
Hard Fire is a bona fide thriller and J. B. has written a good one. Definitely making it easy to side with Jon in this pursuit, we can't help but wonder how he's going to manage to make it out alive or not incarcerated. It's one of those novels where you cheer his final actions and feel remorse about Martha's attitude. What it boils down to: When ruthless lawbreakers get away with horrible actions because lawful agencies do deals with devils, something to stop the evil must be done no matter what. That's when you need people like Jon Reznick to step up and do what must be done. It's a fictitious picture of our politics today.
If you enjoy reading the justifiable - but just outside the law - actions of truly likable anti-heroes, A Jon Reznick Thriller Series is Highly Recommended.
(Some profanity.)
Father, you gift writers and authors. May each one know from whom their talent comes. Please continue to bless JB and his family. In the Name of Jesus, Amen.
Reasoned Resiliency: A Rational Devotional for First Responders by Rodger Ruge and Joseph Courtemanche gives a voice and a hope to those who do what most of us can't or won't to put others before themselves, make the necessary sacrifices, see the things/events most of us can't endure, and wake up each day to do it all over again. It's going to take a toll. This "devotional" asks the important questions, the working questions, the practical questions, and the spiritual questions for a daily confrontation to one's psyche in order to do this life and make it the personal best it can be in spite of whatever horror or challenge each one faces - to be able to sustain a resiliency it takes time and thought to create.
The 3-part daily briefs are under these titles: Thoughts to Ponder, The Reality, and The Hope.
With a spiritual overlook to keying in on what sustains that resiliency, this book puts important occurrences in perspective, giving a voice to the hard, the fearful, the lonely or isolation part of the various jobs, the profitable outlets as opposed to those which damage or diminish a person, tapping into the doable while encouraging and supporting those who face severe challenges on the job.
The two authors tag-team the days giving in their own words, examples, thoughts, and directions to those who face - at the least - hardships every time they're called upon to show up somewhere with potential lives at stake.
Although this devotional is written with first responders in mind, anyone can truly benefit from the wisdom within it.
Highly recommended.
Father, thank you for gifting those whose desire is to uphold honor, save or minister to lives in the most difficult of circumstances. Only you give those gifts to people. Please bless those who help others day in and day out and please minister to them in all of their personal needs that maybe go unseen. You see and know them all. Help them in every way. In the Name of Jesus, Amen.
May the Lord intervene and show His Magnificence. God Bless You in Jesus.