book review

Though Holly’s stumbled through most of her adult life as a party girl, she longs to live a more stable life for her daughter. Then police show up to question her about the whereabouts of Creed Kershaw, Lily’s father. She has kept his identity a secret from friends and family—she never even told him about the pregnancy. Now he’s a person of interest in a drug-related murder case.

Determined to keep him out of their lives and turn him over to police, Holly uses her private investigating skills to search for him. But her bravado backfires when he turns the tables and takes her and the baby hostage. As desperate hours tick by, Holly realizes his connection to Leonard Miller-the man who has gunned down several members of her family. Creed claims he’s innocent and that Miller is after him too. His gentleness with Lily moves her, but she can’t trust a man who has held her at gunpoint . . . even if he reminds her so much of herself.

Dangers old and new threaten Holly and her baby, and lives are demanded as sacrifices for love. Through a complex web of mistakes and regret, redemption is the one hope Holly has left to hold on to.
 No book will make you turn pages faster than Twisted Innocence.  It has more takedowns than a wrestling match and events move twice as fast.  Part of that is due to this book’s placement in the series.  As the last book in the series, this book centers around Holly, but it also wraps up loose ends from the previous stories.

Holly is the consummate bad girl – only she isn’t.  Although she spent years rebelling against her Christian upbringing, she’s trying hard to stay on the straight and narrow, but that isn’t easy when the bullets are flying and her old friends are back in the picture.  Her emotional and spiritual journey make for a fantastic backdrop to the action in this story.  The contrast really shows just how important it is to stick to our guns – no pun intended – when life gets tough, and this was my favorite part of the story.

The action was pretty cool, though, too.  The good guys looked like the bad guys and the bad guys were desperate, which kept the stakes high and the action flying.  I’m happy to live a suspense-free life, but that doesn’t mean that I don’t enjoy reading about other people’s, and Blackstock excels at these types of stories.  She masterfully creates realistic characters and then throws them into action-packed situations, and with bombs, snipers, corrupt cops, and poison, to name a few, Twisted Innocence really has a lot for this cast to survive.

If you’re a Blackstock fan, then you won’t want to miss her most current masterpiece; and if you haven’t read her work before, then this is an excellent book with which to start.  Twisted Innocence – it’s that and more.

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Terri Blackstock has sold over six million books worldwide and is a New York Times bestselling author. She is the award-winning author of “Intervention,” “Vicious Cycle,” and “Downfall,” as well as such series as Cape Refuge, Newpointe 911, the SunCoast Chronicles, Restoration, and Moonlighters.

Interred by the Japanese, missionary Irene Reynolds comes across a mysterious note while working at the censor’s office. She memorizes the parts she must black out and delivers it to wealthy nightclub owner Rand Sterling. Before she knows what’s happening, she’s drawn into a web of secrets and danger.

Rand Sterling wants nothing more than to reopen his nightclubs once the war ends. But slimy Frank Covey wants his hand in the till—and has news that could threaten Rand’s reputation if it became public. More importantly, beautiful and intriguing Irene Reynolds cannot discover this information if he expects to persuade her to become his wife.
When Irene is attacked by a sinister Japanese guard and their secrets are exposed, they must learn the true meaning of forgiveness—if they can stave off starvation until the American troops bring freedom.

A more descriptive, intriguing, and moving story of life in a Japanese internment camp can’t exist.  Tolsma masterfully describes life inside the camp, from supply limitations, guard interactions, weather difficulties, food shortages to disesase problems as if she were there.  You can easily visualize how bleak everything must have been from the stark pictures the author paints.

The best part of these harsh conditions is the way that Rand never loses hope.  He wants a better life than the camp provides, better conditions for the people whom he has grown to love, and an end to their imprisonment, and he is sure that freedom is on the way.  His hope, combined with Anita’s faith, shine needed light into the dark details of the story. 

I also enjoyed the way that Tolsma grew Rand from a selfish, spoiled businessman into a kind and selfless humanitarian.  The sacrifices that Rand makes would be difficult in the best of times, and this was very far from that.  The consequences of his actions were often chilling, and seeing him progress along this journey added a deeper spiritual element to what would otherwise be a fantastic work of historic fiction.  Tolsma writes the faith story alongside the historical one, making it naturally bloom outward from Anita until it encompasses the major figures in the story.  I liked this angle and felt it worked well with the other events happening on the page.

Which it is.  The research and details are evident on every page.  That Tolsma is an expert is obvious, and that she writes the best kind of historical fiction is, as well.  It’s mysterious and suspenseful, romantic and edgy, and it’ll keep you on the edge of your seat from the first page to the last.

My only problem with the story is that I would’ve liked more background information.  I’ve taken several classes in WWII history, but they’ve all encompassed European problems only; I knew nothing about the fighting in the Pacific arena prior to picking up Remember the Lilies.  I would like to know more about who was interned at the camps, how did they get there, where did they come from, and what did they know as they walked in.  I think I would’ve been more up to speed with Rand and Irene that way from the very beginning, instead of trying to glean those historical details as I read.

All in all, I don’t think a book that sends me off to do research is bad; neither is one that makes me want to read the other books in the series, as is definitely the case with this one.  If you’re at all a fan of historical fiction or World War II books, this is definitely one to run out and read.

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New York Times best-selling author Liz Tolsma is the author of Daisies are Forever, Snow on the Tulips, and the contributing author of A Log Cabin Christmas. When not busy putting words to paper, Liz enjoys reading, walking, working in her large perennial garden, kayaking, and camping. She lives in Wisconsin with her husband and children, all adopted internationally.

Find Liz online: website, Facebook, Twitter

I received a free copy of Remember the Lilies from LitFuse Publicity in exchange for an honest review.