Review: EXPLOSIVE CHRISTMAS SHOWDOWN by Darlene L. Turner

Welcome to the Blog Tour for Explosive Christmas Showdown by Darlene L. Turner, hosted by JustRead Publicity Tours.

About the Book

Title: Explosive Christmas Showdown

Series: Crisis Rescue Team #2

Author: Darlene L. Turner

Publisher: Love Inspired Suspense

Release Date: October 25, 2022

Genre: Christian Romantic Suspense

A bomber brings terror to Christmas

as the presents go tick…tick…boom.

With criminal investigative analyst Olive Wells at the center of a bomber’s dangerous game, she’ll do anything to catch the culprit—even work with her ex-fiancé and his K-9 detector dog. But with the Christmas rampage drawing ever closer, Zac Turner’s convinced the attacks are personal. Can they piece together their ties to the bomber…before another gift explodes?

From Love Inspired Suspense: Courage. Danger. Faith.

About the Author

Darlene L. Turner is an award-winning author and lives with her husband, Jeff in Ontario, Canada. Her love of suspense began when she read her first Nancy Drew book. She’s turned that passion into her writing and believes readers will be captured by her plots, inspired by her strong characters, and moved by her inspirational message.

Connect with Darlene by visiting darlenelturner.com to follow her on social media or subscribe to email newsletter updates.

My thoughts on the book:

The Jingle Bell Bomber is actively seeking victims to target and the team has to rush from one place to another trying to defuse bombs before they harm people. This is a love story as well an an intriguing suspense tale of bodies piling up and a team of experts stymied about where to go next to stop his vicious attacks. Olive Wells is an analyst and her colleague Zac Turner is an expert at finding and defusing bombs. Zac’s intelligent and intuitive dog Ziva made this book for me! She knew just where to go and when and also knew who needed her gentle presence to calm them. She is a trained bomb sniffing dog as well as a tracker, but she is so much more. Her personality stood out in the book to me and I really enjoyed getting to know her and her people. The characters were all well developed and the pace was fast, with action that was non-stop as the team raced from one place to another, following clues left by the JB, their term for the Jingle Bell Bomber. There are also sub-plots about secrets that Olive and Zac have that eventually have to be revealed for them to try to have a relationship. Faith is also a strong element in the story as the characters who have moved away from God ultimately decide that they need to totally depend on Him to keep them safe and to help them plan a future. The credible characters and their quest to save lives had me mesmerized from beginning to end. I should also note that the weather was almost a character by itself as it kept snowing and interfering with the investigation and the team’s ability to get to places quickly. This was very realistic as the book was set in Canada at Christmas time and added to the emotional turmoil of finding a deadly bomber before he strikes again. Fans of clean romantic suspense will enjoy the story of Zac, Olive and Ziva. I would rate the book with five stars for entertaining and clean content.
Disclaimer
Disclosure of Material Connection: I received a complimentary copy of this book from the author. I was not required to write a positive review. All opinions expressed are my own. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255, “Guidelines Concerning the Use of Testimonials and Endorsements in Advertising.”

Tour Giveaway

(3) winners will receive a $25 Amazon gift card.

Full tour schedule linked below. The giveaway begins at midnight October 24, 2022 and will last through 11:59 PM EST on October 31, 2022. Winner will be notified within 2 weeks of close of the giveaway and given 48 hours to respond or risk forfeiture of prize. US/CAN only. Void where prohibited by law or logistics.

Giveaway is subject to the policies found here.

ENTER GIVEAWAY HERE

Follow along at JustRead Tours for a full list of stops!