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Saturday, friendship tested...

by Patricia Tracy

February 25, 2012

Not This Time by Vicki Hinze

Beth and Sara were roommates in college, more like sisters than just friends. After college they went into business together and built a successful computer technology firm. As best friends and business partners they had a solid relationship until Sara married Robert.

Beth has a strong dislike for Robert and is suspicious of his motives for marrying Sara. Did he marry Sara because he loved her or because she is a wealthy woman, who outside of business, has little confidence and is easily controlled? Beth’s obvious dislike of Robert is difficult but the women try to work through it and remain friends. In the small town where they live there are two groups of people; those who agree with Beth’s opinion of Robert and Robert’s friends.

There is a terrorist attack at a wedding that most of the town is attending and just hours later Sara learns Robert has been kidnapped. Who is responsible for the attack and the kidnapping and are the two events related? With Homeland Security investigating the terrorist attack and the FBI investigating the kidnapping there are lots of questions being asked with lots of conflicting answers.

During the investigations Beth begins to suspect Sara’s love for Robert is not what it seemed and perhaps their business is at risk. And in the midst of all this Beth is reunited with a man from her past that makes her question herself and her common sense.

There is a lot going on in this book; acts of terrorism, kidnapping, questionable friendships, affairs of the heart, past hurts affecting the present, and people just being people. The book moves at a fast pace, is suspenseful, entertaining, and has a spiritual message. This is the third book that revolves around the people of this small town and often the author alludes to those previous books.

Although, Not This Time stands alone as a story the back stories from the first and second books was, to me, not confusing but somewhat bothersome in the frequency and vagueness of the references. I liked the book but would have liked to read Forget Me Not and Deadly Ties first.

I received this book from WaterBrook Multnomah Publishing Group free of charge in exchange for this review.