IINESCAPABLE (BOOK 1 in the ROAD TO KINGDOM Series) NANCY MEHL

Story Description: 

Baker Publishing Group|July 1, 2012|Trade Paperback|ISBN: 978-0-7642-0927-7 

Page-turning romantic suspense set against the backdrop of a small Mennonite town Lizzie Engel is used to running away.  At eighteen she left her Mennonite hometown, her family, and her faith with plans never to return.  Five year later, Lizzie finds she’ll have to run again.  False accusations at her job, a stalker, and a string of anonymous threatening letters have left her with no other options.  This time, however, her escape is back to Kingdom, her hometown.  As Lizzie becomes reacquainted with Kingdom, she realizes she may not have left her Mennonite roots and her faith as firmly in the past as she thought.  She draws on the support of Noah Housler, an old friend as she hides out and attempts to plan her next steps.  When it becomes painfully clear that the danger has followed Lizzie to Kingdom, suspicions and tension run high, and she no longer knows who to trust.  With her life and the lives of those she love at risk, Lizzie will have to run one last time – to a Father whose love is inescapable. 

My Review: 

Lizzie Engel and her six-year-old daughter, Charity, live alone in a comfortable apartment but for the third night in a row, a strange man wearing a red baseball cap driving an orange car has been standing under a street light staring up at their window.  Lizzie is terrified not knowing who this man is or what he wants. 

Lizzie has worked at harbor House for the past four years, a shelter for abused women but has been accused, falsely, of stealing over a thousand dollars by, Reba, one of the other workers there.  Lizzie and Reba are the only two who have access to this money making it next to impossible for Lizzie to prove that she did not steal the money and Reba is temporary director so who is everyone going to believe – the director or a general worker?  The only one who believes Lizzie is her friend, Meghan.  The difficult thing is that Reba showed Lizzie the bogus withdrawals from petty cash that all seem to mysteriously have Lizzie’s initials on them, but she knows she did not steal that money.  The fact that Reba used to an accountant might go a long way in proving she’d had years of practice doctoring records, at least that’s what Meghan believes.  Lizzie is worried that as a single Mom she could lose her daughter, Charity, if Reba goes to the authorities. 

Lizzie has also been receiving strange notes and doesn’t know who they are from.  She wonders if the man with red baseball cap who watches her apartment is sending them, or is it someone else?  Between her trouble at work, the strange man, and the letters, Lizzie decides she needs to move, and she figures the safest place to go is back to Kingdom, Kansas her hometown of only 300 people.  She is going to miss living in Kansas City. 

Really, the last place Lizzie wants to move back too is Kingdom, a small Mennonite community.  Her memories of growing up there are far from happy.  She had a father: “…who did nothing but use terror and intimidation to control me – and a mother too timid to stand up for her only child.”  Her grandmother used to tell her: “…there isn’t anything too big for God, Lizzie Girl.  You gotta cast your cares on Him.  He loves you so much.”  Lizzie didn’t and doesn’t believe that for one minute, not after the way she was raised.  Now that Lizzie and Charity were moving back to Kingdom, and not leaving a forwarding address or telling anyone, where she was going, they would both be safe!  Or, would they? 

The evening before they were leaving, Lizzie ran downstairs in her apartment to retrieve the last of her mail.  Inside was a blue envelope, she ripped it open and read: “I’m watching you.  It’s just a matter of time before I get you and your little girl.  You’ll never get away from me.”  Absolutely irate, she sees the man in the red baseball cap standing across the road and bolts out onto the road and begins yelling at him and gets hit by a car and knocked to the ground. 

Ms. Mehl has done a great job in writing this story.  It held my attention from the first page until the last, the characters were likable and some I even despised!!  Great story. 

"Book has been provided courtesy of Baker Publishing Group and Graf-Martin Communications, Inc.

Available at your favourite bookseller from Bethany House, a division of Baker Publishing Group".