My Review - Forsaken by James David Jordan

James David Jordan’s FORSAKEN is hands down the best book I’ve read this year. On a day filled with my own projects and deadlines, when I had to be disciplined with my time, I found myself picking it up again and again, rationalizing the time I was sacrificing to read more about Taylor and Simon.
FORSAKEN introduces us to Taylor Pasbury, a former Secret Service agent that has been hired by Simon Mason, a dynamic televangelist when he receives threats from Muslim extremists. Taylor has had her own share of publicity, some good and some bad. She’s had a difficult past and a somewhat checkered reputation. When she is contacted by Simon Mason, she gets the sense that she’s not the right fit for the job, but is willing to at least meet with him. From there, the pace of the story never once lets down. When Simon Mason’s world is turned upside down by the kidnapping of his 20-year old daughter, renouncing his faith is all that is needed to insure her release. But how can he? How can he forsake the God he serves with his whole heart?
Taylor sees the demand as an easy one and can’t understand the struggle Mason is facing. But soon, she learns there is more to Simon then the media hype around him. She finds him human, a man with faults, a man with past sins. She even wishes for possibly something more than friendship between them, even though she knows that will never happen. The way Simon lives his life out in front of her, challenges her to reevaluate her own life.
James David Jordan has created two totally captivating characters in Taylor and Simon. I loved Taylor’s tough-as-nails attitude, and the way Jordan wrote her with such sensitivity. And Simon’s even-keel personality makes for an intriguing duo. The highs and lows of the story drew such emotion from me as a reader, at times I had to put it down just so I could take a breath. But I needed to read on. I needed to know how things would end. The secondary characters Jordan created enhance the story without taking the focus away from Taylor and Simon. The symmetry of the story is what keeps you reading on.
I could say so much more about FORSAKEN but I fear I would give too much of the story away. I will be picking up SOMETHING THAT LASTS, Jordan’s first book immediately. And I will be waiting anxiously for the release of DOUBLE CROSS, the sequel to FORSAKEN next fall.♥