Skip to main content

WOUNDED HEALER by Donna Fleisher



WOUNDED HEALER by Donna Fleisher (Homeland Heroes, book 1)

From the back cover:
Flooded with panic, two words burst through Erin's mind: GET HELP. She ran for the door, but someone grabbed her, twisted her arm behind her. Erin's shriek was smothered by a cold, clammy hand.

"Shhh--" Breath tickled her ear--" Just take it easy . . ."

Surrounded by the oppressive sand, heat, and tension of Operation Desert Storm, soldiers Erin Grayson and Christina McIntyre shared a special bond. But when an ugly secret from Chris's past shattered without even a good-bye.

Four years have gone by since that day in the desert, but Chris has spent her entire life running from the past, hiding her deepest secrets from those who care for her most. And now tragedy has ripped apart her life. She sees no hope in tomorrow.

Overcoming her own anger and doubt, Erin rushes to Chris's Colorado cabin. When Chris's fear of God and Erin's faith in him collide, they are involved in a different kind of war that only one of them can win. As Chris wrestles with grief, fear, and ghosts from the past, Erin fights to pull her from the brink of self-destruction. She will not lose Chris again.

Chris's life is at stake…as well as her soul.

Camy here:
This amazing novel starts off with a suspenseful bang, but it's a deeply emotional book on friendship and trust. It's a more unusual women's fiction novel, involving more action than I've seen in other books, but I enjoy that aspect of this.

The writing grabbed me by the throat. Powerful, vibrant, gritty.

Characterization is deep like still waters. Everyone is unique, whether it's the protagonist or someone with only ten pages of screen time. Chris is vividly three-dimensional, strong and memorable. Erin is consistent and markedly different from her friend. I would have liked to see more grit in her, also, but it almost doesn't fit with her softer personality.

The faith element is a major story thread, and it's done with a skilled hand, one of the best I've seen in Christian fiction. Chris's struggles are honest and real.

My biggest objection was the overprotective, hostile nature of Erin's husband. I felt angry and disgusted at how he jumps to conclusions about Chris, which would naturally feed her rebellious nature. But I guess that also means the writer did her job, since I care about Chris and feel strongly about Scott. I also see how the author is setting the scene for the next book in the series, WARRIOR'S HEART, where Chris and Scott are the main protagonists.

It also bothered me how everyone around Erin sympathizes with her and feels sorry about how Chris hurts her. No one even thinks about the underlying issues Chris is dealing with--they all rally around Erin, treat her like the victim, bemoan her loyalty to someone who lashes out at her. Erin cries a LOT. However, my bias could also be because I relate more to Chris--wounded and angry--than Erin, who's had less trials in her life.

The author's experiences in Desert Storm lend authenticity to the flashback settings. I felt as if I were there, in the helicopter, in the barracks.

This is a great story with memorable characters.

WOUNDED HEALER excerpt



Comments

Popular Posts

What Is a Brutus Cut? A Regency Hair Trend Inspired by Ancient Rome

Regency Haircuts and Disguises in Lady Wynwood’s Spies In this excerpt from Lady Wynwood’s Spies, Volume 8: Traitor , Phoebe prepares for a dangerous mission—one that requires her to disguise herself as a young man. The hairstyle she receives, called a Brutus cut, was actually quite fashionable during the Regency. Read on to find out more about this curious trend and why it suited her new identity so well. Excerpt from Lady Wynwood’s Spies, Volume 8: Traitor : By far, the absolute worst part of Uncle Sol’s plan was that Phoebe had to cut her hair. Of the four agents, Phoebe and Mr. Coulton-Jones would be the least likely to be recognized when they entered the Ramparts building—Mr. Coulton-Jones, because of his skill in altering his facial features and his posture, and Phoebe, because she could play a convincing young man, which no one would expect. A disreputable hat would hide her long hair to an extent, but it would not fool anyone who looked closely. Also, because she would lo...

A Wallflower’s Slip of the Tongue – Free Regency eBook

If you enjoy Regency romance with wit, awkward ballroom encounters, and a heroine who can’t quite keep her thoughts to herself, you’ll love Lissa and the Spy . This free Christian Regency romantic suspense novella is the perfect entry point into my Lady Wynwood’s Spies series. Get it free when you join my newsletter (details below). Miss Lissa Gardinier survived her last London Season by pretending to be as inoffensive as possible. But at this ball, she lets her true thoughts slip yet again . And this time, they involve an unfortunately named spaniel. Excerpt Last year during that first dance with Mr. Collingworth, upon seeing him excitedly discuss his dog breeding, she had been encouraged to also speak without restraint. So she had voiced her exact thoughts rather than hiding behind a vapid facade. “Why in the world would you name a dog Lickspittle Furrybottom?” At Mr. Collingworth’s startled look, Lissa realized that she’d said that out loud now , in this dance with him. “… Not...

Grace Livingston Hill romances free to read online

I wanted to update my old post on Grace Livingston Hill romances because now there are tons more options for you to be able to read her books for free online! I’m a huge Grace Livingston Hill fan. Granted, not all her books resonate with me, but there are a few that I absolutely love, like The Enchanted Barn and Crimson Roses . And the best part is that she wrote over 100 books and I haven’t yet read them all! When I have time, I like to dive into a new GLH novel. I like the fact that most of them are romances, and I especially appreciate that they all have strong Christian themes. Occasionally the Christian content is a little heavy-handed for my taste, but it’s so interesting to see what the Christian faith was like in the early part of the 20th century. These books are often Cinderella-type stories or A Little Princess (Frances Hodgson Burnett) type stories, which I love. And the best part is that they’re all set in the early 1900s, so the time period is absolutely fasci...

Free Christian Romantic Suspense Novels by Camy Tang / Camille Elliot

Curious about what my writing is like? Here’s a list of all my free books and the free short stories, novellas, and novels that you can read here on my blog. I’ll update this post as I add more free reads. Christian Romantic Suspense: Necessary Proof (Sonoma series #4.1, novella) Click here to buy the FREE ebook on all retailers Alex Villa became a Christian in prison, and because of his efforts to help stop a gang producing meth in Sonoma, he has been set up for the death of a cop. Can computer expert Jane Lawton find the evidence that will prove his innocence before the gang eliminates them both? Fantasy short stories: Pixies in a Garden in Kyoto There were pixies in the garden. Since she was in Kyoto, she was certain they were not called pixies, but she didn't know what they would be called in Japanese, and they certainly looked like what she imagined pixies would look like. The King’s Daughter The trees in the King's garden were full of colored pixie lights. The...

Cover Reveal + New Logo for Year of the Dog, a Mahina Security Novel

A New Look for Year of the Dog (and a Behind-the-Scenes Oops!) What do a dog trainer, a security expert, and a nearly-naked book cover have in common? Let me explain. 😅 Year of the Dog is the first book in my Christian romantic suspense series, Mahina Security, set in beautiful (and sometimes dangerous) Hawaii. It features quirky humor, family tensions, sweet romance, and a mystery involving a missing person—and it’s now available to read in the Christian suspense anthology, Danger in the Shadows , on Kindle Unlimited ! But before that happened, I had a bit of a cover mishap… While creating the ebook cover, I realized that the original stock photo made my heroine look, well, completely nekkid. 😳 She’s actually wearing a tube top in the image, but when I cropped it for the ebook, the top disappeared—leaving her looking very PG-13. To fix it, I did some Canva magic on a strappy top from another image and stuck it onto the model (so she’s decent now). But when I resize...