Inescapable

Back Cover

Lizzie Engel is used to running away. At eighteen, she left her Mennonite hometown, Kingdom, Kansas, with plans never to return.

But five years later, the new life she built is falling apart. Lizzie knows she's being followed, and she's certain the same mysterious stranger is behind the threatening letters she's received. Realizing she'll have to run again, the only escape Lizzie can manage is a return to the last place she wants to go.

Once she arrives in Kingdom, Lizzie is confident she'll be safe until she comes up with a new plan. In reacquainting herself with the town and its people - especially her old friend, Noah Housler - she wonders if she judged her hometown and her Mennonite faith too harshly. However, just as she begins to come to terms with her roots, Lizzie is horrified to discover the danger she ran from is closer than ever.

No longer sure who to trust and fearful for her life and the lives of those around her, Lizzie finds she has only one place left to run - to the Father whose love is inescapable.

Review

What do you do when you have seemingly nowhere to turn?  Who do you turn to for help?

For Lizzie Engel and her daughter Charity, the answer meant home.  Home to Kingdom, Kansas, a strict Mennonite community, and an even stricter father, the same things she ran away from years earlier.  She hopes that the residents of Kingdom would have forgotten about her and the scandal she ran away from so she can hide out in obscurity until the danger has passed.  What she didn’t expect was the many welcoming faces and open arms.

Her father, on the other hand, is as harsh and unyielding as ever.  Unable to stay at her old home, Lizzie and Charity are taken in by a kindly widow who provides Lizzie with a job.  However, not soon after Lizzie arrives, the danger she thought she escaped shows up again, and she is forced to contemplate running yet again.  The ante doubles when someone from her past shows up with highly questionable motives.

Inescapable, the first book in the “Road to Kingdom” series, was a really pleasant, nice read.  The characters were well-developed and the story moved along at a good pace.  Everyone can relate to Lizzie at some point in their life - that moment when everything seems to be falling apart and the only One you can look to is God above, Who is ever faithful.  Noah is the quintessential wonderful, strong guy that any girl would love.  He is always there to lend a hand – even to those who dislike him - and has a fierce protectiveness for the ones he loves.

Overall, it was a really good light read and I enjoyed the journey to Kingdom, Kansas.  I’m looking forward to book two in the series, Unbreakable, coming in Spring, 2013.

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.