Rising Danger Review and GIVEAWAY!

About the Book

Book: Rising Danger

Author: Jerusha Agen

Genre: Christian Romantic Suspense

Release date: May 25, 2021

It’s up to a K-9 handler and her canine partner to stop a bomber before it’s too late.

Someone’s planting explosives on dams in the Twin Cities, and Bristol Bachmann and her bomb sniffing dog must move quickly to find them before everything ends up underwater. That means relying on the dams’ supervisor—an ex-boyfriend Bristol never thought she’d see again. Hopefully Remington Jones has grown up from the rakish charmer she knew in her academy days. Because lives now depend entirely on them…

It’s an environmental terrorist who wants the dams gone, and his bid to set the waters free has lethal consequences. When he sees Bristol and her K-9 working to stop him, he sets his sights on them. Can they evade him in a lethal game of cat and mouse and protect their cities from devastating destruction before the clock runs out?

Click HERE to get your copy!

About the Author

Jerusha Agen imagines danger around every corner, but knows God is there, too. So naturally, she writes suspense infused with the hope of salvation in Jesus Christ.

With a B.A. in English and a background in screenwriting, Jerusha is a speaker, writing instructor, and Fear Warrior who sounds the call to battle against fear in our everyday lives.

Jerusha loves to hang out with her big furry dogs and little furry cats. You’ll often find her sharing irresistibly adorable photos of them in her newsletter and on social media.

Get a free suspense story from Jerusha and find more of her thrilling, fear-fighting novels at www.JerushaAgen.com.

More from Jerusha

Hi, readers! For those of you who are familiar with my suspense novels, you know I love to interweave fast-paced suspense with powerful character journeys of redemption. I got to do just that in my romantic suspense novel, Rising Danger.

But what I especially loved about writing Rising Danger was the chance to feature a canine hero. Bristol Bachmann, the heroine of Rising Danger, partners with Toby, an explosives detection K-9, to stop a bomber from unleashing terror on the Twin Cities.

As a lifelong lover of dogs, I’ve always been fascinated by working K-9s like Toby. Getting to portray this black Labrador’s heroism in Rising Danger was so much fun.

I also feel that writing about Toby and the other K-9s in this tale who are part of the Phoenix K-9 Security and Detection Agency was a way to honor the heroic dogs I’ve had in my own life. No, I haven’t known any working K-9s, but I’ve shared my life with dogs who were heroic in different ways.

Take Lancelot, my first Leonberger. Lancelot was one of the sweetest dogs I’ve ever known. With his huge size, he was a true gentle giant. At an early age, he became terribly afraid of strangers and new places. I worked with skilled trainers to help him battle his fear, and he did have some improvement. But he would always struggle with meeting new people or visiting locations away from home.

Even so, he never stopped fighting against his fears. He continued to get better the more he fought. And while he battled his fears, he taught me how to battle mine.

Then, the worst battle of all commenced when he was diagnosed with terminal cancer. Doctors gave him only three to four months to live—a frightening and devastating death sentence for the dog of my heart.

But God had more to teach me through Lancelot. This courageous dog fought cancer as hard as he had fought his fears. He taught me how to find joy in every moment of life, even when there’s pain or sadness. He taught me how precious and powerful love can be. And God used him to give me unforgettable evidence of God’s loving providence and sovereignty at work.

Because God had a different plan for Lancelot. God gave me the gift of over 1,000 more days with my heroic dog.

Right up to the end of his days, Lancelot remained my hero. I’m so pleased to begin a series of books with prequel Rising Danger that feature K-9 heroes who, in different ways, remind me of the heroic dogs I’ve been privileged to love.

My Review

There is so much to love about this Love-Inspired book, Rising Danger by Jerusha Agen! To start with, the cover hooked me right away, with its mixture of formidable blues and greys, fog, and most of all, the dog. As soon as I see a canine, I have to check it out, and to put at ease any other readers like myself who always worry about the fate of dogs in the stories they read, I can safely say that they need have no fear of the dogs meeting their demise. This is one of my chief concerns in any story that contains animals, but dogs (and horses) have a special place in my heart. As a service dog handler, I am familiar to some extent with the everyday life of a working dog, and with scent training. Toby, in the story, is a black lab, and my dog is a yellow lab. While I have no experience with search and rescue or the detection of explosives, I love that Toby is trained to do both, and that Phoenix seeks out rescue dogs to train and use. Furthermore, I appreciate that Agen demonstrates how even highly-trained working dogs are still dogs and enjoy playing and relaxing, too.

Rising Danger provides a fantastic example of how valuable and expedient K-9 working dogs can be while also presenting a mystery and a potential second-chance romance. Agen opens the story with a bang, and the intensity never relents from that point forward. The focus is on environmental terrorism, an issue germane to the conservation-minded contemporary society, and dams in the Twin Cities. Bristol Bachmann, a new member of the close-knit Phoenix K-9 Security and Detection Agency, finds herself and her canine partner Toby working with a face from the past in the form of Remington Jones. Whereas Bristol is a perfectionist who leaves no room for mistakes or forgiveness after the tragedy she experienced sixteen years earlier during Hurricane Katrina, Remington has reformed from a partier to a man who offers his best to his job as security supervisor for the dams. Both continue to suffer from the events of their pasts, but whereas Rem has turned to the Lord, Bristol wants nothing to do with who she considers to be an uninterested or cruel God. Her grandmother Jessica and later her friend and co-worker Cora, along with Rem, try to draw her into a relationship with Jesus, but she resists. The Bible verse that especially encompasses the message of the narrative is Romans 8:28. As Rem illustrates by explaining Romans 8:28, “We can’t always see what He’s doing right away. Sometimes we won’t see it until we get to heaven. But He promises He’ll use even the worst things that happen for good. That’s why he allowed it. So something better can happen in the end.”

Agen pursues the idea of giving worries and troubles over to God through a few of the core characters, demonstrating flaws we all have and Truth we all need. Bristol’s grandma is especially cogent and persistent in her faith, and she isn’t afraid to lovingly speak the words she knows Bristol needs to hear: “I’m saying if you don’t let go of trying to keep yourself safe and protected from everything, you will miss out on real joy. And love. God’s best gifts usually come as a surprise, often packed in problems and trials. They’re things we never could have planned ourselves, even if we had known we needed them.” As Bristol deals with the current situation and PTSD from her childhood experience, she and the others working on the case learn their own weaknesses and what it really means to trust not only each other but most importantly, God Himself.

Rising Danger is the prequel novel to author Jerusha Agen’s new Guardians Unleashed series, and fans of thrilling, lightning-fast books with faith, romance, and even K-9s, will find this a story and a series to follow.

I received a complimentary copy of this book through Celebrate Lit and was not required to post a favorable review. All opinions are my own.

My rating: 5 stars ♥♥♥♥♥

Blog Stops

Book Reviews From an Avid Reader, October 20

Ashley’s Clean Book Reviews, October 20

Because I said so — and other adventures in Parenting, October 21

Gina Holder, Author and Blogger, October 21 (Author Interview)

Debbie’s Dusty Deliberations, October 22

CarpeDiem, October 22

Betti Mace, October 23

Daysong Reflections, October 23

lakesidereadingsite, October 24

Texas Book-aholic, October 24

Inside the Wong Mind, October 25

deb’s Book Review, October 25

A Modern Day Fairy Tale, October 26

Blogging With Carol, October 26

Locks, Hooks and Books, October 27

Simple Harvest Reads, October 27 (Guest Review from Donna Cline)

Inklings and notions, October 28

An Author’s Take, October 28

Through the fire blogs, October 29

For Him and My Family, October 29

Musings of a Sassy Bookish Mama, October 30

Truth and Grace Homeschool Academy, October 30

The Meanderings of a Bookworm, October 31

Just Your Average reviews, October 31

Mary Hake, October 31

Pause for Tales, November 1

Spoken from the Heart, November 1

Little Homeschool on the Prairie, November 2

For the Love of Literature, November 2

Giveaway

To celebrate her tour, Jerusha is giving away the grand prize package of a $25 Barnes and Noble gift card, one signed copy of Rising Danger, and book swag!!

Be sure to comment on the blog stops for nine extra entries into the giveaway! Click the link below to enter.

https://promosimple.com/ps/126b0/rising-danger-celebration-tour-giveaway