Already in the Kudzu by Hannah Hood Lucero

This suspenseful romance novel is all about redemption with justice added in as the cherry on top. I call it suspenseful romance, because like almost all of the genre of romantic suspense, the suspense takes a back seat to the romance. See my blog article on this topic here. This is the first novel in the Sons of Vigilance series by Ms. Lucero.

The particular son of vigilance in this novel is Kael, a marine who has finished his last tour and is ready to walk away. However, something tragic happens and he’s forced to visit a quiet Blue Ridge Mountain town to deliver some letters and a message to J. Moreno, who is Jamie, the other main character of this novel.

Jamie and Kael are both emotionally messed up individuals, so of course they are perfect as a romantic couple. Kael suffers from severe PTSD and Jamie suffers from severe guilt over her past life in Colorado. She has been keeping a secret from everyone except her best friend Trip, who is in the early part of the novel. I easily guessed the secret, but that didn’t take away from the emotional unfolding of it.

Being that this is a romance, I assume the only thing that bothered me is what avid readers of romances want. All the feelings stuff. The constant thoughts of attraction and desire. The ooey gooey stuff, as I call it. A little is okay, but I felt over half the book was all this stuff and from both Jamie’s and Kael’s points of view. Again, not necessarily a criticism, just not my cup of tea. As I read, I wanted the confrontation with the bad guys to happen. But I had to wade through the feelings stuff. One other minor thing was that Jamie’s name was Jamie from her point of view, but everyone else called her James. The first time this happened, I was confused as to who James was.

This is an overtly Christian novel. (A good thing as far as I’m concerned) Though both characters struggle with their faith. The redemption part really comes in with Jamie, who has walked away from God before this story starts. Both characters are surrounded by Christians. It’s a good example of how even believers can fall away, but God always finds a way to bring them back.

As a Christian novel, it’s clean. No profanity. The violence is muted. And there’s no sex, other than kissing and appropriate touching. As I alluded to earlier, though, too much kissing and appropriate touching, and then internal analysis of both from both characters.

Readers of Christian romance will love this well-written book. The suspense added in gives it an element that kept me reading. I’ll rank this one number four so far. One side note, one of the characters is reading a novel by Jennifer Q. Hunt, who is currently still occupying the number one spot for me this year.

1. Through Thorny Ways by Jennifer Q. Hunt
2. The Seven Day Resurrection by Chevron Ross
3. Justice by Jeff Hill
4. Already in the Kudzu by Hannah Hood Lucero
5. The Shocking Truth by Steve Rush
6. Daughter of Darkness by Ed Gorman

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