Tag: dog

How could they stop the Jingle Bell Bomber's deadly game?

Book Review | Explosive Christmas Showdown by Darlene L Turner

There’s a meme going around Facebook right now that encapsulates why I’m not really a fan of Christmas romances:

A moment of silence for all the big city, suit-wearing guys who are about to get dumped for a small-town guy wearing flannel in a Hallmark Christmas movie this holiday season.

So I was a little apprehensive about signing up to Darlene L Turner’s review team to read and review Explosive Christmas Showdown, her latest title from Love Inspired Suspense. After all, Christmas is right there in the title …

But when I read the book description, I realised this wasn’t the cliché Hallmark Christian romance the meme is mocking. Explosive Christmas Showdown starts with a bang:

Someone in your office will die today.

And the pace doesn’t let up until the final page.

It was the perfect blend of all the components that go to making up a great romance.

There was Olive Wells, an intelligence analyst for the federal police in Ottawa – I always like a professional woman who is good at her job. There was Zac Turner, her ex-fiancé, who is also a law enforcement professional – who is immediately loveable enough that I wondered why they ever broke up.

There is Zika, Zac’s K-9 partner in policing – I am always suspicious of a man who doesn’t like animals, so a dog handler is a perfect occupation for a romance hero. And there is the evildoer: the Jingle Bell Bomber, someone from Olive’s past with vengeance on their mind.

Olive and Zac used to be together, so I enjoyed finding out more about their history and why they broke up when they are so evidently a great match (yes, I always enjoy a good reunion romance, especially in shorter fiction like Love Inspired, as long as there is a good reason for them breaking up in the first place. In this case, there was).

Ziva was lovely. I’m more of a cat person than a dog person, but even I want a Ziva of my own. The suspense was excellent. While we’re made aware early on that the bomber knows Olive, their identity isn’t obvious, which adds to the tension. And there is plenty of tension, both from the bombs and the romance.

All in all, Explosive Christmas Showdown has everything I enjoy in a novel, set in a snowy December in Ontario (so nothing like the sunny Christmases I experience living in New Zealand).

Recommended for fans of Christian romantic suspense.

Thanks to the author for providing a free ebook for review.

About Darlene L Turner

Darlene L TurnerDarlene L. Turner is an award-winning author and lives with her husband, Jeff in Ontario, Canada. Her love of suspense began when she read her first Nancy Drew book. She’s turned that passion into her writing and believes readers will be captured by her plots, inspired by her strong characters, and moved by her inspirational message.

Find Darlene L Turner online at:

Website | Facebook | Instagram | Pinterest | Twitter

About Explosive Christmas Showdown

A bomber brings terror to Christmas

as the presents go tick…tick…boom.

With criminal investigative analyst Olive Wells at the center of a bomber’s dangerous game, she’ll do anything to catch the culprit—even work with her ex-fiancé and his K-9 detector dog. But with the Christmas rampage drawing ever closer, Zac Turner’s convinced the attacks are personal. Can they piece together their ties to the bomber…before another gift explodes?

You can find Explosive Christmas Showdown online at:

Amazon | BookBub | ChristianBook | Goodreads

Don’t forget to click here to check out my Amazon shop for my top picks in Christian fiction!

Can you recommend any Christian fiction featuring a dog as a major character?

Bookish Question #232 | Do you know any Christian fiction featuring a dog?

Do you know of any Christian fiction featuring a dog as a major character?

Tough question!

The first novels I though to featuring a dog as a major character were The Famous Five novels by Enid Blyton. I can still hear the TV theme tune in my mind … Julian, Dick, and Anne, George and Timmy the do-o-o-og.

I can think of some Christian fiction where the main character had a dog, but not where the dog was actually a major character.

What’s the difference, you might ask.

Well, a lot of fiction will mention that a character has a pet dog or cat, but the animal doesn’t really play any major part in the story. The animal spends most of its time at home, often locked in the house or in a cage when the owner (the main character) leaves to go to work or have a life. Too often, it seems like the animals are introduced at the beginning as a plot point, then forgotten about. They’re barely fed and only walked if that suits the plot (e.g. if the heroine has to leave the house so she can be kidnapped).

They are side characters or accessories, not major characters.

I have come across a few novels where the dogs get more attention. Woman in Shadow by Carrie Stuart Parks is one—Darby adopts Holly and Maverick, and they were my favourite characters.

Dan Walsh has the Forever Home four-book series featuring dogs as major characters, starting with Rescuing Finley. I don’t know why I haven’t read them yet, but that’s obviously a fault I need to rectify.

But that’s all I can think of. What about you?

Can you recommend any Christian fiction featuring a dog as a major character?