Thursday, March 13, 2025

About the Book

Book: Watch Your Back (Crossroads Suspense Book Three. It can be read as a standalone).

Author: Kristen Hogrefe Parnell

Genre: Christian Romantic Suspense

Release date: March 5, 2025

You can’t watch your own back.

Private Investigator Avery Reynolds leads the charge to expose Tampa’s supposedly “extinct” mob. The crime boss responsible for her foster brother’s death is within her grasp—until she hits a wall in the form of Ethan Bridger, a Coast Guard veteran who unknowingly derails her sting operation. When the elusive “Big Eddie” comes out of hiding, he targets their mutual friends about to tie the knot.

Avery sets aside her angst toward Ethan to focus on ending the crime boss’s reign of terror. But working together exposes her trust issues and his PTSD stemming from a comrade’s tragedy. When Avery goes solo into a prisoner exchange operation, she discovers her vulnerability too late—and must lean on Ethan and the God she thought had abandoned her. But will that help reach her in time?

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About the Author

Kristen Hogrefe Parnell writes suspenseful fiction from a faith perspective. Her books have won the Selah Award and the Grace Award, among others. She lives in the Tampa, Florida area with her husband and son.

More from Kristen

Finding God in Our Fears and Failures

Whenever I write a heroine’s character, I generally see a small piece of myself in her. Although I relate to some characters more than others, I can usually spot some shared quality that helps me empathize with her early on in my writing.

Writing private investigator Avery Reynolds in Watch Your Back was different. I liked her, despite all her sharp edges, but I didn’t see myself in her at first. As time went on, I found our shared similarity: a fear of failure.

While our situations are wildly different, this fear is not. She fears failing to take down Tampa’s elusive mob boss and letting down the few people close to her that she cares about. The stakes are so high at the end of the story that failure is worse than death to her.

While I was writing her story, I was raising a one-year-old, working online, trying to keep up with my home, and barely holding my head above water. Fears of missing my deadline—or worse, fears of letting down my family—ate away at my confidence. I couldn’t do it all. I wasn’t cut out for it.

That revelation was in fact the most freeing discovery I could make. I couldn’t do it all on my own, because I was never meant to. God provided a supportive husband, grace for each day, and the inspiration I needed to finish this story. Most importantly, He provided His never-failing presence. “For not, for I am with you,” the prophet Isaiah writes (Isaiah 41:10a NKJV). Ultimately, the reason we should not fear is Immanuel, “God with us.” (See Matthew 1:23.) He will never leave or forsake His children (Hebrews 13:5).

I don’t want to give away any spoilers in Avery’s story, but I will say she has her own moment of self-revelation as well. But will she recognize God’s hand reaching out to her in time?

When was the last time you found yourself in a situation you couldn’t handle on your own? How did God show up in your story?

MY REVIEW

I will recommend that if you haven’t read the other books in this series, you need to go back and read them first. This book picks up from the last one so it is important to familiarize yourself with the back story. I’m glad that I did, because it helped me follow the characters better and understand what they had gone through.

Avery is a tough character who wants to stop “Big Eddie.” A threat surrounds Avery and any friends or family that she is around. She does have a sense of failure when unexpected “accidents” happen around her. Who knew that going to a wedding would be dangerous?

Ethan is fierce, compassionate and carries the burden of PTSD. He tries to help Avery but at times they don’t always agree on everything. I think they both have pride to deal with and trusting God in every part of their lives. I was shocked when Avery became upset that Ethan had gone to the front of the church they were visiting to get prayer. Such bitterness could be felt just by her mannerisms. She was upset that she had stayed at the meeting forever just to see Ethan praying with the Pastor.

Poor Avery is feeling alone now that Ethan has stepped away from helping her. He tries to explain why, but all she sees is that the bad guy is winning now. She doesn’t understand that we live in a broken world. The bad guys may , “win on this side of eternity , but when Jesus returns, He will have the final victory over evil.”

There is a struggle going on within Avery as she doesn’t understand why God is allowing bad things to happen to her. I love when Ethan decides that he is going to help Avery in her struggle with God. The author provides characters with flaws and illustrates how faith guides them toward trusting God. With lots of action, danger and unforgettable faith elements this book is a must read.

I received a copy of this book from Celebrate Lit. The review is my own opinion.