Susan Sleeman's High Stakes Inheritance ~ Reviewed

High Stakes Inheritance
By Susan Sleeman
ISBN #: 978-0-373-44411-3
216 pages

Back Cover:

Despite the threatening warning, Mia Blackburn won't let anyone scare her from the rustic resort she inherits from her beloved uncle. But when a fire traps her in a burning barn, she fears that she won't get out alive. Just in time her ex-boyfriend volunteer firefighter Ryan Morgan rescues her from the deadly blaze. He had once broken her heart, yet she still has feelings for him. With Ryan insisting on keeping a close eye on her, Mia feels safer—and closer to Ryan than ever before. Yet the threats haven't stopped, and soon Mia's high-stakes inheritance includes a murder—and Mia could be the next victim.

Review:

I enjoyed the review copy of this suspenseful murder mystery! I was hooked from the first line of the book, “Pinetree will never be yours, leave Loganlake now or you will pay.”

Mighty strong threat, was this real? Mia Blackburn wondered as she read it. She’d just come back in town today. She was back to fulfill the request of her late uncle’s wishes! Why the threats?

Mia decided to keep this threat a secret no need to worry anyone else. It was probably nothing! She thought so until the fire! Mia and a little girl are almost killed at Pinetree when the barn catches fire! Okay, maybe the threat was real, but why would someone be out to kill her?

Russ, the police chief starts to question Mia at the scene of the fire and is convinced she’s done this horrible thing! That’s crazy – she had to prove her innocence but how?

She could ask Ryan, her high school sweetheart, to help but that’d be crazy. They didn’t part on such good terms. But people change – she had heard he got “religious” just great! She didn’t trust men or God for that matter!

Ryan told Mia, “In High School I didn’t know God. Now that I have a relationship with Him, I know He doesn’t cause bad things to happen.”

“Really? Then why do they happen?” Mia let sarcasm shout through her words…waiting for Ryan to convince her that God was not her enemy.

“…God doesn’t cause bad things to happen but He allows them to happen for a variety of reasons. For me, it’s usually to get my attention and draw me closer to him.”

“That’s pretty lame, if you ask me Ryan…” Mia’s heart was hard toward God and men. Her relationship with her dad was strained ever since her mom died and her brother took her dad’s side!”

I enjoyed how the author naturally wove the spiritual thread throughout the action, suspense, plot twists and turns. All the while helping the reader discover who was threatening to kill Mia and doing all these bad things.

The author says this in her note to the reader “I wanted to write a story to show how hard it is to trust God, when faced with life-altering challenges like Mia and Ryan experienced. I wanted to show through Mia and Ryan that no matter what the problem, when we trust in the Lord ad don’t try and take things into our own hands, he has a far richer and more rewarding life planned for us than we could ever dream on our own.”

I believe this authors statement with all my heart and maybe that’s why I could relate to these characters and liked the story so much. I do believe Susan Sleeman accomplished what she set out to do. This is the first book I’ve read by this author, it won’t be the last.

Reviewed by: Nora St. Laurent
The Book Club Network