Hey readers! Today I have an entire series to recommend, something I don’t think I’ve ever done. If I Run, the first book in the three-book series by the same name, came recommended to me by a young friend, who’d had it recommended to her. She likened it to Harrison Ford’s The Fugitive, except told within a Christian framework and with a woman on the run. She told me how she’d taken If I Run to a park to read one day and ended up finishing the whole thing in one go. It’s is that kind of book, and that kind of a series.

If I Run by Terri Blackstock (Zondervan, 2016) is a smartly paced, plot-driven suspense with no-frills prose — quite unlike what I usually gravitate to. Much of the writing, especially in Book 1, actually tilts toward telling rather than showing. But for me, this worked — because I was so hooked by the story. I simply wanted to know, What happens next? Also, I think each subsequent book in the series improved on this quality.

Casey and Dylan were characters I liked spending time with. In fact I found Casey to be one of the most likable protagonists I’ve encountered in a long time. If I Run is a story with plenty of secrets, and alternating between Casey’s narrative and Dylan’s meant a relentless tightening of tension that kept me glued to the story.

Although Book 1 ends on a definite cliffhanger, there was closure to a subplot that made it nonetheless satisfying.

I read Books 2 and 3 — If I’m Found and If I Live — on audio, skillfully narrated by Kate Rudd. (Note: Book 1 has a different narrator. I recommend Books 2 and 3 in audio format.) In these sequels, Blackstock adds the antagonist as a POV character to amp up the tension, and expertly weaves in elements from Book 1, as well as adding new subplots to carry the story forward.

I’m not generally a fan of the “wrongly accused” motif, nor do I generally favor books that don’t stand alone. And yet I really liked these — so much so that I got through all three in less than two weeks.

Oh, and did I mention there’s romance? Yes. I loved that too.

But the best part of all for me was the refreshingly wholesome, hopeful, uplifting, redemptive spiritual nature of the whole series. Maybe because these qualities feel so absent these days from cultural rhetoric, I’m increasingly hungry for it in my literature. Until I read this series, in fact, I hadn’t realized how starved for it I was. No profanity, no explicit sexual content. Instead people of faith living out their faith as authentically as they can in our broken but still beautiful world.

I want more books like these in my reading life. Any you’d recommend?

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About If I Run:

Casey knows the truth. But it won’t set her free.

Casey Cox’s DNA is all over the crime scene. There’s no use talking to police; they’ve failed her abysmally before. She has to flee before she’s arrested . . . or worse. The truth doesn’t matter anymore.

But what is the truth? That’s the question haunting Dylan Roberts, the war-weary veteran hired to find Casey. PTSD has marked him damaged goods, but bringing Casey back can redeem him. Though the crime scene seems to tell the whole story, details of the murder aren’t adding up.

Casey Cox doesn’t fit the profile of a killer. But are Dylan’s skewed perceptions keeping him from being objective? If she isn’t guilty, why did she run?

Unraveling her past and the evidence that condemns her will take more time than he has, but as Dylan’s damaged soul intersects with hers, he is faced with two choices: the girl who occupies his every thought is a psychopathic killer . . . or a selfless hero. And the truth could be the most deadly weapon yet.

About the author

Terri Blackstock has sold over seven million books worldwide and is a New York Times and USA TODAY bestselling author. She is the award-winning author of Intervention, Vicious Cycle, and Downfall, as well as such series as Cape Refuge, Newpointe 911, the SunCoast Chronicles, and the Restoration Series. Visit her website at terriblackstock.com.

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