This book was so relevant to today’s current events (2021). The tough topic of sex trafficking was the main theme, and it was handled pretty well here. I was glad to see a book that featured rescues from such a hard life, as I’ve been encouraged to see real-life rescues mentioned in conservative news outlets over the last year or so. Eliza’s journey was a good one, as it highlighted the lowest of this trafficking as well as rescue operations from that lifestyle. Her story was complex, and I was hooked and wanting to know what happened to her from the very beginning.

I liked how Jack’s grief and sorrow were first stuffed down but then dealt with in a healthy way. That process is not an easy one to write about or to live out, but Mrs. Kingsbury did a fantastic job with it here.

This book ought to have been labeled as connected to the Angels Walking series, because the angel Beck showed up a couple of times. I wish I would have known it was connected, because that series is my least favorite that I’ve read of Kingsbury’s. Angel books are just not my genre.

There was one super random background note for a character. It had already been clearly established several times that this guy decided early in his life he would never fall in love or marry, but suddenly he revealed he went “from one girl to another” in his younger days. It was a shock-and-awe moment that had nothing to do with the rest of the plot. A couple of other inconsistencies bugged me too, but that was the most glaring one.

The baptism that happened in the story was weird to me. First of all, it happened about eight seconds after the person accepted Jesus into their heart. That seemed incredibly fast to me. The leading guy was in no way an ordained minister, so I’m not sure he had the authority to baptize someone. As far as I know, there are no instances of non-ministers baptizing people in the Bible, since John the Baptist was a prophet ordained by God and the apostles were called and sent out as evangelists by Jesus. This book’s leading man also didn’t even consider that such an act would have blown his partner’s and his own cover since it was on a public beach and it was well established that the bad guys always sent people to watch them, so it didn’t work cohesively within the plot either.

I did like the fact that a salvation experience was included in this story. Those moments always make me smile and want to welcome the character into the family of God, even if they aren’t real people.

Content: alcohol, skimpy clothing (including bikinis), suicidal thoughts, drugs, sexual innuendo

This book was true to Karen Kingsbury style. It was amazing, thought provoking and stayed with me long after I finished. I would definitely recommend this book to anyone.

I’ve always enjoyed Karen Kingsbury’s books, but she took her writing to an even higher level with this novel. She tackled a tough yet timely topic with sensitivity and grace: human trafficking. Although there are moments in the book that I found slightly implausible, I loved the chemistry between Eliza and Jack, and the suspense kept me turning the pages. The book read like a movie in my mind. This is one to savor and share with others—to entertain and to educate on such an important issue in today’s world. Thank you to NetGalley and Atria Books for the chance to read this inspiring novel in exchange for an honest review.

Karen Kingsbury is perhaps one of the most well known names in inspirational/Christian fiction...often recognized even by those who don't typically read the genre. And truthfully, I can see why... she is a master with words. Needless to say, I was excited to check out her newest novel A Distant Shore... though it's certainly a departure in subject matter than those that I have personally read from her in the past.

Dealing with the topic of trafficking, this is FAR from an easy book to read and certainly not one to pick up if you're looking simply for your next lighthearted romance... but if you are looking for something with a lot more depth that will reach all of your emotions, this one will certainly do just that. While I cannot say that this was my favorite Karen Kingsbury read (or my favorite story that tackled this difficult topic), I did think it was a good read and one certainly worth checking out if you enjoy Christian suspense!

**I received a complimentary copy of this book for consideration. All thoughts are my own.

I have been reading Karen Kingsbury books for years and this is my favorite yet!!! It’s an absolutely fabulous and at times heartbreaking story. It sheds light on a truly horrifying reality-human trafficking. And the sacrifices law enforcement goes through to rescue people from that life! It shows the beauty of Gods plan for people lives! I cried multiple times, mostly happy tears! I will recommend this book forever!!!

This is a much different story than the usual Karen Kingsbury book. It is a story of human trafficking that is horrific and far too widespread in the world today. Although this is a difficult yet relevant topic, this story is tastefully and beautifully written.

Nine year old Eliza Ann Lawrence standing on a beach in Belize, is thinking how just a year ago she and her mother along with younger brother Daniel lived in a Mennonite village and she was Lizzie Susan James. Although her mother claimed Mennonite men didn't leave their families, Lizzie's Daddy did. He now goes by the name of Anders McMillan. Eliza, who also has a new name, lives with him in the Palace with 16 other girls, lots of guards with guns and brusque Aunt Betsy who watches over her because her mother and Daniel died in the ocean.

Her father has given Eliza her own wing in the Palace, and doesn't allow the men who visit the other girls to come near her because he claims he is saving her for something special. Eliza realizes at a young age that her father is an evil man.

The Ryder family from the United States often come to Belize for family vacations. Teenage Jack, is throwing a football with his younger brother on the beach when the boys are warned by their Dad that a storm is coming. Jack suddenly realizes a woman on the beach is frantically calling for help and pointing to a child flailing about the choppy sea. Being a strong swimmer, he doesn't hesitate to jump into the water and swim toward the child, Despite his fast action in saving the child, his family suffers a heartbreaking loss.

Fast forward ten years and Jack Ryder is one of the best FBI agents in San Antonio. He is held in high regard for his undercover work. He is bold and lives for the mission. Recently his missions have been focused on international drug and sex-trafficking rings that also do business in the United States.

When Jack is sent undercover to Belize to aid in bringing down Anders McMillan, known as a drug lord in addition to running a sex slave factory, Jack realizes the child he saved ten years earlier is McMillan' daughter, Eliza.

This is a compelling, intriguing and yet tragic story because human trafficking could be happening in our own cities. Impossible to put down until the last page was turned.

Thank you to NetGalley and Simon & Schuster for the advanced copy of this book. All opinions and comments are my own.

The author did a wonderful job in bringing to light the sex trafficking trade while still bringing faith and hope in to the story. Well done.
Many thanks to Atria Books and to NetGalley for providing me with a galley in exchange for my honest opinion.

Thank you NetGalley, Atria Books and Karen for this beautiful advanced ebook!

I was immediately sucked into this amazing, fascinating story of A Distant Shore.
It was so well captured and written. Eliza and Jack wowza!!! The connection between the two is instantly and so well developed. I loved it!
Once I really got started reading and going it was really hard to put my kindle down!
I felt the story coming off the pages which was simply amazing!
This story will have you scanning pages and leave you wanting more!

Thank you again for the opportunity to read and review this outstanding novel!

All I can say is WOW!!!!! This book was so far beyond excellent that I am struggling to express just how incredible it was! Ms. Kingsbury truly outdid herself in the amount of research, and her incredible delivery of such a sensitive topic. With sex trafficking such a truly real issue in our world today, this could have been a very dark and hard to read story if told by anyone without the talent of Karen Kingsbury.

I expected this story to stay in the same vein as it began for the extent of the book. I feared that I would have too much trouble continuing to read it if it were not to move beyond the beginning stages. However, this story moved along at such a pace, and covered so very much ground, that I, as the reader, had no opportunity to settle in to any truly dark places.

The characters were truly well explored and given tremendous depth. I felt like I was right within the pages experiencing so many incredibly deep emotions. This was not a short story, and yet it never slowed down and had a single dull moment. It was hard to put this book down!

All I can say is this very quickly became my all time favorite story by Karen Kingsbury! She has developed into an even deeper and more talented author than she was before! I would love to see this book turn into a movie, as I have little doubt it will! This book is a pure treasure!

I received a complimentary copy of this book from Atria Books through NetGalley. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own.

In A Distant Shore, I like how Karen Kingsbury discussed the very hard topic of sex trafficking. It is a topic that needs more awareness. I feel that she did it well and addressed the horrors of it without being too descriptive. The main characters, Jack and Eliza were likable and I enjoyed following their story. In light of Eliza's struggles, the relationship did seem a bit rushed and unrealistic at first, but overall I enjoyed the romance element of the novel. This one had me crying one minute and filled with hope the next, as many of Kingsbury's novels do! Thank you Netgalley for the advanced e-copy of this book and the chance to read and review it.

I loved this story, I loved the character's and hope to read more. I always love Karen kingsbury book.

Karen Kingsbury’s books are always filled with compassion, faith, and grace. She allows us to get to know and care for the characters, and this pulls the reader even more deeply into the story. All of those things are true for this book as well.

But be aware that this isn’t a “Baxter Family” novel. The storyline revolves around the distressing subject of the sex trafficking of young girls. She never goes into any disturbing details of the crimes, but the rescuing of these victims is the main storyline of this book. Eliza’s story is very compelling and I found myself hoping that there could be a happy ending for both her and Jack. In telling their stories, the author helps make the reader aware of this very real evil that exists in our country.

There are moments in this book that I thought might be just a little bit over the top, but it works well in the storyline. Karen’s books are always appropriately written, and this one is certainly appropriate, too. But there are a couple of scenes when Eliza and Jack are doing FBI undercover work, posing as a married couple, that might make some readers feel slightly uncomfortable.

All in all, I liked it. The way of salvation is clearly explained, and the faith theme of trusting God at all times comes shining through.

I received a copy of this book from the publisher. All opinions are my own.

Thank you so much to Atria Books & Netgalley for an ARC of this book. I love Karen Kingsbury she is one of my favorite authors but this was not the type of read that I expected it to be. It felt different than any of her other books which she points out in her acknowledgments at the end. That being said this was a great inspiring read.

I’ve loved or at least really liked every book I’ve read from Karen Kingsbury and this book was no exception. It took me a little bit to get into but once I got just a little ways in I was hooked. There was suspense, there was action, there was romance. It all came together so well. I feel like she did so well touching on the subject of sex trafficking, especially with that being such a big problem all across the world. Everytime Eliza completes a mission and saves more innocent children I just wanted to cheer and I also wanted to cry for those poor children. Karen is such a good author to be able to make you laugh, cry, and cheer all at the same time.

“This book was provided to me by NetGalley and Atria Books. I was not required to write a positive review, and have not been compensated for this. All opinions are my own.”

I have kind of stopped reading Karen’s book because the characters are too perfect, but when I saw this one it seemed totally different than anything else she has ever written. And it was. This is a very different book.

For the first half I really enjoyed it and then honestly it could have ended for me. I felt like all the tension was gone and now I was just waiting for Eliza and Jake to get together. So, overall, I didn’t really enjoy this book either.


A copy of this book was given to me through Netgalley. All opinions are my own.

Usually Karen Kingsbury books hit the spot for me but this one just didn't have it.

The author tackles the very important topic of Sex Trafficking which needs the spotlight on it because of the horrific effect it has on its victims.

I did not find the characters believable and that was a disappointment for me. jack and Eliza meet in the Caribbean as young teens when he saves her from what he believes is a drowning while it's actually a suicide attempt. Eliza doesn't want to live in the world her father has created, one of evil and the abuse of young girls.

Eliza was taken from her mother and brother by her father from the Mennonite community. I found it a tad unbelievable that her father suddenly had the desire to become a sex trafficker. We are given no background on how or why this happens. We only know that Eliza and her father disappear to the Caribbean and she becomes the princess of the evil empire.

Jack comes back into her life as an FBI undercover agent sent to bring down the criminal ring. It all happens very fast and the next thing we know Eliza, who is 21 by this time is offered a deal of going undercover with Jack to help bring down other criminal empires or go to jail. They go on several missions and I just found the whole storyline far fetched.

Again I usually like this author's books a lot so I was somewhat shocked at how unimpressed I was with this one.

Karen Kingsbury dives into the world of human trafficking.

Eliza is a young Mennonite girl who is growing up on a beautiful beach in Belize.
Jack, a young FBI agent, returns to Belize where he lost his brother the same day he rescued a young girl from drowning. Jack and Eliza meet, and their lives will never be the same.

This is a great story full of loss, sadness, and the healing power of God,

Thank you to Netgalley, Atria Books and Karen Kingsbury for the eARC of this book in exchange for my honest review.

I appreciate that Karen is wading into deeper and important topics, but at the same time I don't need a cleaned-up Hallmark version story about abuse or trafficking. This is the most action-packed/fast-moving start to a Karen Kingsbury book... but then one third of the way through, it drops off and moves very slowly until arriving at the knew-it-from-page-two Hallmark ending. It was unrealistic, failed to wrap up/answer several large plot points, and also managed to give only a couple paragraphs to a major storyline -- on the very final pages. One of the biggest storylines from the beginning of the book is dropped in your lap at the end and all you get is a happily-ever-after. No how, no explanation or backstory, no wrestling through any questions that immediately arise in the mind of the reader, nothing. Just an "it all magically worked out!" ending.

I nearly sobbed at the end of this sweet Christian romance that goes after a brutal topic- sex trafficking. The author does an excellent job of gently touching a difficult and heart wrenching subject. It is worth the read and worth sharing with others!

In this book, Eliza is rescued from drowning by a young man at the beach. Jack doesn’t know that she doesn’t want to be saved because her life is so awful. In a tragic turn of events, his brother also tries to rescue Eliza but drowns himself. Years later, these two meet again without recognizing each other. Jack is an undercover FBI agent working on cracking open a sex trafficking ring. Eliza is trapped by her father in this ring- forced to pull other girls into his clutches until he sells her on her 21st birthday. Will Eliza trust him and escape the clutches of her father? Will she be able to get the other girls to safety and work through her own feelings of shame from this horrible time in her life?

Thank you to NetGalley and Atria who allowed me to read a copy for free so that I could provide my honest opinion.

I was a little hesitant to read this book because of the setting. I can't say I enjoyed it because of the story it told,but as usual Karen wrote an incredibly powerful story which touched my heart and I think anyone who reads it will be touched as well. The characters were so believable and the way it centered around the Lord was wonderful. I will definitely recommend it to everyone.