I couldn't stop. This was so captivating and it sucked me right in. This has made its way into becoming my favorite book of all time and is such an eye opener in human trafficking. I wept the second half of the book imagining what these poor girls go through. I wish I would have discovered Martin's writing sooner because he is so gifted with story telling. The narrator was phenomenal and I am glad to see he also narrates the rest of the series as well. Thank you NetGalley, Thomas Nelson and Zondervan Fiction Audio for the opportunity to listen and review this wonderful story.

Charles Martin knows the way to my heart. I just finished listening to The Water Keeper. It was stunning.

In this first book in the series we are introduced to Murphy Shepherd and get a glimpse into his many secrets. But when a beautiful woman named Summer who is searching for her daughter enters his orbit, he is drawn into a mission to do what he does best, seek and save the lost. He has made it his life's work to combat the evils of modern-day slavery, but this case has a larger ripple effect on his personal life.

I loved this introduction to the series and from the beginning I was so pleased to know I had more of these characters and scenarios to come. It's action packed without sacrificing or neglecting the character development and backstories.

This is my second time around with this book, this time on audiobook. Even with knowing the story, it kept me from beginning to end. The narrator did a great job with it, which to me is a huge feat. Can't recommend it enough.

The Water Keeper is the first book by Charles Martin I have read and can I just say, I finally understand what all the hype has been about, and I cannot believe I waited so long to find out for myself. I was engrossed, engaged, gutted, and encouraged all in the span of front to back. Murphy is enigmatic, complex, and yet, so very simple. He desires justice and is good at what he does. The way his character is written is compulsive and purposeful. The side characters are perfectly placed, and no written word takes up wasted space. I am fully hooked and cannot wait to see what is next in store for Murphy, Clay, Summer, and the rest of the characters introduced in this powerful series starter.
I really enjoyed the narrator of this story and felt like he not only captured the characters, but the moods, the settings, and the wide current of emotions that ran deep.
I received a complimentary audiobook version from the publisher via NetGalley and all opinions expressed are solely my own, freely given.

I had heard amazing things about this book, so I was super excited to get it on audio. & let me tell you, I was not disappointed! It was so heartfelt and impactful, I didn’t want to stop and can’t wait to continue this series!

Oh this book had my heart strings all pulled. It was absolutely beautifully done. I could not get over how well written it was. Loved it!

The Water Keeper- what a beautiful and unique story. I didn’t want to put it down. I had no idea where the story would go and found myself on the edge of my seat with every chapter. What a crazy turn of events! I’ve never read a Christian fiction with so much adventure. I loved it. Thank you NetGalley, Thomas Nelson and Zondervan Fiction Audio, and Charles Martin for the opportunity to listen to this audiobook.

This book had all the right elements! A love story full of of tragedy and pain that ended with redemption and fulfillment. A mystery and thriller, solved just in time. A main character that was lovable and made you root for throughout. Highly recommend this read, with a perfect amount of faith and religion mixed in. Can’t wait to read the rest of the series!

I'm not sure about any of you, but I discovered this talented author quite some time ago...and have been HOOKED on his books since! Doesn't matter which one, or what it's about. He writes so beautifully that you are LITERALLY PULLED INTO the story, and it feels like YOU are a PART of it!

That being said, be sure to have tissues handy, as I'm not sure I've ever gotten through one of his books without completely breaking down and outright SOBBING.... at some point. That point today came while I was listening at work... Definitely NOT a good look. BUT, what a terrific book!!!

This is not a new book, in fact, it looks like it was released in 2020...but maybe it is just being released as an audiobook? Not sure, but what a joy to read!
And, also of note, this is book #1 in this series (The Water Keeper. Murphy Shepherd #1), so if it sounds like something you might enjoy, please look this one, and the next few up. A new one is due to be released soon! So, there's that too!!!

We open with seeing a boat on fire... and we're heading towards it. On the boat, there's a bunch of young girls... barely clad in any clothes... The MMC is looking for 'Fingers' and 'Marie' and is trying to get everyone off the boat, alive.... He finds Fingers, but he's pretty badly banged up... and Marie... well, that's a whole other story.

Fast forward and we have Murph, in a chapel, when a young girl appears...drunk or high...looking for the priest. Chance encounter all the way. Murph, is not a priest...and tells her so. But, he is concerned for her, and gives her his number...actually puts it into her phone, but doesn't expect that she'll ever remember the encounter, never mind actually call him.

Fast forward a bit more, and a woman is STEALING a boat... and driving it away. She obviously has no idea what she's doing... but she's trying...

This is only the VERY BEGINNING of the book. It is totally action packed throughout, and the encounters along the way will just light you up, as well as FILL YOU UP... emotionally, then scare you half to death, shatter your heart, and then pick the pieces up and try to melt them back together again… ❤️❤️

And, there are references to Jesus, and the Bible, which in my book, can never steer you wrong!

ALL the stars, and then some for me!!!
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️💫💫💫💫💫✨✨✨✨✨

If you are able to write a book that brings out EVERY EMOTION, and is able to place you right in the middle of all the action while reading it, well, there is NOTHING BETTER than that in my eyes!!

#TheWaterKeeper by #Charles Martin and narrated brilliantly by #JonathanKRiggs.

Thanks so much to #NetGalley and #ThomasNelsonAndZondervanFictionAudio for an ARC of the audiobook. I believe the book has already been released, so look 👀 for it on shelves now!

You can also find my reviews on: Goodreads,
Insta @BookReviews_with_emsr and/or
My Facebook Book Club: Book Reviews With Elaine

Thanks so much for reading! And if you ‘liked’ my review, please share with your friends, & click ‘LIKE’ below… And, let me know YOUR thoughts if you read it!! 📚⭐️

Murph lives alone on an island, which contains a chapel. He is the groundsman/vicar to his flock of none. But he always goes to save the one. He’s hunting down a girl called Angel, who he saved from a party boat. He’s a bit of a James Bond, his side kick is Summer, who he saved when her (stolen) boat went down.
Turns out there are a lot of these ‘party boats’ which end up as sex trafficking - the girls party and then take on new roles, either onboard or sold to the highest bidder. Murph is on a mission. But there’s more to him than that…..
I loved it. I was absorbed by what kept him going, even when he looked down and out, what drove him and gave him that extra energy.
I found the narration engaging and thought provoking, in some ways saddened by the fact that there is probably truth in the fiction.

As the first installment of The Murphy Shepherd series, The Water Keeper does a fantastic job of introducing us to Murphy Shepherd and the strangers that eventually come together to become family. A story of love won and lost. Of redemption. True evil. And also a love that never quits. While the subject of this book hurts my heart, it's also a book that draws me back to the story again and again. The storytelling is top notch, and I love the way the narrator brings the story to life!

This story had me captivated from page one. It is a beautiful story within a story, written with perfection and touching the heart along the way. Emotional. Heart wrenching. With twists you won’t expect.

I wasn’t sure what I was getting myself into with this series. I do love Charles Martin books (although I have most of them, I haven’t read all of them). I must say, this series is going to be different but I am fully invested after book 1. Sure, some may say it is too contrived but I believe that God puts together people and places through His providence, so Murph and the people that come into his life isn’t surprising. Having worked over 30 years in law enforcement, the methods, firearms and incidents were spot on for me. At one point, I wondered how he survived but one incident was primarily slicing knife wounds and in another, he wore a vest that took six shots so, there’s that…

Charles Martin can get a little wordy but I love to learn something, too. This particular book flashed through info on boating particulars, routes and maneuvers. I thought it fascinating, some readers will not. I say skip those parts and read the rest and it will still be an intriguing story. So, on to book 2!

A bit about the audiobook-
Jonathan Riggs is a male narrator that I can listen to without cringing because he doesn’t try to sound like a girl. I know. It’s a thing with me. The emotion he put into the narration of this novel added to the story, his inflections were helpful in the telling and the distinctive voices added to the first person POVs.

This book is suitable for mature teens and older with no inappropriate intimate scenes. There is a drunk girl that partially says several words early on in the story and “b—-d” is used once. The rest of the novel is free from bad language. I received this book from the author/publisher free of charge, with no expectation of a positive review.

I knew this book was going to be good but it ended up being so much more than that. I listened to the audiobook and the narrator did such a fantastic job that I seemed to feel every hurt, every laugh, every heart ache, and every joy that was portrayed. The characters are so wonderfully written and performed that I came to love each one in their own way. This book is one that will stay with me for a long time to come and I cannot wait to read the rest of the series!

I read the book back in 2020 and just finished up listening to it again today. My sentiments towards this book are similar to when I read it the first time- IT IS SO GOOD. The characters, the setting (Florida girl, born and raised), the story of leaving the 99 to rescue the one....Charles Martin has such. way with words and weaves the most beautifully layered stories.

The Water keeper is the first book in the Murphy Shepherd series. This is a story of heroism, heartache, and the power of love to heal your wounds. .

Murphy Shepherd is a private man. He lives alone on an island, tending the grounds of a church with no congregation. Rather, he has dedicated his life to rescuing those in danger. He has recently lost his best friend and mentor, Bones.

Murph himself feels empty and lost.

Things begin to change after he pulls a beautiful young woman named Summer out of Florida's Intracoastal Waterway. Suddenly he has a new purpose in life and that is to help Summer, who is desperate to find her missing daughter, Angel. Murphy and Sumner enter into a world of peril as Murph digs deeper and deeper into the dark and dangerous world of modern-day slavery and human trafficking.

The journey will involve some unexpected new friends, including a Labrador he also pulled from the ocean and Clay, who has been recently released from prison. Murph must race against the clock to locate the girl before she is sold never to be found in the web of darkness.

Readers will find the drama wonderfully satisfying with a plot driven by desperation and love. You will be pondering the well developed characters long after closing the book.

The wonderful news is…

It’s not over. There are three more books in this series.

I read this one in audio format and found the narrator to be excellent.

Charles Martin did visit my store and after meeting him and his wife and hearing him speak of his passion for his profession, his writing is even more intriguing and endearing as I feel I know him.

Thank you to netgalley and the publisher for allowing me to read this book in exchange for a review.
The only bad. It was the audiobook and occasionally you heard the narrator swallow or some air sounds. Otherwise an excellent job.
This book does deal pretty heavily with human sex trafficking and slavery, drug use, and alcohol abuse along with physical abuse the cover looks like a Nicholas Sparks book. But the description did not. So I did not know what to expect but it sounded intriguing from the description which is why I wanted to read it. I was not disappointed. It starts out kind of strange and the story unfolds throughout the book. And you learn about our main character's past and he tends to collect troubled beings around him. All this while performing rescues of enslaved young women. This is really the story we wish that operation underground would have been. There is a lot that happens in this & kind of a twist or maybe a few of them towards the end. One does have to wonder why this guy, who does work for the government in some kind of an organization, does not call local law enforcement or any other law enforcement agency to help when he carries around a satellite phone that he could certainly get a hold of people and get the back up that would be needed so that he doesn't have to try and do this alone when he's tracked them down like he has.
The thing I probably liked most was this was a clean Thriller in the sense of language or sex. If anything was going to happen it was behind closed doors. And the language by and large was either a clean replacement or it was left to you to fill in the blanks. There was no question why this book is rated as high as it is because it really is a good book.

Murphy Shepherd is a man of many talents, one of which includes rescuing people. Starting with the rescue of a dog swimming after his owner's boat, Murphy rescues many people along the road and collects new friends.

This is book 1 in the Murphy Shepherd series, I've never read anything by Charles Martin before and I'm really glad I found this series. This book is wildly entertaining and the tone of Murphy's character is so pure. I thoroughly enjoyed the entire book, its thrilling, heartbreaking and has a good message. I like the way the author describes everything, it really makes the characters come to life and makes you feel like you're right there in the story with them.

I highly recommend this book and I can't wait for the next installment.

Thanks to Netgalley and Thomas Nelson for an advance reader copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

The Water Keeper is my first Charles Martin novel and I am blown away. This book took a few chapters to fully grip me, but I was intrigued by the explosive beginning. Then as the story slowly began to unfold, the fascination built.

From about halfway, I picked the story up at every possible moment. Even if I only had 90 seconds. So firm was my need to know what happened. I think Murph might be one of my favorite ever characters. Deeply wounded, impossibly courageous, fully skilled and all with the soul of an artist. Wow.

I won’t give away any plot details except that the byproduct of Murph’s wound is his ability to find missing people. The story centers on finding a missing teen, swept away by sex traffickers. He’s accompanied by the teen’s mom, an ex-con, his dog and a lost teenager.

Then a couple of twists put this already gripping read into a whole other level of brilliant. The Water Keeper is the first book in the series and I could not be more grateful for that. Murph and I have many happy hours ahead.

If you like gripping characters, unimaginable circumstances, high octane action and immeasurable softness all in one story, this is a book you must read. I received a copy of The Water Keeper from the publisher via NetGalley. The opinions are all my own.

This is one of those books that will stick with me for a long time. I have been a Charles Martin fan for a while, so I'm not surprised how much this book touched me. The Water Keeper centers around human trafficking. The story shines a light on some of the horror that is happening around the world. The plot focuses on a man who goes by "Murph" as he takes his boat on a journey to process some past grief. As he journeys south along the coast, he picks up a rag-tag bunch of strays including a mom trying to find her daughter, a dog named Gunner, an ex-con named Clay and later a young girl with unknown ties to his past.
The novel highlights (in the words of Charles Martin) a journey "from broken to not, from slave to free." Each character has different steps to take to find their freedom, just like we all do. I found myself praying for the women and grils who get trapped in situations similar to the ones depicted in this book, praying for the sick and twisted individuals who look at humans as "flesh" and just want to make money, praying for those dealing with past truamas and grief, and praying for home like the hope found in Colorado in the book (I hope there is a place like that in real life and I pray that it is making the difference I believe it could!).
As you can tell, I was hooked and couldn't read fast enough. The plot is suspenseful and emotional, The charcters are engaging, and the writing is beautiful. I loved this book, and I can't wait to read the next one of the series.

Murphy Shepherd is a broken man holding a lot of pain and secrets. He has dedicated his life to finding and rescuing those in peril. On his way to lay to rest his mentor and friend, he comes upon a ménage of equally broken friends and a faithful Labrador now all on a mission to save a lost girl that has been taken by human traffickers.

Forgetting what this book was about, I went into it completely blind and was hooked by the first action packed first scene! This Christian based thriller is set along the east coast of Florida. I loved reading Martin’s description of areas I’ve been many times, but can see that that might be a little slow. However the book picks up quickly with twists and turned that I didn’t see coming. I do feel like I had to suspend belief at times to forgive the coincidences or superhuman powers the main character had. But for the most part that did not turn me away from the story. This is my second Charles Martin book I’ve read and won’t be my last.

Murphy Shepherd is an example of the saying "what doesn't kill you, makes you stronger". Life has handed him many challenges, he's won a few and lost some very important ones. Murph has retreated to an island off the Florida coast where he is isolated from those who have hurt him. But Murph cannot turn off that piece of his mind that insists he rescue those who need his help and rid the world of those who have no conscience. His life begins to twist again when he meets a young woman in trouble and later meets her mother, who's just trying to save her daughter.

I've read several of Charles Martin's books and am always surprised when I fall into the stories, only to "see" the characters and their stories. Martin's skillful descriptions of the Florida scenery give excellent display to the ever changing coastal waters. I listened to THE WATER KEEPER on audio book and was swept away by the narrator's reading. Reading or listening, it's a 5 star experience.

Title: The Water Keeper
By: Charles Martin
Pub. Day: May 5, 2020

Genre:
Fiction, Mystery, Christian, Audiobook,

Trigger Warnings:
Human Trafficking, Suicide, Drugs, Intimate Scenes

Memorable Quotes:

“We don’t love because people love us back. We love because we can. Because we were made to.”

“You hang around people long enough and you learn their tells. Pain has a way of exiting the body, and most will let you know when it’s on its way out. Seldom do they know what their “tell” is telling you. Most often it’s silent. Sometimes it can be loud. However it comes out, it leaves a trail.

“Love is like water. No matter how you cut it, slice it, beat it, or blow it into ten trillion droplets, give it a few minutes and it will all come back together again. Like nothing ever happened. Love fills the empty places and flows from what was once the epicenter of the wound. And it’s the flowing that washes out the residue of the pain and makes us whole again. That’s the crazy miracle that is love. The more you pour out, the more you have to pour. I don’t understand it, I just know it’s true.”

Summary/Review:
Murph is living in the chapel by the water off the coast of Florida when a mysterious young girl appears. Murph can tell the young girl is in some sort of trouble, he gives the young girl his contact information. He is an undercover hero, and when Murph meets Summer, their situation comes full circle. Together, Murph and Summer join forces to find the mysterious young girl and bring her to safety.

Charles Martin has a beautifully tragic way of taking a reader down the path of human trafficking that is awakening to the soul, in a non detrimental way! The reader quickly falls in love with the deeply layered characters, the suspenseful plot line, with rich life altering themes of forgiveness, redemption, hope and most importantly love. I truly appreciated the author’s knowledge and insight into Human Trafficking. Thank you for an advanced reader's copy of this novel!

Thank you to Charles Martin, Thomas Nelson and Zondervan Fiction Audio, Boldwood Books , and NetGalley for the opportunity of an Advanced Readers Copy. I am voluntarily leaving my review.

#TheWaterKeeper
#CharlesMartin
#BoldwoodBooks
#reluctantreaderreads
#advancedreadercopies
#ThomasNelson
#ZondervanFictionAudio
#NetGalley

The Water Keeper by Charles Martin
This is a poignant story demonstrating heroism in today’s slave industry.
Murphy Shepard exists on an island tending the grounds of a church. Recently plagued with the loss of his mentor, he is one a mission to put him to rest.
Murph pulls Summer out of the Intercoastal Waterway and joins her journey to find her missing daughter.
A dangerous mission takes the two head first into the modern-day industry of trafficking and slavery.
Charles Martin has a gift with his story telling. The beautiful descriptions of Florida took me back to a place I love. I was right there in the story!
Gunner, a white labrador, is easily the hero in this tale and I love a good book that celebrates a canine hero!
I really enjoyed this audiobook provided by NetGalley. I would like to thank NetGalley for the opportunity to review it. 5/5⭐