Book Review: The Force by Alexandra and Joyce Swann

Someone is murdering the world’s most beautiful women—over and over and over.

When Jarrod and Joshua Sinclair are called in to consult with the FBI about the Hollywood Starlet murders, they immediately suspect their old nemesis Josef Helmick of creating clones of famous women for a visiting Saudi prince. Wasting no time, they hire retired detective Fred Kowalski and send him to Dubai to uncover Josef’s base of operations and build a case against him for the murders.

But Fred soon discovers that Helmick Enterprises is harboring a secret much darker than human trafficking.

Fred must stop Helmick before he resurrects an ancient, diabolical Force in order to bring the entire human race under his control.

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About the authors:

Joyce and Alexandra Swann are mother and daughter. Joyce homeschooled her ten children from the first grade through master’s degrees. She is a well-known author and speaker on the subject of homeschooling. For nearly a decade she was a popular column-ist for "Practical Homeschooling Magazine". She now blogs regularly on parenting, homeschooling, and Christian lifestyle issues.

Joyce and Alexandra have co-authored two other novels, The Fourth Kingdom and The Twelfth Juror, both of which were published in 2010. Joyce’s personal story of her experiences raising and educating her family is chronicled in Looking Backward: My Twenty-Five Years as a Homeschooling Mother, published in February of 2011. Her novel, The Warrior, which tells the story of one woman’s ten year prayer vigil for a man she has never met, was released in May of 2012. She is also the author of two children’s books, "Tales of Pig Isle" and "The McAloons", which began as stories that she told to entertain her grandchildren.

Alexandra is author of "No Regrets: How Homeschooling Earned me a Master’s Degree at Age Sixteen" and "Writing for Today". She has been self-employed for over fourteen years and was the 2011 Chairwoman of the Board of the El Paso Hispanic Chamber of Commerce. She writes a regular blog, Paying for Protection, about the consequences of over-regulation and over-reaching government. Her novel "The Planner", which is the prequel to "The Chosen", was published in June of 2012.

The book can be purchased at Amazon, in paperback or Kindle version. http://amzn.to/1bLPukc {affiliate link}

**There are no spoilers in this review! Yay!**

My thoughts:

When I picked up the books by the Swanns, I was drawn into the story right away. They were interesting. I finished both The Fourth Kingdom and The Force within a short time of each other. The Force is the sequel to The Fourth Kingdom but they are stand alone books. There is enough background information given in the second book to not have to read the first. I anticipate that those who read The Force and enjoy it will want to read The Fourth Kingdom. 

The summary at the top of this review gives a good, short list of those most prominent in the book. Honestly, Jarrod and Joshua have less of a role in this book than I thought they would. My review will give you all that I didn't like, what I thought was okay, and what I really enjoyed; in that order. I don't want to leave on a negative note {wink}.

What I did not like: this book is so dark. It has evil at its core and while reading it, it is obvious. I was hooked with the book right off the bat but there were so many times I thought, 'ugh, I don't want to read this anymore.' The writing is done well though; the gorier scenes are so mild, I know. So with that said, that I think this book is very dark in nature, there is something that is mixed throughout -no, not mixed but rather covering and weaving itself in between- and that's goodness. But since this is a Christian book, it isn't just 'goodness', it's God's goodness. I still struggled with the darkness of the book but I understand why it was written that way {I think}. Life, real life, isn't all puppy dogs and kittens; it's venomous snakes and murderers sometimes. Through all of life however, there is God. Whether one believes in Him or not.

What I thought was 'okay'/could have been improved: some of the dialogue and writing were...not so much under developed but perhaps over developed. People say not to compare but honestly who doesn't? We all have authors that we love, for whatever reason, and we measure others by that favorite author. While I may not have a favorite author, I do have a prefered style of writing and all books are measured to that. This book did not measure to that standard through the entirety of the book. I will say I found the dialogue much better than the first book. It was and still is hard to put my finger on why it bothered me when reading but it did and had a lasting impression.

There were fillers; too many fillers. There were some situations that were mentioned in the book that, since they were mentioned at one point they had to be dealt with later in the book. Or did they really? There was one or two that I'd forgotten about by the second mention of them and had to flip back some pages to refresh my memory. Probably faulty reading on my part. The other one that I can recall just seemed to be too far off the main point of the book. It was a good inclusion but it didn't really feel like it actually fit in the book. 

Finally, I loved the inclusion of God in this book. It is throughout the book. If it weren't for that, this would not be a book I would feel good about recommending. It seems to me that quite a few of the "Christian" books I've read skirt around God but still try to retain that "Christian" tag on their book. I really liked the way the Swanns were able to portray the strength of the main characters' resolve {Jarrod and Joshua}. 

The writing style {with the exception of what I've mentioned previously} is good and it hooks right away. It kept me reading, on the edge of my seat you might say. I enjoyed the scene descriptions for the most part and could place the characters in the scene. And as twisted as some parts were, I could imagine it actually taking place. There are twists that I did not see coming- that's always a good thing in a suspense book!

Those who like more suspense and action books, with a hope of good prevailing over evil- perhaps Ted Dekker books?- might like this book. 

You can purchase the first book at Amazon, in paperback or Kindle version. http://amzn.to/GScBQq {affiliate link}

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