What would you do if you were faced with this choice: Renounce your faith in Christ, or let your child die? My new novel, Forsaken, explores this nightmarish dilemma through the eyes of Taylor Pasbury, a beautiful but troubled former Secret Service agent hired to protect the world’s most famous televangelist from terrorist threats.
Even in high school, Taylor knew that she was not like most other girls. Raised by a father who was a retired Special Forces officer, she grew up learning to camp, fish, shoot, and most of all take care of herself. As a young adult she opens her own security agency following a controversial stint as the nation’s most celebrated Secret Service agent. When Simon Mason, the best known Christian on the planet, receives threats from Muslim terrorists, he hires Taylor to take charge of his security. She has no idea that Simon already knows more about her than she could possibly imagine.
Before Taylor’s first day on the job is finished, the terrorists strike, making a gut-wrenching demand that requires Simon to choose between the two most important things in his life. Drawing on all of her toughness and training, Taylor must face deadly extremists and a dark past as she fights to save Simon and his daughter. Along the way, she discovers that she is not the only one who has done things she would like to forget—and she is not the only one who understands that some things are more important than living.
My promise to you, as always, is to write page-turning stories that will help you explore and grow in your faith. I hope you’ll join me for an exciting ride, with Taylor Pasbury and Forsaken!
Not only a book of the month selection, but one of my favorites for 2008| Posted January 08, 2009
Taylor Pasbury’s mother deserted her at the age of nine. Her father, a Special Forces veteran, took over and raised her to be a strong woman. As Forsaken opens, we see Taylor in a life or death situation with her father. A situation that further wounds the woman whose mother abandoned her. And a situation that sets into motion Taylor’s future employment.
Taylor immerses herself in her job as a Secret Service agent and searches for love in all the wrong places. But after a questionable incident, she retires from the Secret Service and opens a security firm. Taylor is called into service by televangelist Simon Mason when he is threatened by Muslim extremists. Despite Taylor’s protection, the terrorist’s strike, kidnapping Kacey, Simon’s daughter, and they make a demand of Simon that is impossible to agree to, yet impossible to deny.
Does Simon agree to the kidnapper’s demands? Does he get Kacey back? Does he regret his decision? Can he live with it? All questions the author answers in this fast paced enthralling novel.
Forsaken is a book I picked up and did not put down until the last page. The action in the story keeps the pages flipping, yet the character development makes you wish it never ended. James David Jordan expertly created and developed flawed characters, searching for love, while trying to out run their pasts. And then he burdens them with a challenge so big, there is no good way out of it. A challenge you will ask yourself over and over as you read, what would I do in that situation and come out just as maimed and hurt as Simon does over making the decision. When the decision is made, you can empathize with Simon and understand his struggle to deal with it. And then you find, that as big as the decision was, watching Simon live with the consequences is even bigger.
Though the plot is superb, the characters make this story what it is. Taylor is likeable, flawed yet strong. Simon Mason, not the kind of televangelist you have ever seen, reluctantly accepts the fame that goes with his position, but would rather be an unknown, has equal emotional issues and faults. Thankfully, the story doesn’t end with Forsaken, but the reader gets to journey further with Taylor in the sequel due out in Fall of 2009.
James David Jordan’s Forsaken has skyrocketed to the top of my must read list.
