church builderA thrilling new series about a secret war between the forces of faith and those who would destroy it. In the first volume, small-town lawyer Bethany Barclay, struggling to piece together the final months of her best friend’s life, becomes the pawn of both sides.

One group focused on destroying all religion.

One group struggling to preserve the church.

One woman searching for the truth.

The evidence is against her. The FBI is right behind her. A malevolent killer has her in his sights. And as Bethany digs deeper into a complex web of lies surrounding her ties to the murder of her client’s son, she remains unaware of the real battle in front of her.She thinks her friend Annabelle was killed because of what she learned about a rumored first-century Christian artifact. What Bethany doesn’t know is that Annabelle died in the crossfire between two shadowy organizations that have been doing battle for centuries. The Wilderness, wealthy and vast, is dedicated to the destruction of all religious faith. The Garden, a group of seven members led by a man they call the Builder, carries on a grim, secret struggle to protect the church.Only a few in the Garden realize that there’s more at stake than the artifact the Wilderness is seeking. But as Bethany discovers that she’s a tiny part of a larger war, can she trust the Builder to save her? Or will he sacrifice her for the sake of the cause?

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I’m struggling to write this review because I don’t really know what to say. I want to be encouraging and excited, but the truth is that I barely finished this book. If I hadn’t agreed to review it, I probably would have put it down and walked away. The most concise explanation for my review: by chapter 15 I still hadn’t related to the main character and found it hard to care what happened to her.

There’s no real connection to the main character, Bethany. I’ve read some books where I’m so drawn in to and connected with the characters that I react with them to their situations (regardless of whether or not I like the characters or can personally relate to them). Bethany is so distant, however, that it’s like reading a diary of where she went and what she did. After a few chapters, it failed to hold my attention.

This book is also full of information, but I’m not convinced all of it was necessary. The characters repeat information constantly, bogging down pages and slowing down the story. It jumps from past tense to present tense between chapters, but I couldn’t figure out why; for me, it didn’t add anything to the story, it just made it awkward to read. By chapter 10 I was skimming whole pages trying to get through it.

I’m sure there’s a great story in there, but I couldn’t find it in all of the telling and description.

*I received a free copy of this book in exchange for an honest review through the BookSneeze program.