Indelible by Kristen Heitzmann

Trevor MacDaniel a former gold medalist skier who owns an outfitter store up in a fictional Rocky Mountain town of Redford, Colorado. Trevor has a need to guard and protect those around him due to the tragedy of his childhood. His decision to become a search and rescue volunteer is a result of his past.

Natalie Reeve just moved to this small community and is getting ready to open up an art gallery. She is a gifted artist with an unusual talent. She has an eidetic memory. She gets stuck on faces. Once she has a face stuck in her mind she is almost blinded by the details of the emotions on the faces that she has to purge out the images by sculpting them out with clay or she doesn’t function.

Natalie and Trevor meet in a dramatic rescue of her nephew, Cody who is attacked by a mountain lion while out hiking. Trevor and his team are on another search and rescue in the area when they receive the call of the attack.

This story attracts national attention because Cody’s father is player of the Rockies Baseball team. Then you have a former three time gold medalist who rescues his son. It’s a big time story for such a small town. All the fame also attracts a delusional young man who works his way across the county to Redford. All the while he is sending photos of innocent children to Trevor who might be dead. This small town is about to get a wake up call.

This is also the second book in the series, the first book I have not read, Indivisible.

Every chapter begins with a quote from the novel,” Paradise Lost.” Some may find this a little uncomfortable and disturbing. You may find it very disturbing with all the details of a mind of a person who is suffering from mental illness. The author has an imagination for good suspense.

I have mixed feeling with this novel. The characters are very likable. I love a novel that I have no idea what is going to happen next. I had a hard time putting it down. This story is full of mystery, suspense, romance, and lots of twist in the plots. It is a clean Christian novel that has a dark side. It is truly a unique story.

I hated the way it began with the mountain lion attack. It didn’t give you a chance to establish the main characters. I wished the author would of started out with Natalie and her family on the hike or maybe even Trevor on his search and rescue before you are thrown into the attack. It just didn’t seem to establish a good grasp of who the characters are from the get go.

The whole story just seemed to much jumping around to me. To many characters and not enough information on them in one area. You have to read the whole book just to grasp most of the characters. It took a long time to put the pieces together. It really had a lot of lose ends that took way to long to establish.

One of the things that was not believable to me is the fact that there are so many characters with physical and mental issues. Every character had an extremely dysfunctional family with lots of baggage in this small town. Overall, I just felt like there was too much drama.

The ending was a big disappointment. Maybe the author left it that way because it may be followed by another sequel. I feel like I am rambling too much in this review, just like the book! I liked the novel overall and would recommend it if you don’t spook easily. It just was to much of everything in one story. Maybe reading the first in the series would clarify this sequel. Knowing me I will probably get. I truly have enjoyed reading this authors previous books and this one.

Disclaimer: I  was provided a copy of this book from Waterbrook for free in order to write this review. All thoughts and opinions are mine and were not subject to editing from the publisher.