Lisa is a brilliant, 30-year-old computer programmer recruited by ISF-Intel Securities Foundation, a contractor for the Department of Defense. At such a young age, she already has a patent on a software that the DOD is willing to buy from her at any price. Overnight, it has become the most sought-after program on the planet.

Then one day she is kidnapped and badly hurt in the process. To avoid giving her captors what they want, she fools them by faking amnesia. What keep her alive are thoughts of seeing again her son and the man she loves.

Meanwhile, her father Sam and her son Zach, together with the authorities, are doing everything they can to find her. Sam has a love-hate relationship with Lisa because he blames her for the death of her mother–and the only woman Sam ever loved. Their relationship is further damaged by the fact that he took Zach away from Lisa and raised him as his own son. His action was partly due to the fact that Lisa was only a young teenager when she had Zach. The story, told in multiple points of view, switches from Lisa and her ordeal as she’s kept captive, to Sam and Zach as they try to find her.

There is quite a lot of backstory, especially at the beginning, which together with various punctuation mistakes, was somewhat distracting. However, I was able to root for Lisa and I also found interesting the dark family dynamics taking place between father and daughter, and mother and son until the compelling ending when there’s a transformation among the characters.

Part-thriller, part-drama, Betrayal and Forgiveness is an out-of-the-ordinary story that will appeal to fans of Christian fiction.

Reviewed by Mayra Calvani (www.MayraCalvani.com)
July 2012