Vicious Cycle by Terri Blackstock - REVIEWED

This week, the Christian Fiction Blog Alliance is introducing Vicious Cycle Zondervan (February 22, 2011) by Terri Blackstock



ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

Terri Blackstock is a New York Times best-seller, with over six million copies sold worldwide. She has had over twenty-five years of success as a novelist. She sold her first novel at the age of twenty-five, and has had a successful career ever since.



Besides entertaining her readers, Terri tackles issues that she hopes will change lives. Her recent book, Predator, was inspired by her experiences on Facebook and Twitter, and her concern that people posted too much personal information about themselves. The book deals with an online predator who uses social networks as his playground. She hopes the book will change readers’ online habits. Her New York Times best-seller, Intervention, was inspired by her own personal struggles with a daughter on drugs. In the book, a mother hires an interventionist for her drug-addicted daughter. But on the way to treatment, the interventionist is murdered, and the daughter disappears. Barbara, the mother, sets out to search for her daughter. Terri modeled Barbara after herself, and poured many of her own emotions and experiences into that character. As a result, many families experiencing drug addiction have written to thank her for telling their story and giving them hope. Vicious Cycle, Book Two of the Intervention Series, releases February 22, 2011. She’s currently working on Book Three.



Other recent books include a stand-alone novel called Double Minds, as well as Last Light, Night Light, True Light and Dawn’s Light (from her acclaimed Restoration Series). She is also known for her popular Newpointe 911 Series and Cape Refuge Series. Terri makes her home in Mississippi, where she and her husband Ken are enjoying their empty nest after raising three children.

Terri has appeared on national television programs such as “The 700 Club” and “Home Life,” and has been a guest on numerous radio programs across the country. The story of her personal journey appears in books such as Touched By the Savior by Mike Yorkey, True Stories of Answered Prayer by Mike Nappa, Faces of Faith by John Hanna, and I Saw Him In Your Eyes by Ace Collins.







ABOUT THE BOOK

When fifteen-year-old Lance Covington finds an abandoned baby in the backseat of a car, he knows she's the newborn daughter of a meth addict he's been trying to help. But when police arrest him for kidnapping, Lance is thrust into a criminal world of baby trafficking and drug abuse.



His mother, Barbara, looks for help from Kent Harlan---the man whom she secretly, reluctantly loves and who once helped rescue her daughter from a mess of her own. Kent flies to her aid and begins the impossible work of getting Lance out of trouble, protecting a baby who has no home, and finding help for a teenage mother hiding behind her lies.



In this latest novel of suspense and family loyalty, bestselling author Terri Blackstock offers a harrowing look at drug addiction, human trafficking, and the devastating choices that can change lives forever.



If you would like to read the first chapter of Vicious Cycle, go HERE.



My Thoughts:

“His life was in the hands of an addict.” (p. 82)

Or at least it seems that way for 15-year-old Lance Covington when he finds a newborn baby in the backseat of his car – a car he is not yet licensed to drive! His mother, Barbara, is living through more chaos that one woman should have to endure. When her friend Kent Harlan tries to help – well, it’s hard for Barbara to decide if that’s a good thing or a bad thing from her perspective.

WOW! Terri Blackstock’s second intervention novel, Vicious Cycle, vividly captures the chaos and the horrific cycle of abuse and attempts at recovery that addicts often face. This time she deals with a meth-addict and her family, and I hate to say it, but the picture she paints is all too real. I have actually known a family in which the kids were turned onto meth by their parents. It is a truly hellish depravity to witness.

Yet God does intervene in the lives of addicts, their families and their children. The road isn’t easy, and often the family feels as though they too have been forced to endure a living hell. God gives strength, opportunity and grace. That’s not to say there aren’t serious and grave consequences, but redemption is never out of the question.

Come. Take an intervention journey with Terri Blackstock. Consider the story. Consider God’s grace and mercy, and find hope. Terri has written another powerful and unforgettable story from the perspective of someone who has walked the painful path of addiction with her own child. God alone be praised for any victory won in the battle against meth!!

Watch the Book Video: