A Matter of Trust by Susan May Warren

• Series: Montana Rescue (Book 3)
• Paperback: 336 pages
• Publisher: Revell (July 4, 2017)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0800727452
• ISBN-13: 978-0800727451

About the Book:

Champion backcountry snowboarder Gage Watson has left the limelight behind after the death of one of his fans. After being sued for negligence and stripped of his sponsorships, he's remade his life as a ski patrol in Montana's rugged mountains, as well as serving on the PEAK Rescue team. But he can't seem to find his footing--or forget the woman he loved, who betrayed him. 

Senator and former attorney Ella Blair spends much of her time in the limelight as the second-youngest senator in the country. But she has a secret--one that cost Gage his career. More than anything, she wants to atone for her betrayal of him in the courtroom and find a way to help him put his career back on track. 

When Ella's brother goes missing on one of Glacier National Park's most dangerous peaks, Gage and his team are called in for the rescue. But Gage isn't so sure he wants to help the woman who destroyed his life. More, when she insists on joining the search, he'll have to keep her safe while finding her reckless brother, a recipe for disaster when a snowstorm hits the mountain. 

But old sparks relight as they search for the missing snowboarder--and suddenly, they are faced with emotions neither can deny. But when Ella's secret is revealed, can they learn to trust each other--even when disaster happens again?

My Thoughts:

There's one thing I really dislike about Susan May Warren's books, and it's been a consistent complaint of mine across the board: you cannot read them slowly, savoring the experience, knowing that the wait for the next novel is going to be excruciatingly long.  

Oh, no...you read them at an insane rate of speed, and before you know it you've turned the final page, your cheeks are soaked from tears, and your eyes are so bloodshot that a fellow reader knows, "Oh, you read the new Warren novel too, huh?"

We really need to start a support group: Hi, I'm Deena, and I'm a Susan May Warren book addict.

Enough of the silly...let's get on to the serious.  And "A Matter Of Trust" gets serious very, very quickly. We meet Gage in the opening pages working a dangerous rescue in the snowy Montana hills.  He's a champion snowboarder unable to shake his past, and it haunts him with every rescue, at every turn.

So, when Ella reappears in his life, worlds get rocked, and NOT in a good way.  She still holds him responsible for being a hotshot.  However, Ella also cannot escape the past, and her secret holds serious ramifications for Gage and his self worth.

I really don't know how Warren does it: did she learn to ski just for this book?  Did she embed with a rescue team to understand the dangers of the powdery slopes?  Because every single adventure rings with authenticity, and every single character walks off the pages and into your heart--forever.

I can honestly say I remember every single imaginary person Susan May Warren has ever introduced me to and I've loved them all.  I've cried over them, prayed for them (remember: these are NOT real people!), and I've devoured all of their stories from cover to cover---reading them far too quickly every single time.

I'm seriously thinking about that support group, reading friends!  I'm grateful to my friends at Revell Publishing for my advance copy of "A Matter of Trust" via NetGalley, with no services or obligations in exchange.  I'm even more grateful to Susan May Warren for continuing to craft such epic stories, and secretly praying that God increase her writing speed just a smidge.

So, I'm giving "A Matter of Trust" my golden seal of approval, marking it as top, must read fiction.  Period. And guess what??  IT RELEASED JULY 4TH, so go grab a copy today!  You'll be so glad you did! Until I turn the final page on my next read...

Mark Your Place,

Deena