Customer Reviews

Payback (The Secret Life Samantha McGregor, Book 4)

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Review by Gigi Hoffman

Finally, the fourth and final book in Melody Carlson's The Secret Life of Samantha McGregor series is available! In Payback, Samantha faces her toughest challenges yet.

Sam has a dream of a brutal massacre at a high school. Because she's in high school and is the only one who can recognize the students in her dream, Detective Ebony Hamilton has Samantha go undercover to discover the shooter. As more details arise, she must uncover if the massacre is related to a terrorist threat.

Samantha also deals with major family issues. Zach is back in rehab and their mom has a new boyfriend. Sam feels pushed aside, plus she's getting weird vibes about her mom's boyfriend, like he's after her money and not her heart. Sam's assumptions turn out to be true; in fact, her mom's boyfriend is not at all who he says he is.

If that weren't enough, Samantha keeps having visions about a kid getting bullied. Who is he? How can Samantha help him?

Samantha finds herself with more questions than answers and uncertain about what to do. She must put total faith and trust in God to keep her life safe, as well as the lives of many people around her.

This book is gripping; I stayed up all night to read it. Samantha seems like such a real person, someone I'd love to be friends with. This book wraps everything up, but that didn't keep me from wishing for a fifth book. I could keep hanging out with Samantha and being a part of her life. I highly recommend this!

More than just another teen novel, Carlson includes Scripture throughout the storylines to encourage her readers to seek the truth from God's Word. The main character Samantha herself wrestles with doubt about her gift, and learns she must draw continue to rely on God as she works to solve each case. Carlson also includes discussion guides with thought-provoking questions aimed to spark meaningful dialogue, and some resources for those wanting to know more about hearing God's voice.

Bravo to Melody Carlson for giving us a fiction series that goes beyond today's typical teen fare.

While I loved the other 3 in this series, this was by far my favorite. I couldn't put it down!!!!!

This dramatic fourth installment in The Secret Life of Samantha McGregor series completes Melody Carlson's story about teenager Samantha, the girl who can see the future in dreams and visions. A touchy topic to begin with, Carlson has done an admirable job portraying this supernatural gift both sensitively and with biblical accuracy.

Samantha, like any other teen, isn't altogether comfortable with her gift, and her widowed mom even less so as it frequently puts her in dangerous situations. But she doesn't have much choice; God seems to invade her mind and heart with scenes of events not yet happening as well of those playing out in real time.

In PAYBACK, Samantha is sleeping and suddenly sees a picture of a girl in a mint green gown backing away from a bloody scene as her date crumbles onto the floor in front of her. Shots ring out, and she runs. Then Samantha wakes up, with her heart beating and her pulse racing. She immediately tries to recapture all the significant details of the dream-vision. So begins this not-so-unusual happening in her daily life.

After recording the details in her notebook, Samantha decides to tell her father's former police partner, Ebony, about the vision. Together, they've already tracked, solved and prevented a number of crimes. So Sam goes to school, interacts with friends, and before she knows it, another vision appears before her of a boy being pummeled by bullies. In typical Samantha fashion, she enlists the help of her best friend Olivia, and they sleuth together trying to puzzle out what she has seen and how God wants to use her in these situations.

As if these visions of violence weren't enough to contend with, Samantha's mother discovers money missing from her checking and savings accounts, and her new boyfriend Steven may be implicated. Samantha, with her razor-sharp intuitive skills, can't believe her mom doesn't see through Steven. She gets hurt, but in ways that are unexpected. Within a short space of time, Sam and Olivia discover some important clues that tie both of the visions together, and Sam goes undercover at various proms trying to forestall her bloody premonition from taking place. Both the pace and the tension build as Sam prays and asks God not only to see the future but also to use her to avert the violence before it happens.

Readers will enjoy this final interaction with Sam and her family and friends, as it offers them insight and food for spiritual thought on the subject of spiritual gifting and everyday life.

--- Reviewed by Michele Howe

The final Samantha McGregor book has a rich plot that keeps you reading through all the twists and turns. Samantha gets visons from God, and in this book it is about a school shooting, and it is a bit goary. All in all though this is a truly amazing book.

Samatha McGregor has learned to pay attention to the disturbing visions she receives from God, even though most of the time she doesn't understand what they mean. Now, she's had a vision of a shooting at a high school prom, although she doesn't know what school. She talks to Detective Ebony Hamilton, who is also a personal friend. Soon Samatha and the police are involved in a race to discover which school is in danger. PayBack is the fourth and final book in The Secret Life of Samantha McGregor. With a clever storyline and a twisted plot that will appeal to teens, it's a satisfying ending to the series.

The Portland, Oregon police especially Detective Ebony Hamilton take seriously any visions that high school student Samantha McGregor has as the teen has helped on recent cases (see BAD CONNECTION, PLAYING WITH FIRE and BEYOND REACH). Ebony, who was her late dad's partner, and Sam believe her visions are a gift from God to help people.

However, recently she has had three seemingly separate sets of visions. The first involves her mother's new boyfriend Steven, whom Sam does not like; the second entails a terrorist act at a gala that she thinks is a prom; the other line of visions is the bullying of a teem by his peers. Sam talks with Ebony about all three. The cops and Sam attend local proms hoping to avoid a disaster. Meanwhile her mom complains about missing money from her accounts while Steven apparently has vanished. The three sets of visions will soon become clear hopefully not too late; as Sam requires the patience of Job with the understanding that faith in God even when she does not comprehend why the Lord does what he does is the key to life.

The fourth Secret Life of Samantha McGregor is an entertaining inspirational paranormal crime caper. Readers will appreciate Sam's dedication and caring as she tries to prevent harm to people as her three visions indicate. Although in real life one cannot thank the Lord too much, in a novel it becomes irritating as readers know of Sam's strong belief and gratitude. Still, this is a fine entry with a fabulous final twist and filled with moral issues like dealing with teen bullying, identity theft, turning the other cheek, failing to save a soul, and throughout the series the belief that God's way is the only way.

Harriet Klausner

I love the Samantha McGregor series because it is a different kind of teen fiction. The stories are always centered around real teen issues that many people fail to see in every day life. I enjoyed this story very much. My favorite book will always be the first, but the entire series is amazing. I am truly sad that this is the final book in the series, it makes me wonder what Melody Carlson is going to come out with next. Read these books! you wont be sorry.