Customer Reviews

Ransomed Dreams (Side Roads)

5 star:		(15)
4 star:		(17)
3 star:		(6)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

Ransomed Dreams
Sally John
2010 Tyndale House Publishers
ISBN 978-1-4143-2785-3


Sheridan and Eliot are living the dream of an ambassador and his beautiful philanthropic wife, when in Caracas their lives get blown apart. Literally. Eliot is shot, and their lives are turned upside down.


Sheridan begins to file her life's events as B.C. and A.C. [Before Caracas and After Caracas].


Eliot's world is one of drug induced pain relief in which he frequently "checks out" of reality. A world that Sheridan calls the "deaf mute".


The couple hides away in Topala, Mexico. A town that might as well have been on another planet. No phone service. No paved roads. No Internet.


When one day a man appears. A man whom Sheridan believes has saved her life in the Caracas event. He brings word that her sister, Calissa, wants her home in Chicago. Their father is dying.


'Lissa and Sher discover their father is more than they ever imagined. They also discover why their mother allowed herself to die at such a young age, when Sheridan was but 13.


This story is a bit convoluted; filled with espionage and diamond smuggling, deceit, and family secrets. But through it all, Sheridan keeps a faith that even she did not realize before that she had.


The love of Jesus abounds in this story that brings a couple full-circle to the love they felt for one another when they first met. But it is a stronger love than they could have ever imagined, tested by fire, and forged stronger than steel, in the master's hands. And guided by the loving words of Padre Miguel, the couple exude that perfect love.


I highly recommend this book. And I give it five stars.

RANSOMED DREAMS by Sally John focus' on the life of Sheridan Montgomery, wife to former U.S. Ambassador, Eliot Montgomery. After a near fatal shooting, the Montgomery's go into hiding in a small out-of-touch city in Mexico. Sheridan, the daughter of a U.S. Congressman feels her life is over and she is only going through the motions as a companion/nursemaid to her now permanently disabled husband. When Luke Traynor, a man from her past, shows up on her doorstep, Sheridan's life and emotions once again spin out of control. When Traynor escorts Sheridan back to her childhood home of Chicago to pay her last respects to her dying father - whom she has been estranged from since her teen years- she learns of her father's secret business dealings. Devastated, and feeling as if her entire life has been a lie, Sheridan is faced with a choice - hatred or forgiveness.

RANSOMED DREAMS was a good read, but fell short of my expectations. The main characters were complex, but not necessarily lovable, and the pacing of the book was slower than I felt was necessary. At times, I found myself skimming through some of the scenes to get back to the meat of the story. The main theme of RANSOMED DREAMS was forgiveness, which I felt was portrayed well, in that forgiveness can be difficult even when you know it is the right thing to do. Religion was thrown in here and there, but I did not feel it made a strong enough showing to really consider this book to be Christian Fiction. Overall, an okay book, but not one of my better summer reads.

Book provided for review purposes.

Some thoughts sparked by reading RANSOMED DREAMS by Sally Johns: intricately woven, achingly real, story within a story, intriguing, satisfying...but mostly I identified those afterward.

Other reviewers have spoken of compelling characters, exotic locations, inspiring story. Those are all accurate, yet incomplete.

From the first sentence I was carried away into Sheridan Montgomery's world as surely as Wendy Darling entered Neverland. And leaving was every bit as difficult. The journey with the characters led to a powerful ending with life-altering shifts in perspective.

Whether you wish an armchair (or beach towel) vacation, or a thought-provoking journey to new insights, RANSOMED DREAMS satisfies.

I purchased this book, and would invest the money again!

Sheridan and her husband Eliot have escaped to backwoods Topala, Mexico .. victims of PTSD after an attack that left Sheridan's friend Reina dead, herself injured, and her husband Eliot severely injured. Sheridan, who felt a calling to community service, helping impoverished women escape life on the streets by teaching them skills and a trade, is now nursemaid to a husband who no longer shares her bed. There is no phone, no Internet - nothing to connect them to the outside world, which is what they agreed on over a year ago when they decided to move there.

When not caring for Eliot, who has suffered permanent nerve damage, Sheridan mopes around by herself, thinking things like, "This is NOT what I signed up for," and generally feeling sorry for herself. One morning, as she is sitting on her patio, she sees Luke Traynor, the man who saved her life and stuck with her and with Eliot through the lengthy hospital stay after the attack, walking up the hill to her house. He brings a message from her sister, Lissa. Their father, a long-term U.S. congressman, has suffered a debilitating stroke and is not expected to live. Could she return stateside to visit and to help Lissa?

Sheridan does NOT want to go, but she is persuaded to do so. There are secrets that Lissa has found out that she needs to tell her - secrets that changed Lissa's perception of their father and that caused the confrontation that led to his attack.

I wanted to like this book. The cover is awesome and the premise is an interesting one. This book is supposed to be about faith, and how our faith can be tested by extreme circumstances. BUT, Sheridan, who is supposed to be the one with faith, never really demonstrates it. She goes through the motions of it, but she is a whiner. She has snits for no apparent reason. She dislikes her sister, again for no apparent reason other than that when their mother died, Lissa left college to come home and take care of her at 13 years old. She dislikes her father, who we find out later WAS a pretty bad guy, but her dislike is really undefined for most of this book. Sheridan, in short, is a character that I really didn't like. I don't like whiners ... I don't care for people who have this, "Woe is me; life is so unfair" attitude, especially when things could be so much worse.

Eliot starts coming into his own a bit once Sheridan leaves and the village padre convinces him to get out and about a bit. I liked Eliot. Even with all that he's gone through, he has an intense love for his wife and, once he's figured out that he CAN do some things, he's a pretty good guy; however, he has a secret as well - one that may be uncovered with the death of the congressman.

Sheridan must battle through her new fear of crowds and crowded places, her attraction to another man, her dislike of her sister, and her hatred of her father. She learns interesting facts about her father, her mother, and her husband that change her perception of her place in the world.

This book is OK - just that, though .. OK. I feel that it never delves deep enough into the characters and what really makes them tick. Even the faith that it is supposed to show seems to be surface faith, not true blue, deep in your heart faith. I started to get into the book in the last 15-20 pages, but I had to go through 350 or more pages to get there.

Quotes:

Welcome to my world, Luke. Casa de not what I signed up for.

The esteemed congressman from the state of Illinois had many assistants in Chicago and D.C.
But only one of them was his daughter, who had access to the attic in his house and who uncovered a history of deceit and who shouted it at his seventy-four-year-old face until it was time to call 911.

"I just leap. There is only a chasm in between, no connecting bridge." She forked a bite of salad. "The world is an unfair, unequal place. As I said, the utter despair undoes me. To combat that, I jump in and do what I can, reminding myself I can't begin to do it all."

Ransomed Dreams is the first book by Sally John that I've read. I did not know what to expect and I was totally blown away. What a fabulous book! Wow! The writing is simply incredible and the story line pulled me in from the start and I was completely engrossed in the world of this story. I lost track of hours while I was completely caught up in this story.

There is so much depth to this book and so many facets to the story line. It's amazing! One of the things I really liked about the book is that there is this whole air of mystery and intrigue and we meet these characters but we only get their stories in bits and pieces as we read along. It's an emotional roller coaster that touched me deeply.

I very highly recommend this book to anyone. This book really has it all! It is a contemporary novel and it's full of mystery and suspense, government intrigue, drama, romance, and a powerful message of forgiveness. It also has some great messages about love and marriage. I thoroughly enjoyed every minute of this book. The author swept me away to exotic places and kept me tied in knots wondering what was going to happen to these characters that had stolen my heart. It was the first book I have read by Sally John but I a fan now and will be looking for more of her books from now on!

Ransomed Dreams by Sally John tells the story of Sheridan Montgomery and Eliot Montgomery. Eliot Montgomery served as ambassador to Venezuela before the violent shooting which left him unable to care for himself. Fearing what had happened to them in a large city, Sheridan and Eliot moved to a small town in Mexico where they secluded themselves from their past and also those within in the small village. When the past comes back to haunt Sheridan, she must deal with the relationships she had with her father, sister, and the mysterious Luke Traynor who was her savior during the shooting.

Overall, the main theme of this book was forgiveness. Sheridan must deal with forgiving all of the people who hurt her in the past, as she unravels all of the secrets that were kept from her. I enjoyed this book, but I found it a little difficult to become one hundred percent into the book. It took me longer to read than books I have read in the past. But, with that said, I still enjoyed the main focus on the importance of forgiveness.

Disclosure of Material Connection: I received this book free from Tyndale Publishers as part of their book review bloggers program. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission's 16 CFR, Part 255

Ransomed Dreams opens with the brutal shooting of Sheridan Montgomery and her husband Eliot, the US ambassador to Venezuela, and quickly moves into life following the traumatic event. Eliot is now left severely disabled and in chronic pain, Sheridan has her own fears and emotional scars to face, and neither are well-equipped to deal with a life that was not what they "signed up for". Enter Luke Traynor, a CIA agent who has a knack for turning their world upside down, and Sheridan's heart along with it.

When I was reading the description for this book, I somehow came away with the impression that it would be one of intrigue and mysterious circumstances, action and suspense. This was not the case. Ransomed Dreams is more of a drama. The focus is on the relationships and the dynamics between the various characters. How does one deal with an abrupt change in one's life and marriage? What do marriage vows mean when your spouse is suddenly a completely different person? How does one handle an attraction to the man who is there to provide everything the husband can not? And where is God in all of this?

I struggled to get through this book. I am not a fan of the genre and felt as I would if I had expected to see a Bourne Identity type movie and ended up in Steel Magnolias. But, much as would likely happen in that case, I ended up somewhat involved and invested by the end of the story. If you enjoy a good Christian drama story, you would probably really enjoy this book.

*Disclosure: Tyndale House Publishers provided me with a complimentary copy of this book, for review purposes.*

RANSOMED DREAMS by Sally John focus' on the life of Sheridan Montgomery, wife to former U.S. Ambassador, Eliot Montgomery. After a near fatal shooting, the Montgomery's go into hiding in a small out-of-touch city in Mexico. Sheridan, the daughter of a U.S. Congressman feels her life is over and she is only going through the motions as a companion/nursemaid to her now permanently disabled husband. When Luke Traynor, a man from her past, shows up on her doorstep, Sheridan's life and emotions once again spin out of control. When Traynor escorts Sheridan back to her childhood home of Chicago to pay her last respects to her dying father - whom she has been estranged from since her teen years- she learns of her father's secret business dealings. Devastated, and feeling as if her entire life has been a lie, Sheridan is faced with a choice - hatred or forgiveness.

RANSOMED DREAMS was a book that I picked up twice, because the first time I could not get into it at all. I put it down for a month and tried again. I could not connect with the main characters because they were complicated, and very hard to relate too, this book was a very slow read. The main idea of RANSOMED DREAMS was forgiveness, but again it was a very hard book to get into so I think the idea of forgiveness was lost. It was not one of my favorite reads.

Book provided for review purpose by Tyndale Media.

This was a great reading. Very well written with good characters this book was very difficult to put aside so I read it very fast. It has a Christian tone but it is not invasive and it mesh well with the story. Usually I don't like Christian fiction for its proselitism but this book don't really qualify as Christian fiction. It is a moving story of forgiveness and acceptance of the things we cannot change.

I was amazed at this story. It truly was an incredibly powerful love story. It wasn't sweet. It wasn't nice. It was a story about lives interrupted and how you make it through. Truly was a wonderfully written story. I will read more of this author!