The Past Hunter has a plot that draws the reader’s attention from the very beginning. The main character, Julie, witnesses her boyfriend hiding a dead body. She panics, and in the spur of the moment, she packs her bags and flees far away. The boyfriend, Eric, is arrested, but it turns out that he didn’t murder anyone. He was simply caught in an unfortunate situation in which he (not so wisely) tried to help a friend who was the one who had actually done the killing. Julie meets a new man named Andrew around the new town she ends up moving to. However, Eric has a horrible half-brother who has always wanted to have Julie herself, and now that Eric’s serving jail time, the half-brother is out to get Julie. The Past Hunter ultimately shows us that even though life can be heartbreaking, difficult, stressful, and even scary, God is always in control.

I took a star off because of the writing itself, which was sometimes unclear or even confusing. This drove me nuts for the first half of the book, but it got better later on. There were also grammatical errors and typos peppered throughout, and normally, I would’ve given a similarly-written book 3 stars, but I did so love what the author did with incorporating God and Jesus into this story (see below) that I think this merits an additional star.

I especially loved that God and the Christian faith played such an integral part in this story. The characters always talked about the Lord and prayed and worshiped throughout and if they hadn’t been so in-tune with Him, then things might’ve turned out differently (aka worse). I never fully realized how… lacking… many other books that are supposed to be faith-based are when it comes to this. In many other Christian contemporary novels, the author might mention that the characters went to church one Sunday or said a prayer once in a while or expressed one sentence about God, and then the readers are supposed to give the author merit for the novel being “Christian” or something. However, just like believers are to live as followers of Christ 100% of the time, so are Christian characters in Christian books! If a book is to be a Christian one, it’s not enough to only mention Almighty God Himself once or twice the entire way through. And even though this is a problem with many other novels by Christian authors, Ruthie Madison incorporates the Christian lifestyle into every part of her story. Sure, the characters aren’t perfect and they make mistakes, but what matters is that this story always shows them bringing their troubles to the Lord over and over again. And in the end, this is what I liked - no, loved - about The Past Hunter.

Content warnings: 1 mention of drug dealing, 1 mention of molestation, 1 utterance of sh*t, 2 mentions of rape, and multiple mentions of abuse.

I would recommend this book for people who enjoy Christian fiction / Christian romance, especially those looking for a quick and simple read.

Please note that I received a complimentary copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. All thoughts and opinions expressed are completely my own and I was not required to leave a positive review. ( )

This was a quick read full of interesting twists and turns. Ruthie does a pretty good job of holding the reader until the very end. Just when you think that the main character is going to do one thing (the logical choice) she does something altogether different. Not my normal type of read, but it was an enjoyable book. Looking to see what else Ruthie comes up with. ( )