Intervention

Barbara Covington sends her daughter Emily to drug rehab with a hired interventionist, Trish. Before Emily and Trish arrive at the recover center, Trish ends up dead. Emily is missing and the police think she committed the crime. Barbara knows her daughter is innocent. She will stop at nothing to find Emily and clear her daughter's name.

Overall, I liked the aura of suspense Blackstock creates and certainly the ending is hair raising. However, I just couldn't become fond of any of the characters. Barbara's character in particular annoyed me. I've never been the mother of a child addicted to drugs, though, so maybe she was more believable than I realize. Anyway, I was relieved to reach the end of the book both because of the story's show more ending and because i made it through despite Barbara's character.

I recommend this book to those who like a good Christian fiction mystery with intense action. show less

There is good suspense once the novel gets going, but it was tougher for me to like the main characters early in the novel. The "bad guy" kind of comes out of left field partway through the book too.

What I liked: Blackstock didn't glamorize the drug addict's life. She let us see how much the people around the addict suffer as well as showing insight into what goes through the addict's mind; Barbara and Lance both seem to love Emily despite what she's put the family through; Lance is still able to talk to Harlan about God even with all that's happened; Emily reaches out to God and finds He is still there, waiting for her to come to him;

What I didn't like: Road Back Recovery's methods seem a bit off to me (based on Kent Harlan's visit show more there and what is recorded on the blog Barbara Covington reads); Barbara chooses the first rehab center that comes up on her search of Christian rehab centers--apparently without doing any further research into the treatment center--since she's paying big bucks to do this, one would think she'd want some assurance they had a decent treatment regimen; Lance doesn't listen to his mom and uses manipulative techniques to get her to give in to him--I'll justify the one where he calls Harlan to tattle on his mom when he thinks she's going to get herself into trouble, but others were not done for unselfish reasons; show less

This thrilling read really kept my interest as I rooted for the mother to figure out what was happening to her daughter. The mother is Barbara and she is determined to find help for her daughter Emily. Emily has a drug problem and holding an intervention and then sending her to a treatment facility seems to be Barbara's best chance to help her. So she confronts Emily and then sends her off on a plane with the counselor from the treatment facility. Except then the counselor turns up dead at the airport, and Emily is no where to be found. Barbara is devestated, but she is also determined to find her daughter and help her - no matter what.
The twists and turns of the story kept me riveted to the story, and I could relate to Barbara's show more intense need to help her child. All of the characters seemed realistic and relatable, and I liked the way that their relationships with one another played out. I would definitely recommend this one to fans of suspenseful yet family centered stories. show less

I really liked Intervention by Terri Blackstock. It was an awesome book that told the story of a teen addicted with drugs that with her mother and brothers unrelenting help eventually came to Christ. Her father died a couple of years ago, so that was why she chose to turn to drugs-it was her way of grieving. This book really tells the tale of how others are affected by the actions of an addictive person within the family. However, on her way to intervention, her interventionist gets killed and she gets kidnapped. So her mother and little brother go on a search to find her.The love of the mother for her daughter was never extinguished even though it appeared her daughter would never come around. How many parents would mortgage their home show more to pay for treatment of an unwilling child? That's what Barbara Covington did and it paid off though not in the way she expected. During the time the daughter is kidnapped, she learns what Christ did for her. He took all of her pain and suffering at the cross so she could have eternal life in Heaven. I thought the book was awesome because the plot involved a teenage girl coming to Christ after a life of drugs. She finally realized what Jesus had done for her, so that she wouldn't have to. I think this is a book with a lesson to be learned. I would definitely recommend this book to everyone. show less

Je moet er toch niet aan denken dat één van je kinderen aan de drugs raakt,lijkt me echt een nachtmerrie.
Dit boek is op een gegeven moment zo spannend dat ik het zeker toch één punt meer gaf.
Het boek laat duidelijk zien wat drugs niet alleen de verslaafde maar ook de omgeving aanricht.
Ook al is dit beetje een christelijk boek het is toch zeker een aanrader voor iedereen.

First of all, I enjoy Christian fiction when well-written and engaging. I am over halfway through this book and I keep hoping it will get better. The main characters, Barbara Covington and her son Lance are on a mission to find their daughter and sister Emily, who disappears while enroute to a detox/rehab center. The interventionist is murdered and Emily is the prime suspect.

The writing seems repetitive and overly simplistic and the characters do not engage me at all. It is a book I pick up and hope that I will begin to enjoy; however life is too short to read bad books and I feel I will abandon this one.

Terri Blackstock is a favorite of mine with her series "Restoration" and I thought this would also be great. Not so. I recommend the show more "Restoration" series by Blackstock highly. The characters were very engaging and real. I felt a real sense of caring and wanting to know what happened next and eagerly picked up the book to find out. Not the same here.

I do not see where there is much mention in the book of faith or God or Christianity as some readers have said, and I am over halfway through. Maybe that comes later on.
This one by Blackstock is a "miss" for me. I also have "Double Minds" by this author and I hope it is better. Not recommended. show less

Not one of my favourites by Blackstock because I felt that she didn't work hard enough to make us care about the drug-addicted daughter or explain the motivation of the mother but an interesting read. I don't know how she will address the underlying attraction between the mother and the cop considering they live across the country from one another in the second book...