Book Review: The Way of the Brave

By Susan May Warren
Revell, 2020
352 pages

Amazon Description:

Former pararescue jumper Orion Starr is haunted by the memory of a rescue gone wrong. He may be living alone in Alaska now, but the pain of his failure–and his injuries–has followed him there from Afghanistan. He has no desire to join Hamilton Jones’s elite rescue team, but he also can’t shirk his duty when the call comes in to rescue three lost climbers on Denali.

Former CIA profiler and psychiatrist Jenny Calhoun’s yearly extreme challenge with her best friends is her only escape from the guilt that has sunk its claws into her. As a consultant during a top-secret mission to root out the Taliban, she green-lighted an operation that ended in ambush and lives lost. When her cathartic climb on Denali turns deadly, she’ll be forced to trust her life and the lives of her friends to the most dangerous of heroes–the man she nearly killed.

Her skills and his experience are exactly what’s needed to prevent another tragedy–but in order to truly set Orion free from his painful past, Jenny will have to reveal hers. They’ll have to put their wounds behind them to survive, but at what cost?

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Thanks to Revell for sending me a copy of The Way of the Brave to review. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

Review:

If you like action and romance, then The Way of the Brave is the book for you. I loved pretty much everything about this book. It’s got swoon-worthy heroes, strong female protagonists, danger around every corner, and an encouraging message about forgiveness and the the growth that happens with suffering.

Most of the story plays out on mountains, so if you are a climber then you will enjoy the descriptions in this book. Some of the techniques and equipment were a little technical for me so I just skimmed through those parts and appreciated that it gave the story a feeling of authenticity, since the author clearly did a lot of research or has climbing experience herself. You don’t have to understand what ice screws, biners, or webbing are to understand the peril of someone hanging from one arm on the side of a mountain, and Susan May Warren writes action scenes like these really well.

You might also like Troubled Waters by Susan May Warren.

My favorite thing about The Way of the Brave is that it has a serious message that comes out with the chemistry and backstory of the two main characters. Both Orion and Jenny struggle to let go of tragic events in their past, and are battling anger and guilt, respectively. Orion’s friend Ham does such a great job of supporting Orion through his questions about God and why He allows suffering. That’s a hard question and I think it was addressed well in this story.

My last comment is that the ending was a total surprise for me. I’m so sad that I have to wait till June for the next book, The Heart of a Hero, to be released! Thanks, Susan May Warren, I so needed another series to be obsessed with.