Trial & Tribulations

Trial and Tribulations (A Windy Ridge Legal Thriller Book One) by Rachel Dylan is not what I expected. Olivia Murray is an attorney in Washington, D.C. with the firm of Brown, Carter, and Reed. Olivia is being sent to Windy Ridge, Illinois (near Chicago) to handle a lawsuit against Astral Tech, a new age company (and I am not talking crystals and enlightenment new age). Olivia is a devout Christian and hopes she will be able to handle this case. She can feel the evil in the Astral Tech building (and it makes her uncomfortable). The plaintiff is Optimism which is another new age company and their attorney is Grant Baxter. They feel that Astral Tech stole their new app and released it as their own. Grant is not a Christian but this case may change his beliefs. Olivia’s faith will need to be strong to battle the evil that will attack her and her clients. She does have some angel’s, Ben and Micah, on her side as well as the local Windy Ridge church (who has a team to fight the evil). Everyone will need to be battle ready and on guard to battle the evil entity that is trying to invade Windy Ridge. I have to admit that I did not enjoy reading Trial and Tribulations. I normally enjoy Christian books, but this book was just not for me. The story is basically a battle of good (following the tenets of the Bible, prayer, good church family, having faith) versus evil (dark magic, witchcraft). It is spiritual warfare. There is a moral lesson in the book about getting involved in things which are forbidden in the Bible (like witchcraft). I never got into this novel. I just read it to get through it (which does not make for enjoyable reading). There are many heavy religious discussions in the book (which is good for theological textbooks but not for fiction). I did like how the author made the legal information understandable by the average person. I was disappointed with the ending because the story was not concluded (the legal case is finished but not the fight). It was left open for the next book in this series. I give Trial and Tribulations 3 out of 5 stars. I received a complimentary copy of Trial and Tribulations from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.