Finders Keepers (2017)

About the Book

Book: Finders Keepers

Series: Carrington Family #1

Author: Sarah Monzon

Publisher: Radiant Publications

Genre: Time Slip — Christian Contemporary and Historical Fiction

Three lives. Three hundred years. One ship that ties them together.

Spain, 1689

The same evil that stole her mother’s life stalks Isabella Castellano. Afraid for her safety, Isabella disguises herself as a cabin boy and hires on to one of His Majesty’s treasure fleet vessels. But has her flight from a known threat only led her to be ensnared in a sea of dangers?

Florida, Present Day

Summer Arnet will go anywhere to capture the perfect shot that will get her marine photography noticed by the prestigious nature magazine, Our World—even diving in waters haunted by great white sharks. When a treasure hunter with a ladies’-man reputation approaches her about a sunken ship at one of her dive locations, it may be the chance she’s been looking for to launch her career…if his charming smile doesn’t derail her first.

A past tragedy has left a hole in Trent Carrington’s life—a hole he’s tried to fill with women, money, and adventure. Could the feisty marine photographer be the missing piece, or will Trent finally accept that the treasure he seeks can’t be found where rust and moths destroy?

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My Thoughts

Finders Keepers deals with broken people. The kind of broken that holds grudges, deep-seated grudges, usually against God. I heard the best analogy the other day: running away from God because you are angry with Him is like having long, dirty hair that needs attention yet insisting it’s the barber’s fault for your hair’s condition. It’s kind of a silly analogy, but it makes a really great point. In Finders Keepers, our hero, Trent, blames God for a devastating loss. I 100% understand the hurt, anger, and sense of betrayal that Trent feels. When you lose a loved one, especially unexpectedly, it steals your very breath and it really feels like someone has punched through your chest and ripped your heart out. Those feelings, the feelings that consume Trent, are real and powerful, and they need to go somewhere. Unfortunately for most of us, we take these feelings out on God and we choose to run away from Him.

The only way to protect ourselves from being long-term angry and running away from God is to go to Him, ask Him to open our eyes to see a situation as He views it, and to talk to Him — sometimes really loudly — about our true feelings. God wants a relationship with us. Real relationships have happy, sad, angry, contented, and mundane moments. God wants a relationship in all those moments.

From June 2018 – January 2019 I unexpectedly lost a best friend who was like a big brother to me and my step-dad. These two men were two of the best men I knew. Honestly, for men, they were superheroes here on earth. At first, I was shocked and devastated, so much so I was sick to my stomach. I felt like I couldn’t breathe and my mind felt numb. I had crater-sized holes in my heart. I also became angry — so, so angry — but I didn’t want to be angry at God. God did not cause the accidents that took these men’s lives — humans did. So I prayed: “God, please help me to see these situations through Your eyes. Don’t leave me!”

Nothing magical happened. God didn’t send me a dream or send an angel-messenger to explain the tragedies to me. BUT, God did show me a truth. Both my brother-friend and my step-dad were community servers. They loved helping people and saving the day. Both were EMT/firefighter/medical people. If either one of them had survived their accidents they would have been laid up for the rest of their lives. That would have killed their very souls. Instead, God took them home (they are both BIG Jesus believers). This truth, coupled with the fact that wanting them with me is just purely selfish (would you tell someone who’s with Jesus right now to come back to earth? Yeah, me neither) helped me to see the situation from God’s perspective. It doesn’t make the loss easier, but I feel a peace I didn’t feel before God put these thoughts in my brain. And, this revelation from God made me realize, as Trent realizes in Finders Keepers, that God fills my hurting, empty places. It taught me that running from God is just plain stupid. God is the balm to our souls. When we are hurting He wants to fix us!

Finders Keepers is an excellent novel. I barely touched the surface with this review. With captivating and highly relatable characters, a plot that makes you want to stay up well past bedtime to keep reading, and timely themes, Finders Keepers by Sarah Monzon is a story not to be missed!

I purchased an eBook copy of this book from Amazon.com on September 3, 2017, in order to review. In no way has this influenced my review. The opinions expressed in this review are my own.