Justifiable Means
Book: Justifiable Means
Author: Shannon Guymon
Publisher: Cedar Fort
Shannon Guymon’s third novel is her best yet. Justifiable Means is the story of Nikki Truman, a young woman who was removed from the home of her drug addicted mother and her mother’s abusive and terrifyingly cruel boyfriend. Adopted by a loving LDS family, she joins the church and builds a new life. However, a visit home to offer forgiveness to her birth mother changes her life forever. She finds she has a half-brother, a preschooler who has been left home alone for several days and resignedly orders her to pay up before he tells her where the drugs are. Impulsively she takes the child with her, unwilling to let the boy she instantly loves suffer what she endured. She goes into hiding with her brother and struggles to survive.
Years later, she accepts a job with an odd LDS man, Rory McNiel, who has retired from professional sports after an injury causes a permanent disability. He is wealthy, lonely and eccentric, and he is eating a diet that horrifies health-conscious Nikki. She sets out to prove that a good cook can even make health food taste good, and fights to keep her job, because she has finally found a good home for herself and her brother in this fairy-tale mansion.
The fairy tale takes unexpected twists and turns as the couple fall in love, Rory’s mother determines to rescue her son from a low-class girlfriend, and someone tries to take Nikki’s little brother. Can she save her brother, free herself from a kidnapping charge, win over Rory’s mother and build a Cinderella life forever?
Although LDS romances tend to follow a predictable path, Sister Guymon has managed, as always, to avoid that trap and has created a book that leaves you breathless as you follow Nikki through the challenges of untangling her life. The climax is a chilling glimpse at the world of evil. The background story adds powerful depth to the romance, making it a pleasure for any fiction reader.
