After completing the O’Malley series, which was a tribute to our firefighters, social workers, and crime fighters, Dee Henderson wrote the “Uncommon Heroes” series, a tribute to our men and women who fight for us in the military. In “True Devotion,” the first book of this series, we meet Kelly Jacobs, a young widow of three years whose husband, Nick, was a SEAL. She was told that he died in a training accident and she was given a folded flag to remember him by, but nothing can erase the pain and hurt of his passing. She throws herself into her job as a lifeguard, doing whatever she can to forget, with the help of Nick’s commanding officer and also best friend, Joe Baker.
Late one afternoon Kelly and her partner see two teenagers out for a ride on the waves when they get swept off their boards and start to flounder in a riptide. The two lifeguards head out to rescue them, the first taken back to shore safely, but Kelly has lost sight of one teen and goes out further to find him. By the time she reaches him, he’s nearly unconscious and sinking. She brings him up to the surface, but by now it’s dark and the chances of making it back to shore are slim. She has only one thought on her mind: Joe will come find her.
Word has come back to base that a lifeguard is missing on the ocean and Joe heads out in his boat. He searches grid by grid, as do other SEALS, who always take care of their own and as a SEAL widow, Kelly falls into that category. But Joe’s reasons for going out are much more personal.
Joe finds Kelly just in time and both she and the teen are rescued safely. But emotions are surfacing that neither Joe nor Kelly are ready to face. Does it dishonor Nick’s memory to fall in love with his widow?
An extremely well-done novel of suspense, romance and faith, this book is one you won’t want to put down once you pick it up.
(This book was published in 2000 by Multnomah.)
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