Deliver Me From Evil by Kathi Macias

Though Jonathan and Mara live and work in San Diego, California, their worlds are far apart. As a high school senior in a idyllic middle class family, Jonathan's biggest concern is accepting that baseball won't be his career and that Bible college is the next step in the path of life. Mara's world is filled with physical torture, sexual slavery, and the ever-present threat of death. One night, as Jonathan delivers a pizza to a shady hotel, their worlds intersect in way that changes both of them. Jonathan can't forget the half-naked girls and Mara can't forget the kindness in the mysterious young man's eyes. Torn by a desire to help the girls and a desire to forget the incident, Jonathan engages in a struggle that will eventually draw him to the God he professes to serve. Through circumstances, Jonathan and his family become involved in supporting a local abolitionist movement again sexual slavery. However, drawn by a desire deeper than his own, Jonathan returns to the motel time and again. When the stakes become intensely personal, Jonathan must make a life or death choice to trust the plans of the God who loves not only him, but also every person trapped in sexual slavery.

Due to the difficult issues and gritty content in Deliver Me From Evil by Kathi Macias, the story is not an easy read and I would not recommend it to young readers. That being said, I do recommend it to mature readers. There is nothing overly explicit in the novel, but given that it is about sexual slavery, it does have some descriptive content. Macias' balances the darkness of the topic with light from those who seek its end, preventing the novel from depressing the reader. The characters are believable and well-developed. On a personal note, I cried several times while reading this novel because the characters and their situations gripped my heart.

Deliver Me From Evil addresses how quickly we are to dismiss the idea of sexual slavery in America and then issues a call to the reader to stand against this horrendous evil. The novel's message that sexual slavery does exist and that it's victims are in need of deliverance and healing needs to be heard by all in America. I await the next installment in the series.

Click here to listen to a podcast in which Kathi Macias discusses Deliver Me From Evil and the research that led to its production.

Read the prologue of Deliver Me From Evil at the home page of the blog tour.

Disclosure of Material Connection: I received this book free via PumpUpYourBook. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255: "Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising."