Review: Never Let You Go by Erin Healy

From the very first pages, Erin Healy’s first solo novel Never Let You Go will simply never let you go. Even after you turn the last page it will still hold you in its grip.

Lexi Solomon lives for only one thing—her daughter Molly’s love. She balances two jobs, waitress by night and grocery stocker by day, and still struggles to meet the basics for her daughter—a roof over their heads and the utilities paid. Just when she thinks things can’t get any worse, Lexi’s life spirals out of control.

Enter Warden, a drug dealer from Lexi’s past.

Enter Norman, the man who destroyed Lexi’s family when he murdered her sister.

Enter Grant, Lexi’s husband who ran out on her and Molly seven years ago.

Three men Lexi hoped never to have to face again.

As Warden threatens Molly’s life, demanding Lexi testify on Norman’s behalf at his upcoming parole hearing, Grant sneaks back into town and has Lexi’s mother deliver a letter to Molly without Lexi’s consent. Lexi fights to keep her daughter safe, but is it too late? Will Molly’s curiosity about her father tear them apart and put her in danger?

I loved the complexity of Never Let You Go and following the characters as they weaved through the storyline. The characters were flawed, making them easy to relate to. How many of us struggle with forgiveness? Sometimes it is easy to focus on the hurts others have inflicted on ourselves, yet ignore the pain we have dealt someone else. We turn the blame fully on them, not wanting to acknowledge our own failings. Lexi learns that she must face her own secrets and seek forgiveness if she is to truly forgive others.

There are so many themes contained in this novel. The reader is taken on a journey exploring the physical and spiritual realms, where good and evil battle, where lies attempt to hide the truth, and, ultimately, where one must choose between sin or redemption.

Before collaborating on Kiss and Burn with Ted Dekker, Erin Healy worked as an editor on more than a dozen of Dekker’s books. With that kind of experience, it is hardly surprising that her first solo attempt is bound to win many readers, and deservedly so. Healy has proven she has what it takes to write a fast paced supernatural thriller guaranteed to keep you hooked right until the last page, and beyond.