Warrior's Heart by Donna Fleisher Published by: Zondervan (2005) 285 pages Rating: 6/10 Buy it Now:    Also by Donna Fleisher: Wounded Healer Valiant Hope

The first book in the Homeland Heroes series, Wounded Healer, was an intriguing story about two female veterans of Operation Desert Storm. This second book picks up right where the last one left off, continuing the same themes. That's both its strength and its weakness.

Chris McIntyre has joined her fellow veterans in working at the community of Kimberly Square in Portland, Oregon. While most of her fellow workers and volunteers do their best to make Chris feel welcome, her best friend's husband, Scott Mathis, is not so friendly. Every time his pregnant wife has spent time with Chris it's resulted in danger. Determined to protect Erin, but agonizing over his responsibility as a Christian, Scott struggles with how to treat Chris, even as enemies from the past seek her destruction.

The first book featured very strong characterizations of Chris and Erin. This one picks up on that, focusing primarily on Chris and Scott this time. The parallel of their relationship and a massive storm that threatens to flood Portland is handled well, as each struggles within - Chris to fit in with the others while holding on to her new faith, and Scott to forgive Chris and still protect his wife.

Unfortunately, this struggle drags on and on far too long. Repeated scenes of Scott knowing what's right and praying that he'll do it are interspersed with repeated scenes of Chris wanting to run away but knowing she shouldn't. Insert a scene involving one or both of them with another character, a foreshadowing scene, and repeat. The angst factor is far too high. It wouldn't be quite as bad if there were more action, such as in the first book, to space between the angsting, but instead there's a criminal from the first book who is angsting over what he has done and whether he should try to get revenge. His indecision, combined with Scott's indecision and Chris' indecision is downright maddening - you want someone, ANYone to make a decision and get it over with.

It's a tried-and-true mechanism during a story's climax to occasionally switch scenes to keep the tension building and continue multiple story threads. However, in order not to anger readers, all the scenes must be equally interesting. Putting your two main characters in a life-or-death situation and then suddenly switching to a scene where someone asks, "How was your sandwich, Ben?" is not a good example. I skipped right over the offending scenes and came back to them later.

At the same time, Fleisher continues to be strong in other areas. With the large supporting cast, it would be easy to try to develop too many characters at once. Instead, she balances them effortlessly, keeping the focus tight on the main characters, while letting certain minor characters get just enough spotlight to fill their role in the story. It's an excellent illustration of the right way to handle so many characters.

Wounded Healer was excellent. Warrior's Heart doesn't quite live up to it. The preview to the third book, Valiant Hope, looks very promising. I hope it redeems the series. Mildly Recommended.