Cycle One: The Invitation

Authors: Bill Myers, Frank Peretti, Angela Hunt, & Alton Gansky

Series: Harbingers #1

Publisher: Bethany House

Release Date: April 4, 2017

Rating: 4 Stars

Reviewer: Jessica Higgins

An intriguing tale of the supernatural by four of today’s top Christian suspense writers makes this a must read!

Broken into segments, the first is The Call by Bill Myers told from the viewpoint of a street hustling tattoo artist that sees the future and uses that to help a student at a psychic institute.  He is being trained to use his gifts to help world leaders but at a very high cost.  The next segment is by Frank Peretti called The Haunted.  Peretti dives deep into the darkness within us all in this supernatural case of murder centered within a mysterious house.  Third is The Sentinels by Angela Hunt which showcases a strange phenomenon of animals around the world mysteriously dying.  The fourth and final section is by Alton Gansky called The Girl.  It is a strange tale of a young girl found in the snow barefoot and holding a piece of parchment type paper.  After careful investigation, it appears she is not of this world and someone wants to kill her.  Brought together they make the first cycle in the Harbingers Series.

Invitation is a unique blend of several of the top Christian authors doing what they do best.  I must admit before this I hadn’t read anything by several of the authors.  I know Frank Peretti’s work and that is what drew me to this.  Oddly enough, his section was probably my least favorite.  When I first heard of the premise of this story I thought there were several ways it might work out.  Each author took a character and told the story from their point of view.  It wasn’t the same story over and over, instead it was a continuation.  When one section is over you go to the next character further in time.  This left me with several questions for how each section played out and how I thought it should have played out.  Overall the story itself was very interesting, even though I do still have some questions.  Since this is the first installment, my questions might still be answered in the next book.  At least that is what I am hoping.

With each author taking a section, it was clearly noticeable the way the writing changed with who the new point of view character was and that we were in a different story. I don’t want to say it was an exceptional story, it could have been, but fell short at several points for me.  With that said though, I still recommend this book to readers that love a supernatural story with suspense on every page.  Each author brought his and her own personal touches to their section making it unique.  The first section was the best to me and easily drew me into the story.  I enjoyed that so much I stuck with the entire thing and am glad I did.  I can’t wait to see what comes next.

I received a complimentary copy of this book from the publisher. The views and opinions expressed within are my own.