The Kidnapping of Kenzie Thorn

Ready for a fun book? Try this one....

MacKenzie Thorn, the governor's granddaughter, teaches a GED class at Oregon State Prison. The F.B.I. receives a tip that someone wants her dead. Agent Myles (Parsons) Borden agrees to go undercover in order to protect her and winds up in the GED class. We find Kenzie and Myles slinging cleverly crafted remarks at each other. It's sort of a "love at first sight" situation which seems a little contrived. This quickly escalates into a feel of tension and electricity between them.

One of the guards offers Myles a chance to abduct her, so he does, much to her consternation. His object is to get her to a "safe house" where later he will explain who he really is. He tells her (and himself) he is just doing his job, protecting her until the agency finds out who is behind the death threat. However, Myles finds himself crossing the line as an agent, actually developing non-professional feelings for Kenzie, though there is no way he will admit it to her.

The novel switches back and forth from the perspective of each character, as they pray individually, looking to God for answers. There's plenty of adventure as they join forces (cautiously on Kenzie's part) to find out who is behind the threat. And when Kenzie "escapes" she heads back to her grandparents, their dog, Henry, and even more danger.

I liked Liz Johnson's descriptive writing in The Kidnapping of Kenzie Thorn. She paints a very good picture for the reader. One example: "...a gray cement barrier jumped out of nowhere. Her front bumper left a six-inch white kiss on it..." (pg. 139)

The Kidnapping of Kenzie Thorn was a new venture for me, as I don't tend to read books in the "romance" genre. It was fun. You see, I have personally met the author as she was a co-worker with my daughter-in-law. We were excited for her when we found out her FIRST book had been accepted for publication! And another bonus...we personally know the dog in the book, Henry. Why, he's even stayed at our house!

For more info see www.lizjohnsonbooks.com or just click on the book above.


Curious about education and background preparation for writing I asked Liz a couple of questions:

1) if you know, when/where did you get your idea for The Kidnapping of Kenzie Thorn?

There are a lot of little inspirations for this book. I think that a big part of developing Kenzie’s story was where I was at in my own life. I had just made two major moves in the span of six months, and I was 1100 miles from my family. I felt like the only one I could lean on was God, so reliance on Him became one of the key themes of Kenzie’s story. I also had a friend from high school who made some really poor choices and ended up in prison for five years. His sister asked me to write to him, and I did. We wrote back and forth for years, and his letters made me wonder if there was anything that would cause someone to willingly go to prison. It all just developed from there.

2) do you feel your college education prepared you enough for your current job?

Oh, wow! What a question. :) I’m not sure. I mean, definitely I learned a lot about writing press releases and other publicity items, but can you ever really be prepared for a job as a publicist? It’s definitely one of those jobs where you learn a lot as you go. But one of the things that my college degree taught me was perseverance. It takes a lot of work to make it through college, and it takes a lot of work to succeed in most jobs. My degree definitely set me up for success, but mostly it prepared me to work hard in whatever area I decided to pursue.