Kyla Justice has taken over her deceased father's construction business, JuCo, and has made a name for herself in a male dominated profession. She is not emotional like her sister Annot, or Annie as she is called, and is disciplined and driven rather than passionate. She and Annie, with their brother Avidan, or Dan, are a very close family and they look after one another, especially since their parents' deaths.
In spite of her success, she is not satisfied, and longs to build something worthwhile, something that will be pleasing to God and will make a difference. Her first reaction to her father's old friend Fredrik's request to help with rebuilding the church into a Teen Centre, in the middle of the 22's territory, is that it is impossible, but she soon gets drawn into the vision. She feels strongly that the Lord is calling her to do this.
This leads to trouble and Kyla is in grave danger from those who are trying to stop the project from being finished in time. JuCo has made a lot of money and she does what her father used to do when he came across a project that he felt was worthwhile, and that is to do it out of her accumulated profit.
Rafe Murphy is an ex Marine who was injured on duty and now runs a coffee shop. He meets up with Kyla, who he has been in love with all his life, when she comes in for coffee. She doesn't recognize him, but he knows who she is, and their relationship is quite volatile as he tries to keep her safe, while she thinks she is capable of looking after herself. Her sister Annie calls her "Sister-Mommy" because of her bossy and protective ways. Her siblings wonder what happened to her to quench her passion and put such a tight rein on her emotions, but Rafe knows. Through all they go through in the "war zone" she is drawn to him and second guesses her engagement to Mason. Rafe's Marine unit is loyal to him and they are more than willing to help in the situalion.
The story follows closely the story of Nehemiah rebuilding the walls of Jerusalem, where the Israelites trusted in God to keep them safe. They held a sword in the one hand and a building tool in the other. Their enemies were determined to stop Jerusalem from being rebuilt, and did everything in their power to hinder the work. Nehemiah soaked the whole project in believing prayer, and Fredrik is the one who, with his elderly deacons, does the same for the modern rebuilding project. It is a beautifully worked out story, with believable characters, and the biblical story is paralleled in the modern world with gangs, the greed of business tycoons, threats and betrayals, The power of prayer is shown strongly together with the importance of trust. I like the verses at the beginning of each chapter, many of them taken from the book of Nehemiah.
This is a novel I can highly recommend.
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