Severed Trust

Title: SEVERED TRUST

Author: Margaret Daley

Publisher: Abingdon Press

October 2013

ISBN: 978-1426761867

Genre: Romantic Suspense

The day Sadie Thompson finds her high school student, Lexie, asleep in class and can't wake her is the day she realizes how entrenched a prescription drug ring is in her school. As Sadie is pulled into doing something about the growing problem, she becomes involved with Ethan Stone—a Texas Ranger who suspects the drug ring reaches far beyond the high school.

Helping Lexie recover from the overdose, Sadie feels she is making a difference—until the 16-year-old's best friend dies from the apparent mixing of various prescription drugs. Lexie doesn't think her friend took her own life, but her relationship with her Uncle Ethan is precarious and she doesn’t know if either he or Sadie will help her discover the truth.

SEVERED TRUST is book 4 in Ms. Daley’s The Men of the Texas Rangers series. The four books are stand alone, but readers will want to read them all, Saving Hope, Shattered Silence, Scorned Justice, and SEVERED TRUST. These books all deal with tough, hard-to-read issues, and the main issue in SEVERED TRUST is teenaged drug abuse.

I know these things go on, but some of the things the teens did in this book are very dangerous, such as droned (getting drunk and stoned), or mixing a collection of various prescription drugs and taking a handful at a time. Seriously. Parents of teens or teachers need to talk to them about drug abuse. Fans of romantic suspense will love these books, as there is enough action to keep the pages turning, even if the subject matter is hard reading. Discussion questions are included at the end of the book. $14.99. 320 pages. 4 stars.