Ok, I’m going to start off by saying that I now know I am absolutely not the target audience for this book. When I choose a book, I automatically look at genre tags. This one was NOT tagged as Christian fiction on the Hoopla app. It is on goodreads, so I wish I had checked there first. I guess that’s why I’d never heard of Colleen Coble. She’s obviously not in my wheelhouse. Rather, this was called “romantic suspense,” which I guess is the Christian equivalent of thriller. Translation: there will be lots of schmaltz (BUT ABSOLUTELY NO SEX) and you’ll do a bit of nail biting but, otherwise, your delicate sensibilities will be intact upon completion. Are you starting to see why I’m not the target audience? I’m not going to make this review a critique of Christianity at all, so please don’t think I’m judging an entire religion, but I will be judging the hell out of this book on literary merits, and some of that is rooted in the fact that this genre gleefully does a crap job at story building in the guise of “keeping it clean.”
Carly Harris is quite literally the perfect woman. She’s insanely beautiful, completely devout, and a devoted wife who defers to her husband in all instances. Her husband is manly-man cop, Eric Harris (seriously, how big of a rock has Coble been living under that she doesn’t know the name Eric Harris is synonymous with evil???) When Eric is killed in a burglary attempt on their house, Carly uncovers some items in storage that allude to a decades-old mystery that Eric was apparently aware of, and it’s possibly his tracking down of the clues that got him killed. Carly, armed with only her meek and mild demeanor as the perfect damsel in distress exuding kindness and vulnerability, obviously needs the help of the handsome cop next door. Muscular, stoic, and in possession of a miraculous gift with babies despite never having been around one, Lucas is a dreamboat. He’s a Godly man, and he encourages this in others. Obviously, the whole department stops to pray when one of their own has been shot and the perp is, as we speak, running for the hills. He’ll get a head start, but Jesus took the wheel, anyway. Why hurry?
If I had to be positive for a second, the story surrounding the adoption and valuable artifacts was compelling. I kept going just to see if they found all the missing people and pieces, but damn was I frustrated for about 75% of the novel. Also, Coble can string sentences together in a coherent way. Otherwise, this was completely devoid of complexity. The good Christian people were all wonderful. They made the right choices which were always selfless. Those lacking in morals pay the price. If Carly has one flaw it’s that she’s too nice. She’s a total doormat, in fact. At one point, handsome cop Lucas says he likes going on a road trip with Carly because she lets him control the radio and doesn’t talk too much. Might as well pat her on the head and say with a wink, “just sit there and look pretty, sweetheart.”
Here’s another thing that irked me. If you know that the Russian mob is on your tail, (I mean, we all know what that’s like, right?) and you KNOW that they will turn over every stone you try to turn over in searching for something valuable, don’t you think you should WARN people who might become a target? Multiple times Carly decided she wanted something to be a surprise, so she held off on pertinent information and Lucas, who is supposed to be good at his job, just goes along with this. You can’t admit the mob is 5 steps ahead of you at all times and then just wait before telling some poor old lady she may have an artifact in her attic that’s worth about $20 million. I hate to break it to you, but Jesus ain’t guarding the door because he’s busy helping with that bullet wound for which you let the assailant get away because you needed to chit-chat with the man upstairs. Plus, you didn’t pray about it this time so how does he know?
Also, you’re leaving the little ladies and the babies alone for a while, but they have one construction worker with a gun, so it’s obviously going to work out spiffy spoofy, don’t-cha know? It’s just the Russian mob, after all. Who’s worried about them when you have Jesus and the NRA on your side?
I have now released full nuclear snark. I was worried it might come to this.
Look, I know some people, due to their religion, want some good clean “romantic suspense.” And I’m sorry if I just peed in your cheerios. But if I’m being truly honest, I don’t agree with the idea that someone can get a free pass at poor writing and poor character development simply because it’s “Christian fiction.” Honestly, the character description for one minor character was that he looked like Denzel Washington. Not only is it just bad writing it screams of a desperate attempt to include just one black person in the book. This book has plenty of 5 star reviews on goodreads, so I know there’s a market for it. If that’s you and you want predictable fluff that presents no challenge to your preconceived world view, then this is the book for you. You’ll have more sweet little Southern belles and flawlessly masculine policemen than your heart can handle. As for me, I wish it had been categorized appropriately so I could have avoided it. I’ve decided to use this one for my reading challenge for the read that’s outside my comfort zone, and I’ll add Coble to my list of authors whose works don’t interest me in the least.
I save 1 stars for works that are so poorly written they aren’t even coherent or are patently offensive, so in this case I’ll give it a 2. Really didn’t like it but it was at least readable.
Published January 1, 2024 by Thomas Nelson. ISBN 9780785253853. Hardcover. 352 pages.
I’m still a little up in the air on what I will start after I finish The Outsider. More than likely it will be 
Kevin Sites is an award-winning journalist who published three nonfiction books using his expertise as a war correspondent prior to the release of this one, but this is his debut work of fiction. The novel follows Lukas Landon, a former war correspondent who takes a job aboard the shrimping trawler, Philomena, in order to write a piece about the crew. After a terrifying storm, Landon finds himself inside the vessel at the bottom of the ocean, fighting to stay alive within his little air pocket that developed around him when the ship overturned and sank.
This is a book I picked up for a very specific reason. My father has become thoroughly enthralled, obsessed almost, with the subject of ancestry. He’s on a mission to trace nearly every line of our family tree as far as it will go, and it turns out, the subject of this novel is my Great however-so-many it may be Grandpappy. Dad acquired Chadwick’s book series about William Marshal and now I’m reading them as well. This first book is more of a prequel, as it follows William’s father, John Fitzgilbert, or John Marshal. John was marshal to King Henry I, inheriting the title from his father, Gilbert Giffard, sometime prior to 1130. This book begins here, moving into the death of King Henry which begins the civil war between the Empress Matilda and King Stephen. The novel illustrates John’s instrumental role as a skilled tactician during the war and brings us up through the end of the war in 1153, in which William is an adorable addition (but a VERY important one) as a feisty 5-year-old.
Well, here’s to a pretty good reading start in 2024. I guess there’s a perk to the fact that I’ve pretty much been sick since NOVEMBER! I had non-Covid and then I had Covid and then when the Covid was gone I was back to just the standard non-Covid still coughing my head off but still having to go about my daily business. At least I was able to read some books, right? For the first time in years my goodreads challenge tells me I’m actually ahead of schedule! Let’s dive in!
So, naturally, if I add the category of “Productivity Book,” to my reading challenge for this year, the Universe sends me a sign. It took one look inside my closets and kitchen pantry and sighed heavily. Unsurprisingly, the very same week, this delightful little tome shows up on Hoopla under my “Recommended for You” titles. Thanks, Universe. I feel very seen and judged right now. 
Louisa Morgan is a fairly prolific writer of modern fantasy, especially the ever-popular witchy titles. This is the first of hers I’ve read (I feel like I say that a lot about a lot of authors, so shame on me). I actually chose this one because my 9-year-old picked it up in the library and liked the cover art. I assured her it probably wasn’t suitable for a reader of her age but I would take it. HA! As I suspected, it was definitely an adult read. 
