When Justice Comes by Colleen Coble and Rick Acker

 

When Justice Comes by Colleen Coble and Rick Acker
Book 3 in the Tupelo Grove Series 
4 Stars

What an ending! This is a Christian Romantic Suspense series I have followed since the beginning with What We Hide. We left book 2 in that "I NEED TO KNOW" status and this delivered everything I needed to know!

Very satisfying ending. If you don't know what this series focuses on, it's essentially Hez and Savannah's second chance romance after their divorce and tragic loss of their daughter years ago. Their young daughter passed away in a drowning incident at their home and it left their marriage in shambles. Lots of legal drama ensues with family secrets, college lawsuits and fraud, murders, legal mysteries....its kind of like a legal Christian thriller in a way. 

I enjoyed my time with it. I think the faith could have been explored a bit more, especially through their grief and loss, but overall I am glad to finally know all the things from what happened since book 1. An engaging, character-focused finale.

*content/trigger warnings: grief from child loss (young child drowning, theme throughout the series), clean romance kisses only, no language, custody battles, kidnapping, mild violence,

Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for a copy of the audiobook to listen to for review. All thoughts are my own.

Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/8351705619
Amazon: https://amzn.to/4sds9UU
Baker Book House: https://bakerbookhouse.com/products/9781400345731_when-justice-comes

*Amazon links are affiliate links and a commission may be earned on items purchased from these links.

Where Secrets Lie by Colleen Coble and Rick Acker

Where Secrets Lie by Colleen Coble and Rick Acker 
Book 2 in The Tupelo Grove Series 
3.5 to 4 Stars

We are back in Tupelo Grove with Jess, Hez and Savannah - and dramatic as ever. This picks up right where What We Hide left off. This second installment has all the romantic suspense, family drama and legal intrigue we had in book 1. Savannah and Hez are on their second chance at love but a lot of trust issues still remain.

As they navigate this second chance and their upcoming re-marriage to come, the university corruption continues...with the villain we experienced at the end of book 2 at the forefront here. 

If you like legal thrillers and romantic suspense, check this series out. There isn't much I can say since it's the second book in the series, but a few things:

- I liked the suspense around 40% with where things went with Hez.

- I liked the complexity with the university corruption.

- I liked the legal subplots going on.

- Love the narrator of this series, she really keeps you engaged. 

- While the big moment in this book of chapter 30 made me cry and feel such impact from the Jesus moment....I was sad there wasn't more of a resolution between this character and a main character. Trying not to give spoilers haha

- I didn't love the trust issue stuff with Savannah constantly worried about Hez and his drinking starting back up. It went on a bit longer than I would have liked.

- Wanted the pacing to be a bit quicker with the stuff with our villain group.

Regardless, I enjoyed my time with this and look forward to more in this series. We are left with another somewhat cliffhanger of another investigation / secrets to be revealed, and I need to know!

Thank you to the publisher for an audio listening copy for honest review. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/7541835128

Baker Book House: https://bakerbookhouse.com/products/609111
Amazon: https://amzn.to/4iGcbgE

*Amazon links are affiliate links and a commission may be earned on items purchased from these links.

I Think I Was Murdered by Colleen Coble and Rick Acker

 

I Think I Was Murdered by Colleen Coble and Rick Acker - 2 to 2.5 Stars 

Let me start this review by saying I absolutely LOVED What We Hide by Colleen and Rick and had the opportunity to meet them at a local Christian bookstore when they went on tour for a book signing, they were so nice to meet and chat with. I think I was Murdered was one of my most anticipated releases for the fall time this year, but unfortunately, my honest review is this was a bit disjointed and didn't live up to my personal expectations. This one is a standalone story and not tied to What We Hide. I am still interested to see what happens in book 2 after What We Hide to see what happens next but this one fell flat for me personally. 

This story is about a grieving widow, Katrina, who talks to an AI program-chat bot that poses as her husband that passed away. The chat bot has all of her husbands social media accounts, photos, information from his phone etc. So it can truly feel like he is talking to her. One day, the chat bot responds to her "I Think I Was Murdered" and she goes on this hunt to find out what really happened to Jason. The story has some side characters and mysteries going on as well. 

We all feel like AI is a very odd and strange thing in today's world so the plot itself was SO interesting to me. I had not seen anyone write an AI story yet so I was highly looking forward to this one. I think for me, if the story focused more on the Katrina > Jason story, I would have been more invested but we get a bit disjointed going on side stories with other characters and drama with them that I wasn't connecting to. There is a side character in this that is pregnant and there was some very crazy circumstances that occur where it doesn't feel like there is concern for her being pregnant really. Also, I wasn't crazy about the romances in this book. One being a love triangle and the other I just didn't really connect with. 

The ending was the main reason I ended up giving this more so a 2-2.5 star rating (which Star ratings are so subjective anyway, I debated between a 2-3 star but the ending just bothered me so that's why I am at a 2-2.5). I felt like the main story was to figure out who murdered Jason but we spent a long time on other things I didn't care about.

I think if you are in the mood for more of a legal, mystery suspense story and are interested in the AI bits, check this out, but it just wasn't for me personally. I have LOVED all of Colleens books I have read so far so this surprised me but hoping this was just an anomaly for me :).  

Thank you to Thomas Nelson for a copy to honestly read and review. I rarely find myself giving ratings like this but this is my honest review and opinions. Take me with a grain of salt :) 

content: no spice, grief from death of a spouse

Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/6642953346
Amazon: https://amzn.to/4e6RBno

Baker Book House: https://bakerbookhouse.com/products/583638

*Amazon links are affiliate links and a commission may be earned on items purchased from these links.

What We Hide by Colleen Coble and Rick Acker

 

 What We Hide by Colleen Coble and Rick Acker - 4.5 Stars
 (Book 1 in the Tupelo Grove Series)

A new series from Colleen Coble - cowritten with Rick Acker - and they do not disappoint! I really enjoyed this one. I was engaged from the very beginning and had to know ALL the things! I read part physical and listened to the audio as well. The narrator was great and did a really great job on the different character voices and emotion. You really felt like you were there in the moment with the characters of the narration.

In this book, Savannah is a professor who works with her sister and CEO, Jess. Her and Jess are complete opposites but very close with one another regardless. We see the story open up with Savannah filing for divorce with her husband, Hezekiah (Hez). They have been separated for 2 years following the events of the death of their young daughter, Ella. 

Cut to a professor being murdered, Savannah being accused of the murder, Jess getting involved and obviously keeping secrets, Hez representing Savannah as her lawyer, someone after Savannah, Hez and Savannah trying to work their marriage out and you have the makings of a GREAT romantic suspense story!

I overall enjoyed my time with this and the way it ended, I NEED the next book ASAP! The twists in this were done very well, even if I somewhat figured out some things. :) Loved that cliffhanger at the end either way. 

My only complaint is I wanted Hez and Savannah to talk a bit more about their relationship but I understand they were trying to work through the mystery and they were trying to work through their feelings of grief and guilt from the loss of their daughter.

Overall, I am looking forward to the next book in the series.

Thank you to Thomas Nelson for a complementary copy of the book to honestly read and review. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

Trigger Warning Info: I haven't seen many reviews mention this so I want to take note. This book deals heavily with the death of a child by pool drowning. We see one parent deal with guilt and grief from it, the other deal with their extreme grief, and how it affects their marriage. Scenes in this book include visiting her gravesite, reliving the experience, a parent talking to another friend who also lost a child and talking through their grief, etc. I wanted to mention this in case anyone is sensitive to that content and needs to be aware before they pick this up.

Goodreads Review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/6537620407
Amazon: https://amzn.to/4eSbjoI
Baker Book House: https://bakerbookhouse.com/products/560297

*Amazon links are affiliate links and a commission may be earned on items purchased from these links.