Booksneeze: Silent Night

Silent Night by Colleen Coble

A Rock Harbor Christmas Novella

(Book Description)

As Christmas day nears, Bree and her faithful search-and-rescue dog Samson follow the trail of a troubling mystery into the snowy forests of Rock Harbor.

Bree Matthews is preparing for Christmas guests, but her heart is reeling from the recent and tender loss of her unborn child. Her sister-in-law, Lauri, suddenly turns up on the doorstep of the lighthouse home Bree shares with her husband, Kade, in Rock Harbor. Secretive and withdrawn, Lauri seems curiously intent on discovering what happened to a parachuter who disappeared in the North Woods along Lake Superior's icy shore.

As Bree and Samson, her search-and-rescue dog, plunge into the search, Bree wonders if Lauri may know more than she’s admitted about the parachuter. And then the clues lead them to the trail of a young woman whose family fears the worst about her disappearance.

Will the search on this snowy, silent night lead Bree and Samson to more than clues about the missing girl? And will Bree’s prayer for a baby ever be answered?

My Thoughts:

This is the first Rock Harbor book that I have read, but a quick search on Amazon shows 5 other books about Rock Harbor by Colleen Coble.  The Rock Harbor crew also has a little cameo in another Colleen Coble book that I've read and reviewed, Tidewater Inn.

This was a cute little book.  Knowing it was a novella, not a full-fledged novel helped as I read it.  The action and the mystery of the book were resolved pretty quickly.  If this was a full novel, I'm sure there would have been more to the investigation.

However, I felt like Coble packed a lot into a little book.  Bree and Lauri both grow as characters and deal with losses and heartaches.  At the same time, they solve a mystery involving a missing college co-ed, an inexperienced skydiver and illegal activities happening in the Michigan forests.  Think that's a lot to pack in 140 pages?  Somehow Colleen Coble does it.  And all the loose ends are tied up by the end of the novella.

The only disappointment?  This seems to be the end of the Rock Harbor series.  Slient Night drew me in and makes me want to read more about Bree and her family.  Luckily, the first book in the series is sitting on my shelf, ready to read.

I give this book 5 out of 5 stars.

I was provided with a complementary Kindle version of this book for review by the Booksneeze program.  All opinions are my own.