Fragile Designs is a stand-alone novel by Colleen Coble. Carly Harris is struggling emotionally and financially in the wake of the murder of her husband and police officer, She discovers that her husband had been hiding a life-altering secret plus the discovery of a Fabergé egg puts her life in danger. Coble has once again created a suspenseful novel with an intricate plot, yet also showing forgiveness's power.

Christian suspense genre can seem a bit of an oxymoron, but authors like Colleen Coble deliver successfully. In her newest novel, Coble introduces readers to Carly, a young widow and new mother, who must find her way after her police officer husband is killed, not on the job, but outside their home. As she digs through an old trunk to expedite the sale of her great-grandmother's belongings, Carly finds an oddly painted trinket. Seemingly worthless, Carly cannot dismiss the feeling that it should not be discarded. And then she finds papers that will change the family's life forever. With that paper comes danger at almost every corner. While Carly and her next-door neighbor race to find answers before anyone more is hurt, both feel their lives changing forever. I loved that Coble has filled this novel with plenty of suspects and family conflicts, but also examples of self-less love and second chances. I received a copy of this novel from Netgalley.

This book was great, it felt fresh and not like anything else I've read lately. It kept me intrigued all the way through, I didn't want to put it down.

Loved this book. I love all of Colleen Coble's books. She makes her characters come alive on the pages and makes me want to fix the issues they are facing. I loved getting to know Carly and Eric and their sweet son Noah. I loved the dynamics between her and her grandmother and her sisters as well as the next door neighbor brothers. Highly recommend. Kept me guessing to the very end.

A page turning romantic suspense book about Carly and her family troubles. The element of danger when she finds a priceless heirloom is out of this world. The romance is a slow burn. The family drama with her sisters is chaotic and a deeply complex felt story. I loved this book and devoured it in a few short hours.

Widow Carly Harris barely scrapes a living for herself and her infant son on her unpredictable career as an antique dealer. When her grandmother suggests that she and her sisters renovate the family’s large home and convert it into a bed and breakfast, she moves to Beaufort and begins the task of cleaning out the house. As she works, she finds a secret her late husband Eric hid — one that points toward her family’s unknown history and a possible connection to Eric’s enigmatic murder.
With the help of Lucas Bennet, her next door neighbor and a homicide detective, Carly embarks on the hunt for the provenance of a family heirloom she believes to be a lost Fabergé egg. However, the quest for the truth can come at a high price, including the cost of those she loves.
Fragile Designs delivers a tangled mystery that scales from small-town USA to Russian Mafia. Having heard great things about Colleen Coble’s books, I excitedly delved into this book. The plot, however, felt a bit too implausible. I enjoyed the antique heirloom angle, the few glimpses we got of the B and B remodeling, and the complicated family dynamics. But as the scope widened to incorporate mobsters and international crime, it became too farfetched.

Nonetheless, it provided an entertaining read that suspense and mystery fans can enjoy. I definitely want to give another one of her books a try, especially one that sticks with small-town issues and family/community relationships since I did enjoy those parts.

Book is great. I love Ms. Coble is one of my favorite authors.
Carly Harris life gets very complicated, and when she’s left to raise her son by herself it’s not easy.
So much more things come to light after something happens to her husband. She didn’t even know.
That’s when she turns to people he worked with. She even turns to a neighbor that knew her husband well.
It gets really interesting to say the least.

Interesting read that keeps the reader engaged. Carly finds her husband Eric dead and she has to move back in with her grandmother. While there strange things keep happening and she is trying to figure out why all this is happening. She finds an egg while going through old furniture to sell and wonders if it’s valuable. With the help of her neighbor Lucas they solve the mystery while trying to prevent anyone else from getting hurt.

What if you found a mystery from history locked in a trunk that no one knew about until someone you lived g got killed because of it? When Carly's husband is killed she's lost. But she goes to help her grandmother fix up her house and find some clues that maybe her husband was doing some research that got him killed. And some of it dealt with her grandma's past. She gets her neighbor police detective to help. They get into a bunch of trouble but eventually trace Faberge eggs and Russian princesses into the truth.

I am a huge Colleen Coble fan and have many of her book on my bookshelf. She always keeps you intrigued but also makes it easy to read the story that she is telling.
I had seen this book coming up and was blessed enough to receive a copy from NetGalley and will be making sure that I pick up an actually copy of it so that it can join its brothers and sisters on the shelf. If you need one new author to read this month make it this one.

Carly's life was upended when her husband was shot and she had to move herself and her young son to Beaufort to run a bed and breakfast. But old secrets come to light, putting Carley and Noah in danger, and she must fight to find the answers to keep her family safe.

A high stakes suspense, with a full cast of characters, mystery, danger, and earth shattering secrets revealed it's a hard book to put down. I loved the strong themes of faith and family, in the midst of a tension packed adventure.

A fast paced read, that I didn't want to put down. Well balanced read with great pacing, characters, and relationship building with a great focus on faith and family. Suspenseful read that kept me guessing throughout, with plenty of twists along the way. Another solid read from Colleen Coble.

I received a complimentary copy of this book. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own.

It had been awhile since I read a book by this author and I don't know why I waited so long!! This was a great book! I will definitely recommend it to everyone I know!

Exciting! The perfect balance of suspense and romance. Great read! I loved the mystery woven into the story, and the character development, I appreciate having this type of story without having graphic descriptions of violence.

My first book I've read by Coble and whoa did she put me through a lot! I really liked how this book started out with a good unsolved murder, some family strife and a taste of historical fiction! But then, as the story progressed I had a hard time pining what the genre was. I felt completely inundated with all the genres in this book. Historical fiction (with a fascianting background about faberge eggs of the Tsars), Russian Mafia, multiple murder mysteries, family secrets, backstabbing, heists, infidelity, romance, babies, oh and don't forget the home remodel, oh and that touch of Christian literature in here too. There are a few other big plot points that I won't share for fear of spoilers that were the cherry on the sprinkles on the icing on the cake. Basically, it was too much. Way too much. It felt way too unrealistic. I also don't like mixing murder mysteries with a love interest unless it's a comedy, it doesn't sit right for me. I don't want to be disturbed by a stabbing murder upstairs but then now I get to see two characters be romantically interested in one another...

The audiobook was well done and easy to follow, I enjoyed the narrator.

Thank you to NetGalley and HarperCollins Christian Publishing for the ALC that I paired with the eARC from Thomas Nelson Publishing.

read twice (by accident!), good book, page turner, would read more by this author as its my kind of book

This was such a fun, easy read and the mystery kept me guessing and intrigued all the way through. I've always found the story of Fabergé eggs to be fascinating and incorporating them into the story made it even more enjoyable. The amount of research Colleen Coble did into their history really showed. She has such an eye for detail and it really makes her stories fun to read. I really enjoyed how the relationships between Carly and her sisters grew throughout the story. Coble really has a talent at writing complex, dynamic family relationships and it's one of the things that I love about her books. I also loved how strong Carly's faith was, even with all she was facing. I really hope this is part of a series because I'd love to get more of this amazing family!

Thank you, #netgalley, for the advance copy of this wonderful story. A little slow in the beginning, and then it started to pick up and was addictive. The way Carly picked up all the pieces for her family was a rock.. Lucas was such a hero, and to discover that after all those years, she was not the person he thought she was. My first story by Collen Coble.

This was a great book. I loved every paragraph, every sentence and every word of this masterpiece! I read it in 12 hours, which is a lot for me to do! It had everything and more laid out in the novel! I sure hope There is more to come from this author! I am totally hooked!

Possibly my favorite Colleen Coble book yet! I couldn’t put this down and finished it in a weekend. I was hooked from the start and needed to know how it was all going to wrap up. It was full of twists and had me guessing up until the very end. I gasped, I laughed, I cried. It had all my emotions on alert.

And the love story was so sweet! I loved the found family, and seeing Lucas soften up over time…and now wondering if we’ll get to hear more about Emily and Ryan in another book?! If you’ve never read Colleen Coble, this is a great one to start with!

My thoughts: Fragile Designs is a stand-alone novel that is easy on the romance and heavier on the suspense, but it is not creepy. I figured out some of it as I read, but other things were a surprise. I thoroughly enjoyed this read and highly recommend it. I couldn't put it down. Literally. If you love romantic suspense you will love Fragile Designs. Grab your copy today! I was given a copy free and all opinions are my own.