This is the first book by this author and I really wanted to like it but it is very difficult to get into. I had a lot of trouble with this book, from the very beginning. Everything about it felt flat and unbelievable to me. Audiobook. Didn’t like the writing and it felt like there were too many plots happening. Too much trying to happen with nothing happening - quoting Bible versus and the book just is flat for me.

2.8 stars, rounded up to 3 for goodreads.

We follow newcomer Torey to Jekyll Island where she falls in love and tries to go undercover to investigate her best friend’s suspicious death who was investigating someone else’s suspicious death, all the while our FMC and MMC’s plans are being thwarted by a mysterious actor. It was a romance, it was a mystery, it had adorable animals, it was a a thriller, a military thriller even – it was utterly inoffensive (except on the off chance you work for the Fed).

Overall thoughts: Jack of all trades, master of none…It was enjoyable, BUT, it felt like the book tried to attempt too many elements and none of them were done exceptionally well. They were fine altogether, but not exceptional to me.

There were a number of issues that stood out. It is not very believable that Torie could be so well known to the world to be treated differently by others by her name yet still be able to go undercover without any disguise. Then, the FMC and MMC fall in love very quickly despite both having reservations and tragic backstories. I imagine the romance had to be quickly established, however, to make room for all the other plot points, which were too many in my opinion, see above. The declarations of feelings also came at a very weird time: right after Torey thought Joe (our MMC) was going to die but while there was still a nefarious actor on the loose. I’m pretty sure there were more pressing issues to address at that exact moment!

What the book does well: you could tell the author tied in plenty of elements of the real Jekyll Island and peppered references throughout. Then, this book tackled themes fairly well. Colleen Coble writes from a Christian perspective. I enjoy the hopefulness of reading about characters who have real struggles but choose to lean on God despite their lack of understanding. It is wonderful to read about others viewing the character of God and applying that to their circumstances rather than viewing their circumstances and trying to extrapolate the character of God from that. The book also touched on loyalty, forgiveness, and learning to trust again. I will say, though the themes were good, they were quite overt – more telling than showing. I think they could have been a bit subtler to have an impact on a wider audience, but perhaps the author purposefully identified a lane and decided to stick to it.

I did a partial immersion read for this book. I had both the kindle version and the audio book . I enjoyed the narrator, especially for female voices. She was spot on with the kid voice! Sadly, the male impressions left some to be desired.

Thank you to the author, publisher, and netgalley for a copy of the book to read and audio to review. All opinions are my own.

This book was so good, I couldn't put it down! Tori and Joe had a connection from the get go and the mystery that Colleen Coble wove was riveting. Her novels are always timely and fascinating, The narrators were great and pulled me right into the action! A not to be missed page turner!