Happy Friday! Today I’m joining Hoarding Books‘ First Line Friday linkup and featuring Colleen Coble’s upcoming release, One Little Lie.

“Button eyed the compound’s exit and forced herself to trudge behind her parents as the pain intensified in her belly. She stifled a groan and filed into the Mount Sinai meeting hall.”

One Little Lie by Colleen Coble

The Basics

Title: One Little Lie by Colleen Coble

Series: The Pelican Harbor Series (Book 1 of 2)

Publication Date: March 3, 2020

Genre: Christian Romantic Suspense

My Rating: 4.5/5 Stars

From the Back Cover: Jane Hardy is appointed interim sheriff in Pelican Harbor, Alabama, after her father retires, but there’s no time for an adjustment period. When her father is arrested for theft and then implicated in a recent murder, Jane quickly realizes she’s facing someone out to destroy the only family she has.

After escaping with her father from a cult fifteen years ago, Jane has searched relentlessly for her mother—who refused to leave—ever since. Could someone from that horrible past have found them?

Reid Bechtol is well-known for his documentaries, and his latest project involves covering Jane’s career. Jane has little interest in the attention, but the committee who appointed her loves the idea of the publicity.

Jane finds herself depending on Reid’s calm manner as he follows her around filming, and they begin working together to clear her father. But Reid has his own secrets from the past, and the gulf between them may be impossible to cross—especially once her father’s lie catches up with him.

My Thoughts

This book is one of Colleen Coble’s best yet! It grabbed my attention from the first page and I couldn’t put it down; I finished it in one day! The characters were so multi-layered and intriguing. More secrets about Jane and Reid’s pasts were revealed with each chapter, as the cases they were investigating became more troubling and multi-faceted. Their background stories of coming out of a cult were fascinating, and I can’t wait to see more of how that plays out in the next book.

This book has all the elements of a great story – a southern small town, a strong female lead trying to overcome her broken past, and plenty of action and suspense with secrets and twists you never see coming. It’s definitely heavier on the suspense than the romance, which feels authentic considering the characters and their stories – and leaves plenty of room to explore their relationship in future books. I predict this series will be one for the keeper shelf!

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I received a complimentary copy of this book from the publisher via NetGalley. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own.