Return to two of Colleen Coble’s most beloved settings—Bluebird Ranch and Hope Beach—for holiday romance and mystery!
All Is Calm:
It’s going to be an unexpectedly romantic Christmas at Bluebird Ranch.Brendan Waddell has always considered Bluebird Ranch a little piece of heaven: an idyllic ranch that pairs abused children with abused horses, run by one of his Marine buddies. Now, it seems just the place to spend Christmas recovering from an on-the-job injury.
Lauren Everman first came to the ranch as a foster kid, but now knows it’s the perfect hideout. As the witness to a murder, Lauren needs somewhere to lie low. Her beauty immediately catches Brendan’s attention—but so does her secretive behavior. This Special Ops Intel man knows a woman on the run when he sees one. Can he trust her, or is she putting the ranch at risk? One thing is certain: he’s going to do everything he can to keep her safe so he can see what magic Christmas brings.
All Is Bright:
A romantic Christmas wedding at Tidewater Inn gives Delilah’s unique gifts a chance to shine. But will her light be snuffed out before the bride and groom say “I do”? As manager of the Tidewater Inn, Delilah Carter has been planning a spectacular Christmas wedding for her friend, Elin Summerall. But when Delilah’s car is forced off the road and into the ocean, she finally has to admit that the strange phone calls she’s been receiving lately may be more than just pranks.
Sheriff Tom Bourne has always had a soft spot for Delilah, and he’s determined to protect her. He hopes to win her heart by giving her the surprise gift of a lifetime . . . but first he has to make sure nothing happens to her before Christmas Day.
It’s the season of miracles. But will both Elin and Delilah get the ones they need this holiday season?
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I haven't read either of the series these two novellas stem from -- Coble's Bluebird Ranch / Hope Beach settings -- so I'm going solely on how these stood up as stand-alone stories.
In All Is Calm, horse trainer Lauren Everman unexpectedly finds herself being considered as a murder suspect. In a panic, she skips town and retreats to Bluebird Ranch, a horse ranch / rehab camp for troubled or abandoned teens in Texas, a place where she spent a good deal of time during her own childhood. There she meets Brendan Waddell, who quickly finds out why she's in town. Lauren swears up and down that she's innocent. Brendan wants to believe her, but only having just met her he can't be sure that he can entirely trust her. So he uses his Special Ops background to get to the bottom of the story... because that's how these romances tend to run.
That's right, readers, the key word here is novellas, so prepare yourself for warp speed insta-love! We have all your classic "never known anyone like you" kind of tropes in droves here, they just show up about 50 pages quicker. Even for a novella, everything felt incredibly rushed in this one. There IS a cute story here, but the drama wasn't all that dramatic -- mostly just some phone calls in raised voices and quick hang ups -- and the way the plot unfolded was a little too clean and perfect for my personal taste. Also with the relationship between Brendan & Lauren, it was sweet at times but in other moments it induced a little bit of a gag reflex in me. Not only was the humble brag strong between these two, but even after only knowing each other a mere few days, they already had each other on these mighty high pedestals. I also cringed at how Brendan seemed to want to bring up "I'm Special Ops" in nearly every conversation.
All Is Bright I liked a little better. Perhaps because it involves an innkeeper, a former job of mine, so I'm always immediately intrigued by stories that take place in that industry. Delilah Carter, innkeeper of Tidewater Inn in the Outer Banks area of NC, is on her way back to the inn after running errands when she is suddenly run off the road by a stranger. Her car goes over the cliff, into the ocean. She survives, thanks to a surfer who spotted her trying to surface. When she gets her bearings back, Delilah thinks back on the events and can't help but think this was a deliberate attack on her, but can't think who would be out to harm her. Later on, she also considers how the accident might be connected with a series of prank calls she'd been receiving over the previous weeks. Sheriff Tom Bourne, who carries a bit of a torch for Delilah -- well, the torch carrying is mutual but neither have found the courage to do anything about it -- wastes no time starting an investigation over who might be targeting his lady friend.
After reading this second story, I did see some commonalities between the two. Both feature characters with the Special Ops background and both feature women who don't have children but still have a tendency to "mother" everyone around them -- a trait that the men who come into their lives seem to find strongly appealing. I found myself cracking up that the male love interests in both stories felt the need to proclaim "I will court you." Just made me want to respond, "Will ya, now?! Is that so?!" LOL. I just find proclamations like that humorously odd.
Another cute story here, but pretty mild in general. There was a bit more tension plot wise to All Is Bright, I thought, but if you like serious edge / grit to your stories, you may be a bit bored with these. My problem was more with the way the men were written. They just sounded a little too over the top Silver Screen movie idol-like to me. I would have liked them to feel more real and flawed, rather than every line being big screen perfect. I was also hoping for a bit more Christmas feel in each of these stories. Other than brief mention of Christmas shopping and opening presents on Christmas morning, I didn't feel much of the holiday here.
FTC Disclaimer: TNZ Fiction Guild kindly provided me with a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. The opinions above are entirely my own.
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