Fragile Designs

sigh. Listen, I LOVE crazy thrillers with unbelievable plots and premises, but this book was...I'll say it. It was just dumb. The writing was very poor, the characters were grinding, the romance was dull, the thriller aspect was boring as hell. I wish I could give a better review since I got this book for free as an ARC, but frankly, I want compensation for the time I wasted.
This was also not marketed as Christian Fiction on NetGalley and I didn't see that until looking on Goodreads after reading, but I feel like that might explain a lot of why I hated it so much. I grew up religious, I've read a lot of Christian Fiction, NONE of it is any good.
Anyway, sorry guys. I cannot in good faith recommend this to anybody.

Really intense mystery-thriller from Colleen Coble! This is one of my favorites of hers so far, with interesting characters and a family arc for the MC which is worthy of a good contemporary women's fiction as well. I loved the woman-and-her-grandmother relationship in this one and couldn't get enough of it. I also loved how central her baby Noah is to the plot and how he's clearly her number-one priority and comfort.

The romance is step by step and I loved that the guy went to his older married partner for advice on relationship and marriage questions instead of just trying to judge based on his own emotions.

Carly's relationship with her sisters is incredibly complex. They seem to want to be together but they're demanding and self-centered; yet there's clearly a strength below the surface they haven't tapped into. I loved the unpredictability of these relationships and I was glad I didn't predict the outcome correctly.

Overall, a nicely layered story that I couldn't put down and will definitely be rereading.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for a free reading copy. A favorable review was not required.