Two Reasons to Run
by Colleen Coble
on Tour September 21 – October 25, 2020
Synopsis:
Gripping romantic suspense from USA TODAY bestselling author Colleen Coble.
A lie changed her world.
Police Chief Jane Hardy is still reeling from the scandal that rocked her small-town department just as she took over for her retired father—the man who wrecked her life with one little lie. Now she’s finally been reunited with her presumed-dead fifteen-year-old son, Will, and his father, documentarian Reid Bechtol.
A crisis looms.
When a murder aboard the oil platform Zeus exposes an environmental terrorist’s plot to flood Mobile Bay with crude oil, Jane and Reid must put their feelings for each other behind them and work together to prevent the rig from being sabotaged.
A killer targets her son.
Then the terrorist puts her son Will’s life on the line. Protecting him could be the common ground they need . . . but then ghosts from the past threaten to ruin Jane and Reid for good. She’s got plenty of reasons to run. But what if she stays?
Book Details:
Genre: Romantic Suspense
Published by: Thomas Nelson
Publication Date: September 8, 2020
Number of Pages: 352
ISBN: 0785228489 (ISBN13: 9780785228486)
Series: Pelican Harbor #2
Purchase Links: Amazon | | |
Review by Allison
🔪🔪🔪🔪
Two Reasons to Run is the second in the Pelican Harbor series by Colleen Coble. When we meet up again with Reid Dixon and Police Chief Jane Hardy, there is tension.
A LOT of tension.
No spoilers here, but let’s just say Jane’s been lied to. And this lie? It’s a big one. So when there is a murder at a local oil platform, she wants nothing more than to solve this crime without Reid by her side. Problem is, her son’s life is now in danger. And for Jane, just getting to know her son, she will stop at nothing to make sure he is safe.
The story line is fast-paced and exciting, and I appreciate the way the author is able to tell a suspenseful story without any unnecessary gore or violence. The twists were minor but effective and I was pleasantly surprised at the ending.
And while the main story is the murder on the oil platform, the secondary story takes us to the edge of the cult, which helps to explain why there is so much tension between Reid and Jane, as well as Jane and her father. The author leaves a few ends untied, which makes me hopeful we will be introduced to additional characters in the upcoming conclusion of this series.
In addition to the story, there were so many messages and lessons hidden within these pages. Betrayal, forgiveness, trust and love. How even though people can disappoint us, we are human and fail short of perfection. How forgiving someone isn’t forgetting the what happened, but allowing ourselves to heal and fully live.
While Coble does a really good job of explaining the details surrounding Reid, Jane and Will in this current story, readers will probably want to check out the first of the series, One Little Lie, before they take this one on.
I’m very excited to read the third and final book in this series, Three Missing Days, to be released in April, 2021. Getting to know the characters and then meeting them again in subsequent stories is definitely a way to get me to read your books!
Overall, a really good read.
-Allison
Read an excerpt:
Was anyone watching?
Keith McDonald sat at the computer and glanced around the oil platform’s rec room, but the dozen or so workers were engrossed in watching the final game of a Ping-Pong match. He hesitated,
then hovered his cursor over the Send button. Clenching his teeth, he sent the emails. Maybe it was nothing, but if anyone could decipher the recording, it was Reid Dixon.
The back of his neck prickled, and Keith looked around again. The room felt stifling even with the AC cooling it from the May heat. He jumped up and headed for the door. He exited and darted into the shadows as two men strolled past. One was his suspect.
Keith stood on a grating suspended three thousand feet over the water and strained to hear past the noise of machinery. The scent of the sea enveloped him, and the stars glimmered on the water surrounding the oil platform that had been his home for two years now.
“Scheduled for late May—”
A clanging bell drowned out the rest of the man’s words.
“Devastation—”
The other fragment of conversation pumped up Keith’s heart rate. Were they talking about the sabotage he feared, or was he reading more into the words than were there? He couldn’t believe someone could be callous enough to sabotage the oil platform and destroy the coast on purpose. He’d seen firsthand the devastating effects from the Deepwater Horizon catastrophe. And what about the people living on the platform? Deepwater Horizon had killed eleven people and injured another seventeen.
He had to sound a warning and stop this, but he had no real evidence. If Reid Dixon blew him off, who would even listen? Maybe Homeland Security would pay attention, but who did he even call there? He could tell them about the pictures threatening Bonnie, but what did that prove? They might just say she had a stalker and he was chasing shadows.
He couldn’t say they were wrong.
He sidled along the railing, and the breeze lifted his hair. A boat bobbed in the waves far below, and in the moonlight, he spotted a diver aboard. Must be night diving the artificial reef created by the concrete supports below the platform. He’d done a bit of it himself over the years.
For an instant he wished he were gliding carefree through the waves without this crushing weight of conscience on his shoulders. When he was sixteen, life was so simple. School, girls, football, and good times. He’d gone to work at the platform when he was nineteen, after he’d decided college wasn’t for him.
It had been a safe place, a good place to work with fun companions and interesting work.
Until a few weeks ago when everything turned sinister and strange. He’d wanted to uncover more before he reported it, but every second he delayed could mean a stronger chance of an attack.
If an attack was coming. He still wasn’t sure, and he wanted a name or to identify the organization behind the threat. If there was a threat. Waffling back and forth had held him in place. Was this real, or was he reading something dangerous into something innocent?
Though he didn’t think he was overreacting.
He turned to head to his quarters. A bulky figure rushed him from the shadows and plowed into his chest, driving him back against the railing. The man grabbed Keith’s legs and tried to tip him over the edge.
***
Excerpt from Two Reasons to Run by Colleen Coble. Copyright 2020 by Colleen Coble. Reproduced with permission from Thomas Nelson. All rights reserved.
Author Bio:
Colleen Coble is a USA TODAY bestselling author and RITA finalist best known for her coastal romantic suspense novels, including The Inn at Ocean’s Edge, Twilight at Blueberry Barrens, and the Lavender Tides, Sunset Cove, Hope Beach, and Rock Harbor series.
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CMash
Excellent review! I better get the first 2 books read before April!!!