Silent Night

Rock Harbor #5.5

by Colleen Coble

As Christmas day nears, Bree and her faithful search-and-rescue dog Samson follow the trail of a troubling mystery into the snowy forests of Rock Harbor.

Bree Matthews is preparing for Christmas guests, but her heart is reeling from the recent and tender loss of her unborn child. Her sister-in-law, Lauri, suddenly turns up on the doorstep of the lighthouse home Bree shares with her husband, Kade, in Rock Harbor. Secretive and withdrawn, Lauri seems curiously intent on discovering what happened to a parachuter who disappeared in the North Woods along Lake Superior's icy shore.

As Bree and Samson, her search-and-rescue dog, plunge into the search, Bree wonders if Lauri may know more than she’s admitted about the parachuter. And then the clues lead them to the trail of a young woman whose family fears the worst about her disappearance.

Will the search on this snowy, silent night lead Bree and Samson to more than clues about the missing girl? And will Bree’s prayer for a baby ever be answered?

Genres: Christmas, Christian Fiction, Mystery, Fiction, Suspense, Christian, Romance

Audiobook

First published January 1, 2012

About the author

USAToday bestselling author Colleen Coble lives with her husband, Dave, in Arizona. She is the author of dozens of novels including the Rock Harbor Series, the Aloha Reef Series, the Mercy Falls Series, the Hope Beach Series, the Lonestar Series and two Women of Faith fiction selections, Alaska Twilight and Midnight Sea. She has more than 6 million books in print.

Reviews

[Staci · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good Christmas novella with the cast of characters from Rock Harbor.

[Hannah · Rating 4 out of 5]

A very good short Christmas season mystery. I enjoyed the family bit of the story best and loved the meaningful ending. Even people who don't like mystery would enjoy this one. There is nothing yucky or gory, except for a brief mention of an injured dog getting treated. (Injured by trying to save someone, not by abuse.)

[Melanie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Third time reading this novella and it was still so fun! I didn't have any plans on reading this again, until I needed it for a challenge, but it was actually perfect timing as I now am ready to read the newest Rock Harbor, , book since I'm all familiar again with the characters! Cannot wait!

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Reread this novella for a challenge and I really enjoyed it again. I loved the characters and the ending was just too cute! :) Not suspenseful, but still good.

[Melanie (TBR and Beyond) · Rating 1 out of 5]

I bought this at the bookstore blindly. They had a shelf of Christmas themed books and I just grabbed a couple of them. I didn't look close at all or I would've noticed it was a novella from a popular book series. It was easy enough to follow along, really didn't need to know the backstory for this one. They caught you up on anything that you might need to know and it was just a simple little mystery. I also missed when I grabbed this one that it was Christian fiction. I didn't find it overly preachy but I did find it overly cheesy. I read it because it was short, but I'd never get through a full book with these characters. It was just all a little too convenient and sweet for me.

Lesson from reading this book? READ THE SUMMARY ON THE BACK BEFORE YOU PURCHASE haha

[Christine Indorf · Rating 4 out of 5]

A fun novella of the Rock Harbor Mysteries. All your final questions will be answered and the book wraps up nicely. Of course it takes place at Christmas when all your prayers can come true. So is with Bree and her family. I hope you give this series a chance and if you do I hope you enjoy it as much as I have!!

[Elizabeth · Rating 3 out of 5]

Closer to 2.5. Hard to keep track of the too many characters in the short story. But i think a lot had to do with it coming after 5 previous books in the series which I had not read. I just was reading it as a Christmas book but that was barely referenced.

[Karen · Rating 1 out of 5]

I love Colleen Coble’s books. I especially love the Rock Harbor characters she has created. So that being said, I was disappointed in this novella which shed a different light on the character of Bree. I preferred Bree to be an unselfish, loving, strong woman. This novella portrayed her as a person unable to love a child which was not her and Kade’s “own child” (aka adopted child). I guess her son to a previous marriage was also not their own. This is definitely not the selfless loving character of Bree from previous books.
Aside from the baby issue (which is not the basis of the story) this story was mediocre and lacked an interesting plot. It was extremely predictable and somewhat boring.
However, despite my disappointment in this book, I will continue to read Colleen Coble books.
I hope the next novella “Holy Night” is better!

[Mark · Rating 5 out of 5]

Awesome read. I loved this series, and it was cool to visit it and the people there again

[Deb · Rating 3 out of 5]

Giving this a generous 3 stars. I didn't check this when I started it, but it is a part of a series that I hadn't read. It was easy enough to follow along, but I usually like to read a series in order. I also read the next book, but not sure if I will continue. A very simple, cheesy Christmas mystery.

[Shannah Mauney · Rating 5 out of 5]

As you all know, Colleen Coble is one of my all time favorite authors. Her books continue to captivate me and pull me in. The Rock Harbor series is one of my favorites, so imagine my surprise and delight when I discovered this gem of a novella! I thoroughly enjoyed revisiting my friends Kade and Bree from Rock Harbor. As always, the suspense and mystery were very well written and kept me turning the pages and wanting more. If you're looking for a short mystery/suspense with a happy ending, this is your book!

http://faithlovebooks.blogspot.com/20...

[Andrea · Rating 4 out of 5]

Read this in 25 minutes while on the treadmill! Made my time go fast! Was so disappointed to see it end. A visit to Rock Harbor is always good. Caught my attention right away and kept,it til the quick end.

[Ava Grace · Rating 2 out of 5]

Reading this was like being on a roller coaster that goes in a straight horizontal line until the very last second when there is a small, underwhelming loop.
I had absolutely no idea this was a "Christian" book until I read the Group Reading Guide questions. This newfound knowledge did explain the odd mentions of race in regards to adoption preference, random diss at "illegal aliens," and virtually flawless main characters who believe they are morally better than every side character they pass judgement upon with each interaction.
I was expecting and hoping for a short & corny Christmas horror story. This was in fact a short & corny Christmas book but it was most definitely not frightening in anyway beyond the horrific writing.
You can quite literally guess the exact wording of the plot twists as they come. If you ever wanted to read a book where every paragraph is blatant foreshadowing, this is for you.
Entertainingly bad & insanely predictable!
It's like a Lifetime movie had a baby with the Hallmark Channel & dropped it off outside a non-catholic church.
Who the hell burns pumpkin spice candles while smelling a christmas tree?! Who names their child in honor of their dog?!
So bad it's funny.

[Danielle Turko · Rating 4 out of 5]

Bree wants nothing more than to give her husband a child of his own. He says that he's fine with Davy, her son from her first marriage, but she aches for another. After her miscarriage, she thinks her chances of getting pregnant are over so she throws herself into search and rescue. When her latest ends up failed, she also discovers her sister in law near the scene. After some digging, she discovers this rescue is related to a previous rescue, and hopes she may have a chance to right her past failures.
I haven't read the previous Rock Harbor books, so nothing to connect to on these books but I am curious to find out their past story so I will go back and read the series in the future

[Dale Safford · Rating 4 out of 5]

I was reading the Rock Harbor series. This book was unavailable at the Library, so I ordered it online. It was a decent little novella.

A parachuter goes missing in the Upper Peninsula, and Bree and her new husband Kade are called upon to search for him. The search results give hints to a girl who came up missing several days before the parachuter's mishap, and Kade's sister Lauri knew both of them from college. Lauri becomes passionate about finding out what happened to Frannie Hastings after it was assumed she had fallen through ice and drowned. Can she find the answer?

[Chanover55 · Rating 4 out of 5]

Have been a Colleen Coble fan for a while and this didn't disappoint. Bree and her husband Kade reside in the UP of Michigan and enjoy the outdoors. Bree and herdog, Sampson, work search and rescue. Called in to search for a missing parachuting, they search for hours only to be informed he was killed in the jump. Then Kade's sister, Lauri, show up with a flimsy story about why she is home from college 2 weeks early. What is going on & why is she lying ? A good read! Starting the next story in the series this afternoon...

[Joyce · Rating 3 out of 5]

My sisters and I read this book aloud on a recent cabin vacation in the mountains. We thought it would be a good way to get in the holiday spirit. I have read one or two books in this series so I knew the backstory to some of the many characters in this book. My sisters had not and were a bit confused at times as to the significance of some of the scenes. Other than this story taking place just before Christmas, we didn't see how it was a "Christmas" story. If there was a Christian message to this book, it was so subtle we missed it.

[Kayla Roberts · Rating 3 out of 5]

A couple of things that knocked down my star rating:
1) Lauri’s “change of heart” is entirely unbelievable, especially because none of the sections were from her POV.
2) Bree and Kade having twins but “not knowing from the ultrasound” because one was hiding behind the others was also very unbelievable. It was too sugary-sweet of a resolution for all of the fertility challenges they had in previous books.

Overall, I felt like this book lacked substance and was cheesy- definitely not Coble’s usual performance.

[Serena · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really enjoyed this Rock Harbor Christmas novella. The suspense part kept me interested and of course I always enjoy a good "search and rescue" story with a good ending. I especailly enjoyed reading the wintry descriptions of the Lake Superior area as I live in the South and we never get snow. I loved the main characters Bree and Kade and enjoyed the minor characters as well. I have not read the other books in the Rock Harbor series yet and the novella still worked well as a stand alone.

[Karen · Rating 5 out of 5]

Silent Night

I enjoyed this story of Bree Matthews and her search and rescue dog, Samson. They go on s search for a missing college student who parachuted from a plane in a heavily wooded area. Later, they search for another missing college student near the same area. The characters are likeable and the searches are interesting. You will have to read the book to find out how the searches ended. I highly recommend this book. The ending was a surprise involving Bree and her family which made it great reading. This is my voluntary and honest review.

[Melanie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Lauri returns to Rock Harbor but doesn't tell her brother Cad the truth about why she left school and came home for a visit. Another student is found dead from a parachuting accident and to find out Lauri knows the guy. Also, another young girl is missing but assumed to be dead after finding evidence that someone fell through the lake. Is there a link between all of these coincidences? This was an enjoyable but short read for me.

[Hope Elias · Rating 3 out of 5]

As a part of the 50 books in 50 states challenge I picked this book from the library as my Michigan book!
This is my first Colleen Coble book so I haven't read anything from the Rock Harbor series. I was able to follow along with everything okay but i have a feeling the book would be more enjoyable with more knowledge of the series 😆 i do want to check out the first book so i might reread this one eventually. but i just wasn't too wild about it 😆

[Sarah Hansel · Rating 4 out of 5]

I was sad after reading the whole Rick Harbor series this was the end for Bree and Sampson.
Great series!
There were two books in one and I wasn't expecting a complete new line of up characters. That was a little jump for me. Holy Night was a short story with mystery, but I would have liked more of the Matthews!

[(Katie) Paperbacks · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a really cute novella that continues the story of Bree and Kade, and of course the ever lovable dog Samson. I'm glad I read this before the last installment of the Rock Harbor series, in case some of the story line carried over. I can't wait to read more from Colleen Coble, she's turning out to be one of my favorite authors.

[H]

Since I haven’t read any of the other stories in this series (I didn’t realize it was a series novella when I picked it up), I definitely wasn’t the right audience for this. It was definitely fan service rather than plot focused, which is fine, but obviously it fell a bit flat for me since I didn’t have any kind of feelings toward the characters beforehand.

[Moira · Rating 5 out of 5]

The best by far in the series for me. This one in particular, stressed the importance of family and keeping the lines of communication open. Lauri, Kade's sister is finally maturing and making responsible decisions. Bree and Kade finally get their wish for a larger family. The mystery and suspense works in this story. Enjoy it; I did!

[Sandra · Rating 5 out of 5]

Rock Harbor Novella

Bree and Kade grow even closer in this novella. Their families come together at Christmas time. This short Rock Harbor Series book has a lot of love between its pages.

[Angela Coffey · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book was short one, man was it a page turner. Sure showed God's faithfulness and that he will give us the desires of our heart. Sometimes we have to wait, and they will come when are not expecting them to.

[Debbie · Rating 4 out of 5]

It’s been ages since I’ve read this novella, along with the rest of the Rock Harbor series. It was so good to be reconnected with Bree, Samson and the rest of the gang. I’m thinking it’s time to revisit Rock Harbor and get reacquainted with my old friends 😉

[Ellen Everson · Rating 4 out of 5]

Simple sweet storyline with a dash of suspense. Love the redemption and ending! I didn’t realize this was part of a series and so the character development wasn’t deep to me but I think that’s because I missed and haven’t read the first 5 books in the series yet. Whoops!

[Dawn · Rating 5 out of 5]

A great quick read bringing us back to Rock Harbor for Christmas. Love this series and looking forward to the next book.