The last place Bailey Craig wants to be is back in Yancey,
Alaska. But that is where she finds herself after the death of her beloved aunt
Agnes. When it is discovered that there may have been more to the plane crash
that killed her aunt than just an accident, Bailey must remain in her hometown
for longer than is easily endured. Small towns don’t forget, and Bailey has a
less-than-desirable reputation.
Cole McKenna is both excited and nervous to hear that Bailey
Craig is back in town. As one of the rescue divers called to investigate the
plane wreckage, Cole will be working closely with Bailey to discover what
really happened to her aunt. But Bailey broke his heart years ago, and he
wonders what it will take to put it back together.
The quiet town of Yancey, Alaska, harbors a deep secret. As
more and more evidence is unearthed, the truth of the past will come to light,
not only for the town, but for Bailey and Cole as well.
For a debut author, I thought the writing in this novel was
good. The story was easy to read, the suspense was excellent, and the plot was
intricate. At one point close to the end, I had to put the book down to go cook
dinner (or do some other mundane thing), and I told my husband, “I can’t
believe what a predicament I just left those poor people in!” When I feel bad
leaving the characters in a jam, then I know that I am really involved in the
suspense part of the story.
Overall, the romance was done well, too. There were only a few
times when I was tempted to roll my eyes at something that was too syrupy-sweet
romantic. The good thing was that the romance didn’t overshadow the suspense.
At the same time, the suspense wasn’t so much that it squeezed the romance out
of the way, either. It was very nicely balanced. I did notice, however, that Cole didn’t always
seem to think like a guy. At one point he thinks to himself that Bailey smelled
“like a meadow after a spring rain.” Now, maybe my husband just isn’t the
poetic type (which is certainly OK with me), but I think he would describe it
more as “you smell good,” or “you smell like fruit” instead of with such a
flowery description!
Since my favorite genre is historical fiction, it was nice
to see a little bit of that come into play in this book. And yet I couldn’t
help but get bogged down in the historical aspects of the story. Russian
history is complex and hard to describe as it is, so putting most of it at the
end of the novel in a huge chunk made it even harder to follow. It might have
worked better if the historical aspects had been revealed throughout the book
instead. Since the reader didn’t have those facts until the end, it made it
much harder (in fact, almost impossible) to figure out the bad guy’s motive for
causing all of this in the first place.
As for the characters, there were a lot of them. I only
label Bailey and Cole as the main characters because they are listed in the
back-of-the-book description. The other characters are interesting, and I
realize that they will have their own stories in the next books in the series,
but I thought a little too much time was spent building up the minor
characters.
As for Bailey and Cole, they were not necessarily relatable
to me on a personal level because I have not been through their experiences. I
understand that it would be hard for Bailey to move on from the things she had
done, especially going back to the town where all of that took place. But I did
sometimes find myself thinking that she was being very self-involved. She
seemed to always be dwelling on the fact that the people around her were
thinking the worst about her. I just couldn’t help thinking that she needed to
get over herself. The other characters in the book had more on their minds than
just Bailey Craig.
However, spiritually, the characters were easy to relate to.
The message of grace and forgiveness comes through clearly in this novel. No
matter what we have done in the past, we must accept that Christ died for those
sins and move on in the knowledge of His grace and mercy. It does us no good
for our past sins to hold us back from living the life that Christ wants us to
live right now.
I was really excited to read a book set in Alaska, somewhere
I really want to visit one day. But, throughout this story, I kept getting
tripped up in the descriptions of people and places that were supposedly in
Alaska. Even if it might sometimes hit 80 degrees in August in Alaska, that
doesn’t mean that everyone there runs around in sundresses and flip-flops and
goes surfing. I’m sure there are some sandy beaches somewhere in Alaska, but,
in my mind, most of the coastline is rocky. It just felt incongruous. The whole
time I was reading, I felt as if you could have lifted the story right out of
Alaska, put it in Hawaii or the Caribbean, and (except for the Russian history)
you would have had the same story. This is just my personal preference, but if
you are going to set your story in Alaska, I would enjoy it much better if it
actually feels as if it is taking place in Alaska.
The suspense part of this novel was good, as was the overall
message of grace and forgiveness. I wouldn’t mind reading the next books in
this series…as long as they take place in winter in Alaska!
I will give Submerged
… 3 BookWorms.
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