Review of “Rock Harbor Search & Rescue” by Colleen Coble

Today I’m happy to share with you a review of Rock Harbor Search & Rescue by Collen Coble.  It is a 224-page juvenile fiction book categorized in mysteries and detective stories and published by Thomas Nelson.

The story is about an 8th-grade student named Emily who is falsely accused of theft.  The book follows through her attempt to discover the real thief.  The setting is on the banks of Lake Superior.  Two events occur often throughout the book which I enjoyed learning about:  search-and-rescue of people who got lost using search dogs and surfing on the lake.  I thought you could only surf on the ocean!

I feel like the story will appeal to junior-high aged kids, especially girls and those who love dogs.  However, one of the storylines is that Emily’s mom has been jailed for attempting to hurt her son, Emily’s brother.  Because of this heavy subject matter (a mother as an evil person), I didn’t want my 9-year-old daughter to read it.  Also, there is a lot of mention of a mythical creature, kind of like “Big Foot” that prowls around in the woods.  I knew that would be too scary for my daughter.

The Christian influence was minimal in the book.  I feel like there could have been so much more since the story lent itself in so many ways to needing to point to the Lord as our helper and sustainer.  I also didn’t like the fact that Emily hid things from her parents (dad and step-mom) about who she was talking to and what she was doing.

Overall, I would say it’s an OK book.  The story was interesting, but I wouldn’t say it was the most uplifting.

Read the first chapter here and see a book trailer video here.

(Disclosure:  I received a complimentary copy of the above book in order to write this honest review.  Post also contains affiliate links.)