Welcome to my website! I'm so glad you wandered in for a visit. I love hearing from readers so email me anytime. I try to personally answer every message. Exciting things are happening so take some time and look around the site. If you love books of romance and mystery, you've come to the right place. 

 

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LEVY/MEIJER BOOK TOUR! I've been picked for the big Meijer READ THIS author tour in Michigan September 18-21! We'll be touring 9 stores in 5 cities. Check out my appearances page for more details. I'm VERY excited!



GRAMMY COLLEEN!:
I'm going to be a grandma! On Valentine's Day, my darling son and daughter-in-law told me that Donna is expecting our first granchild on Sept 30. I can't wait! I've been anticipating this event for YEARS! And after a recent ultrasound, we know we're having a GIRL!!!




» NEXT BOOK OUT
My next book is in your store now. It's called Anathema, and it was conceived after the Amish school shooting. You have GOT to see the very cool video my publisher did for it! Click here.

People are always interested in how I come up with ideas. I was talking with my agent and we were discussing what might happen if an Amish woman was unable to forgive. It's a story that examines how important forgiveness really is to us. I have some Amish friends I love and being in their home is being surrounded by peace. They have such an enviable way of accepting what comes from God's hand. I wanted to explore that a bit. Isn't the cover gorgeous?

Here are what people are saying:

"The model for the cover could have been you about thirty years ago. Are you ever going to grow your hair long like that again?" Colleen's husband David

"An Amish mystery? I thought you were going to do something more Calvin and Hobbs like." Colleen's son Dave

"Great story, Mom, but in the next one could you have some vampires?" Colleen's daughter Kara

"I loved it. But it would have been better with more kissing scenes." Colleen's daughter-in-law Donna

"Why don't you ever have a senior citizen heroine? We're not dead yet." Colleen's parents George and Peggy

Anathema was a Romantic Times Magazine Top Pick. And here's a review from FaithfulReader.com:

ANATHEMA
Colleen Coble
Thomas Nelson
Romantic Suspense
ISBN: 9781595542472

A damp, chilly wind blows through Park County, Indiana, the night Hannah Schwartz sneaks away to meet Reece by the covered bridge. She knows her love for this Englisch police detective is taboo in her Amish world, but she can’t resist just a few clandestine moments with the man who makes her feel safe while sending her heart racing. Their encounter is brief and painful as Hannah is once again torn between her family, her Amish fiancé and the love she harbors for her secret Englisch suitor. She flees his arms for the safe harbor of her home, only to encounter a gruesome scene.

Both parents have been poisoned, their stiff, constricted bodies covered by one of her mother’s handmade quilts. When their lives are taken away, so too are thousands of dollars worth of Mamms’ quilts. Two strange blood red symbols mar the wall of the living room. Reece knows that one is the symbol of peace, but does it have another meaning as well? Something far more sinister? Nearby, a neighbor’s poisoned body is discovered half submerged in a pond.

Shattered beyond consolation, Hannah wonders if the deaths are her punishment for partaking in a forbidden love. Her heart heavy, laden with pain and guilt, she decides that she has been rejected by God and will leave her Amish community to marry Reece. She is now Anathema, an outcast to God and her people. It isn’t long before Reece’s true colors show through and the bullying begins. As she endures years of abuse at Reece’s hands, Hannah desperately searches for the exquisite stolen quilts, a tangible link to her murdered parents. She knows exactly how to spot her mother’s work, so bold and beautiful that the hummingbird designs nearly fly off the expertly sewn patchwork.

During a heated argument with Reece, Hannah suffers a tragic fall and awakens in the hospital, where Reece tells her that their unborn baby girl did not survive. Hannah is convinced the fall was no accident and leaves Reece to reinvent herself in the Englisch world, where her knowledge of quilts and Amish life leads her to success as an author. On the surface, all is well, but Hannah misses the love of her family and friends, and aches even more for the faith she left behind.

Although the book moves at a quick pace from the start, the real page-turning action begins when Hannah receives a letter from Reece containing a photo of a little girl. The child’s almond eyes and unruly auburn hair, so like her own, leads Hannah to wonder if Reece’s claim is true --- that the child is their daughter. She heads back to her homeland on a journey wrought with heartache, mystery, deceit and love in a plot that continues to twist and turn until the very end. A decade after she fled Park County, Hannah realizes she was never Anathema to the God who loves her unconditionally. I highly recommend a box of tissues for the last couple of chapters.

Colleen Coble’s extensive research and Amish friendships come shining through the characters and imagery of this action-filled story. The devotion to God, peaceful lifestyle and tranquil farms beckon readers to indulge in the experience of visiting an Amish community. Descriptions of warm, damp greenhouses, simple furnishings and the sweet, creamy taste of coffee soup are woven through the pages of this novel like the patterns of a quilt. In addition to a spellbinding story, readers will come away from this book with interesting facts about Amish quilts and what their patterns mean to those who create them.
   --- Reviewed by Susan Miura

Abomination is now out in trade paper any day! It's a thriller about Eve and her fight to escape a serial killer who leaves his victim at a geocaching site. I believe it's the first ever geocaching novel. It was so fun to visit with Bree, Kade and Samson!

» Lonestar Secrets A Crossings Exclusive!
II'm thrilled to announce that Lonestar Secrets will be available exclusively from the BookSpan Book Clubs (Doubleday, Crossings, Literary Guild, Rhapsody) for the next year. If you belong to one of the bookclubs (and if you don't, now is a good time to join!) you'll be able to order it. Set in the gorgeous Big Bend area of Texas, it's about a young woman who will do anything to be with a daughter she didn't know existed, even if it means marrying a man who betrayed her. 

New Grandpup!
Meet Jake, my new grandpuppy! This is the day Dave and Donna brought him down to meet his grandma. He's eight-weeks-old in this picture--a purebred newfoundland. I had no idea newfies were so sweet. I had him held up like this for several minutes while my husband took the picture and he didn't even squirm to try to get away. He's like a big rag doll.



Update: Jakey is now about 5 mos old and he's over 90 pounds! I wouldn't be able to pick him up if I tried. He'll probably grow to about 140 pounds. He's oh-so-sweet!

» Brainstorming a New Book:
Diann Hunt, Denise Hunter and I routinely brainstorm our new ideas. We did just that the other day here at my house, though this picture of us is at the ACFW Conference. This is just what we look like when we're brainstorming though--laughing and relaxed. That's Di on the left, then me, then Denise.

I brainstorm with friends annually in Kansas City too. Brainstorming is an important part of getting the depth and layers I like in a story. My new one will be a psychological suspense set in South Carolina in an old mansion.
From the bottom, then each row from the left. Rene Gutteridge, Till Fell, Cheryl Hodde. Stephanie Grace Whitson, Mel Hodde. Nancy Moser, Colleen Coble. Deborah Raney.