I was provided a complimentary copy of this book by NetGalley. I was not compensated for this review and all thoughts and opinions expressed are my own. I was not required to write a positive review.
When Justice Comes by Colleen Coble, Rick Acker Series: Tupelo Gove #3
Published by Thomas Nelson Incorporated on March 3, 2026
Genres: Fiction / Christian / Romance / Suspense, Fiction / Mystery & Detective / Amateur Sleuth, Fiction / Romance / Suspense, Fiction / Thrillers / Suspense
Pages: 368
Format: eBook
Source: NetGalley
Amazon|Barnes&Noble|Goodreads
USA TODAY bestselling romantic suspense author Colleen Coble and Rick Acker deliver the final book in their beloved Tupelo Grove series: Hez and Savannah Webster have survived storms that would bury others without a love as strong as theirs--but can they withstand the final battle in the deadly Legare-Willard feud that threatens to sweep away everything they've fought for?
Hezekiah "Hez" Webster and his fiancée, Savannah, stand on the brink of a new life, but their dreams are haunted by specters of the past. Just as they're getting ready to adopt her nephew, two other petitioners also file for custody--both of whom only want Simon for their own gains.
Between the financial company that Hez outmaneuvered to save the university from ruin and the bad blood from the head of the Willard family, it's hard to say who wants them out of the way more. Hez and Savannah's quest for justice leads them through a labyrinth of family law, where loyalties are tested and trust is a dangerous luxury when every decision could be their last.
With the clock ticking, Hez and Savannah must confront the ghosts of their past and their deepest fears to secure a future for Simon. But with every secret revealed, the stakes grow higher. Can they build the family they've always dreamed of, or will their enemies succeed in tearing them apart forever?
The Tupelo Grove series reaches its breathtaking conclusion as an enemy's agenda for revenge runs darker than swamp water and justice remains as precarious as quicksand in this heart-pounding narrative that underscores the power of redemption and forgiveness.
It’s time to wrap up my time with the Tupelo Grove trilogy for the March read of the Christian Fiction Reading Challenge. When we left off with Where Secrets Lie I wasn’t sure that one more book could really do justice to all the remaining threads that this community held. It was so much a slow burn to a totally upscale Hatfield’s and McCoy’s with technology, wit, some additional angst, and way too many beignets to not have gained 20 pounds just hearing how often then are snacking down. I was so wrong about needing more than a third book but in some ways so right too. I’ll explain, I hope.
Let’s check my boxes for a moment, that’s just the current vibe in my head. Romance? Still there, not overwhelming to where it takes over the story but sometimes I felt like telling them to just get re-married already and get on with it. Not in a bad way but omgravy ya’ll. It’s obvious they love each other. Communication? Still an issue but getting better. Kinda like human nature I guess, we have to figure it out to figure it out. Twists and turns? All those boxes checked. With the addition of even more drama I wasn’t sure we would wrap it up in less than a ton of pages but here we are, at the end in a reasonable amount of time.
There’s something to be said about a co-write spanning three books that legit keeps you engaged from word one to the final epilogue. It wasn’t perfect but it didn’t matter. I saw some things coming but tell me you haven’t yelled at the TV in your life saying you know who did it already. Just me? I don’t believe that for a minute. I sometimes felt like the easy way out was taken one too many times. But again, human nature right? Why do I think that everything will have great story, or even backstory when so many times I too take the easy way out. It’s always the background work that gets me. The parts you don’t see, can’t see, sorta like real life. I need, want, to know all the things when it’s not intended I do. But it all comes out in the wash, why it was happening in the background and while not typically a neat little bow of resolution an understanding of resolution. There’s a lot to unpack in this last book. The slow-burn meets resolution of a generational family feud over the university, among many other things. A lot of hurt, a lot of really bad decisions, and a lot of redemption. While it was tied up nicely it wasn’t a perfect bow. And it still had me twisting with the threads right to the very end of the last epilogue.
About Colleen Coble
Publishers Weekly and USAToday best-selling author Colleen Coble’s novels have won or finaled in awards ranging from the Best Books of Indiana, the ACFW Carol Award, the Romance Writers of America RITA, the Holt Medallion, the Daphne du Maurier, National Readers’ Choice, and the Booksellers Best. She has over six million books in print. When she’s not writing, Colleen is playing Pokemon Go! with the family or traveling to the locales where she sets her novels. She’s a perpetual learner and a natural health nut. Colleen was the CEO of American Christian Fiction Writers for nineteen years and still serves on the Executive Board. She lives with her husband Dave in Arizona so she can spoil her small grandsons. She’s praying her granddaughter chooses Arizona for college to keep her close too.
About Rick Acker
Rick writes novels during breaks from his “real job” as a Supervising Deputy Attorney General in the California Department of Justice, where he leads a team prosecuting corporate fraud lawsuits. Rick has authored or coauthored over a dozen acclaimed suspense novels.
When he’s not writing, he leads investigations and lawsuits that made headlines in and out of California. For example, he and his team won a string of record-breaking judgments and settlements against the Wall Street players who created the toxic mortgage securities that triggered the Great Recession. Before joining DOJ, Rick was a senior litigator at Bingham McCutchen, where he worked on high stakes litigation, including a fight between two owners of the San Francisco Forty-Niners and a multibillion dollar international fraud case. Rick studied at the University of Oslo and has a law degree from the University of Notre Dame, where he graduated with honors. In addition to his novels, he is a contributing author on two legal treatises published by the American Bar Association.
Rick is a transplanted Chicagoan who spent thirty-five years in the Midwest before finally trading the certainty of winter and mosquitoes for the risk of earthquakes and wildfires. He now lives in the San Francisco Bay Area with his wife, Anette. They have four adult children.
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