Review: The Passing Storm by Christine Nolfi

No comments

booksparks, christine nolfi, Contemporary, Lake Union Publishing, Reviews, the passing storm, Women's Fiction

The Passing Storm

by Christine Nolfi

Thank you Lake Union and Booksparks for this gifted book.

Publisher: Lake Union
Publish Date: November 1, 2021
Paperback
318 Pages
Standalone
Genre: Contemporary

A gripping, openhearted novel about family, reconciliation, and bringing closure to the secrets of the past.

Early into the tempestuous decade of her thirties, Rae Langdon struggles to work through a grief she never anticipated. With her father, Connor, she tends to their Ohio farm, a forty-acre spread that itself has enjoyed better days. As memories sweep through her, some too precious to bear, Rae gives shelter from a brutal winter to a teenager named Quinn Galecki.

Quinn has been thrown out by his parents, a couple too troubled to help steer the misunderstood boy through his own losses. Now Quinn has found a temporary home with the Langdons—and an unexpected kinship, because Rae, Quinn, and Connor share a past and understand one another’s pain. But its depths—and all its revelations and secrets—have yet to come to light. To finally move forward, Rae must confront them and also fight for Quinn, whose parents have other plans in mind for their son.

With forgiveness, love, and the spring thaw, there might be hope for a new season—a second chance Rae believed in her heart was gone forever.

My Review:

This is the story of Rae. She lost her mother in a storm and then the daughter she had at a young age to a terrible accident. Her grief overwhelms her as she lives on the farm with her father. This is also the story of Quinn, who has terrible parents who treat him like shit, had a friendship with Rae's daughter that Rae contemplates from time to time and feels like he belongs nowhere. Forces bring the two together and their unlikely alliance heals them both.

PHEW. These characters. This is a fairly somber read. There's some levity, mostly between Rae and her father... which is an absolute pleasure to read. My heart goes out to the family at their losses even years later. My heart also goes out to Quinn, who is misunderstood and trying to make do in the best way possible. As the pages turn, we see them grow from grieving, surly mother and shy, unloved teenager to a family that neither of them had ever expected.

The journey throughout this read has depth, layers, love, friendship, small town secrets along with growth and second chances. I do think that it lulled in certain areas but I think that may just be the atmosphere of the book at times. It's not easy to read through some of the things any of these characters went through. I absolutely fell in love with Rae and Quinn for different reasons, but the author brings them to life with such humanity that it's hard not to be rooting for them and flinching at certain scenes.

Sometimes closure is needed, sometimes it brings about more questions really and other times, it takes someone walking back INTO your life to get it. Would definitely recommend this.

★★★★