OF STILLNESS AND STORM by Michele Phoenix

Thomas Nelson

December 6^th, 2016
9780718086428
Christian Fiction
Paperback ARC
Reviewed by Dawn (love2read28@gmail.com)
Obtained by Publisher
2.5 Hearts

 

For Lauren and Sam, ministering to the people of Nepal is a dream comes true for their family. But as time goes by, Sam increasingly goes off, weeks at a time, into the Himalayas and finding passion as well as a purpose with his work with the needy people there. But for Lauren and their son, Ryan, being alone for weeks at times is hard and increasingly getting more difficult as time moves on. The reality of their life as missionaries turns that dream into a reality that is not living up to what they thought it would be. When an old friend reenters Lauren’s life, she struggles with the reality of loneliness in her present life with a past life that remerges in her memories. But for Ryan, his parents disinterest has far reaching consequences that will shake up their entire family.

 

OF STILLNESS AND STORM is an interesting if at times complicated book in a genre that I normally do not read. I had a hard time putting aside my own emotions to read about the struggles of this family and the events that transpired between them. The characters were interesting yet I just could not connect to them in any way. Maybe it was my mood or that it was in a genre that I never cared to read before but in the end I struggled to finish the book after repeatedly putting it down to read something else. Sam especially just doesn’t appeal to me for the most part because he decides that to answer his call to god, they should all be missionaries. To myself, that felt a bit selfish and yet also brave. To go to another country to minister to the people there is a huge undertaking yet in this book, it comes across as a dream for one that becomes a forced reality to the other two. The characters feel like they are forced to play parts in a play yet the author does a good job in capturing their different ways to cope with a dream that at turns may turn out to be a dud to someone else.

 

OF STILLNESS AND STORM is an emotional tale of a family where dreams and realities don’t mesh together. It’s a story that will either leave you aching for the family or wondering just what the heck is going on as it was in my case. If you enjoy reading this sort of genre then you might enjoy OF STILLNESS AND STORM. I just could not get into it.

 

This is an objective review and not an endorsement