Before The Storm
by Diane Chamberlain
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Book Summary Information
Author: Diane ChamberlainEdition: Paperback
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language); English (Published)
Published: 2008-06-01
ISBN: 0778325415
Number of pages: 480
Publisher: Mira
Book Reviews of Before The Storm
Book Review: Burning Intensity
Summary: 5 Stars
I only just found out that this book was a prequel to "Secrets She Left Behind" by reading the ads at the back. Once I learned about this book, I just HAD to read it.
This story covers the years 1989 to 2007. In 1989, Sara, unhappily married to Steve Weston chafes at being a military wife. She is uprooted from her home in Michigan when Steve is stationed on Topsail Island in North Carolina. By 1991, when Keith Weston was born, the marriage had ended badly.
Sara meets Jamie Lockwood, a preacher who is married to Laurel. Laurel, an alcoholic suffers from severe post partum depression after her daughter Maggie was born in 1990. Sara and Jamie become very good friends. Sara even takes care of Maggie and has Jamie and Maggie move in with her while Laurel is coping with depressionn. Interestingly, the Lockwoods are a well-to-do family who own the trailer camp where Sara and Keith are living.
At the opening of this book, Maggie's brother Andy, 15 was hailed as a hero. He led several people to safety when a church was burned during a "lock-in" in late 2007. Andy, who has Fetal Alcohol Syndrome is high functioning and is still at the "tween" stage of viewing girls as friends as opposed to taking a more romantic interest in them. He is in a special needs class and several of his classmates attend the function.
Keith calls Andy a little rich boy and rebuffs him at the lock in. Keith understandably resents the lives of comfort and ease that Maggie and Andy enjoy while he is living in a single-wide trailer in a park that is Lockwood property. Just prior to the dance, Keith uncovers some family secrets that, like the church burn devastation.
Questions arise about Andy's new-found heroism. A gasoline can was found near the scene of the fire with Andy's finger prints on it. The tone of the town shifts from extolling Andy to being ready to convict him. The question is whether or not Andy is really guilty. If not, then how did his finger prints get on that can?
More questions and secrets pop up, like boils awaiting lancing. Each boil that gets lanced leads to healing and answers.
This is an excellent book and it is told in the "voices" of the main characters. Each chapter is told from the perspective of a different character.
I highly recommend "Secrets She Left Behind" upon finishing this one. You will certainly want to read the sequel. I stayed up to finish this book as it kept me riveted and I will certainly read Diane Chamberlain's other works.
Summary of Before The Storm
Fifteen-year-old Andy Lockwood is special.Others notice the way he blurts out anything that comes into his mind, how he cannot foresee consequences, that he's more child than teenager. But his mother sees a boy with a heart as open and wide as the ocean.
Laurel Lockwood lost her son once through neglect. She's spent the rest of her life determined to make up for her mistakes, and she's succeeded in becoming a committed, protective parent?maybe even overprotective. Still, she loosens her grip just enough to let Andy attend a local church social?a decision that terrifies her when the church is consumed by fire. But Andy survives?and remarkably, saves other children from the flames. Laurel watches as Andy basks in the role of unlikely hero and the world finally sees her Andy, the sweet boy she knows as well as her own heart.
But when the suspicion of arson is cast upon Andy, Laurel must ask herself how well she really knows her son?and how far she'll go to keep her promise to protect him forever.
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