Review: What Follows After

What Follows After by Dan Walsh

Publication Date: 04/01/2014
Publisher: Baker Publishing Group
Imprint: Revell Books
Genre: Chrisitan/Inspirational Fiction
Pages: 320
ISBN-10: 0800721209
ISBN-13: 978-0800721206

(Received for an honest review from Revell Books)

Purchase: Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Book Depository, ChristianBook, Indiebound

Dan Walsh on the WEB: website, blog, twitter, facebook, goodreads

Excerpt from, What Follows After, courtesy of the author's website.

Synopsis:

In October 1962, Colt Harrison and his little brother, Timmy, hatched a plan. They would run away from their Florida home, head for their aunt's house in Savannah, Georgia, and refuse to come home until their parents got back together. But things go terribly, terribly wrong. Colt's mother and father must come to grips with years of neglect and mistrust in order to recover their beloved sons, their love for one another, and their broken marriage.

In this emotional story, Dan Walsh takes readers on a journey to rediscover the things that matter most in life--love, truth, and family.

Thoughts:

What's really important to you? What are your main priorities in life? These are a couple of the questions readers will be asking themselves once they read the latest novel from author Dan Walsh. What Follows After is an intense and emotional novel that will take readers on a journey that will leave them breathless. With gripping suspense and a message that will seep into the soul, this is a book that readers won't soon forget. A fantastic new novel from a well respected voice in the field.

What I liked:

Dan Walsh always provides Christian/Inspirational readers with a good well thought out novel. But his latest book, What Follows After takes it a step further than the average book from this genre. The intensity is ramped up to an unbelievable level, partly due to the time period the novel focuses on and partly because of the subject matter. The Cuban Missile Crisis afforded Walsh a very climatic time in which to write about. The country was literally balanced on the head of pin, teetering back and forth as Americans feared the worst was about to happen to our country. While one family in Florida was also hanging the balance.

Walsh grips the reader with a very intense tale of two boys who only wanted their parents to stay together. Forced to lie about the fact that their parents were separated, Colt and Timmy hatch a plan not unlike that of most children when they don't know how to handle a situation at home. They will run away. But as often happens with these plans, things don't turn out the way they had planned. And so starts a novel that will leave readers completely invested and emotionally spent when the last page is turned. 

I was totally caught off guard by how emotionally wrenching this book was. Walsh is not an author I generally associate with highly suspenseful and engaging reading. Don't get me wrong, I love his books, but they don't usually elicit such a strong reaction from me. But this book was different. I wanted so desperately for this book to turn out as a happy ending, that I couldn't put it down. It was a quick read for me, because I had to know what happened. It was just that intense. Walsh grabbed me from the first line and I was hanging on for dear life from then on. Definitely, his best novel to date!

The Christian message in this one was something I think everyone thinks about from time to time whether they are a believer or not. If there is a God, and I know there is, then why does he allow certain things to happen in this world. Bad things. Ugly things. Painful things. I think Walsh really hits it on the head with this novel. I honestly believe that God has a reason for everything and though I may not be able to understand when the situation is happening I can rely on the belief that He does not make mistakes. This novel shows how one very bad situation changed the lives of more than one person. How God used something bad to bring about something good. 

What I did't like:

I didn't want this one to end. I loved the edge to it, the sharpness and the clarity that it brought to the way I was feeling and thinking while reading it. I wanted to know more about this family to see how this situation changed and molded them in the future. What the true result of all of this was. Just goes to show you, this was a good one!

Bottom Line:

I loved it. That's all there is to it!

Available April 2014 at your favorite bookseller from Revell, a division of Baker Publishing Group.

I'm giving this one 5 out of 5 apples from my book bag!

About the Author:

Dan Walsh is the bestselling author of several books, including The Unfinished Gift, The Discovery, and The Reunion, as well as The Dance and The Promise with Gary Smalley. He has won three Carol awards, and three of his novels were finalists for RT Book Reviews Inspirational Book of the Year (2011-2013). Dan lives with his wife in the Daytona Beach area, where he's busy researching and writing his next novel. Visit www.danwalshbooks.com for more.

Giveaway Details:

If you are interested in possibly winning a copy of this book, check out The Book Club Network. It is a site that requires signing up, but there are tons of Christian book giveaways. The giveaway for What Follows After is not scheduled to post until April 20th, so keep the date in mind or sign up for emails from The Book Club Network.