It could have been me.
Snow whirls around an elevated train platform in Chicago. A distracted woman boards the train, takes her seat, and moments later a fiery explosion rips through the frigid air, tearing the car apart in a horrific attack on the city's transit system. One life is spared. Twenty-two are lost.
A year later, Autumn Manning can't remember the days of the bombing and she is tormented by grief-by guilt. Twelve months of the question constantly echoing. Why? Why? Why? Searching for answers, she haunts the lives of the victims, unable to rest.
Paul Elliott lost his wife in the train bombing and wants to let the dead remain buried, undisturbed and unable to cause more pain for his loved ones. He wants normalcy for his twelve-year-old daughter and young son, to see them move beyond the heartbreak. But when the Elliotts and Autumn are unexpectedly forced together, he fears she'll bring more wreckage in her wake.
I had never read a book by this author before, and when I first read the summary, I was intrigued.
I really felt like I could relate to Autumn. Her emotions and struggles were so honest and very well written. Had I gone through something as horrific as Autumn, I probably would have reacted the same way. So I could understand where she was coming from.
When I first started the book, I thought Paul was a jerk. He complained and was worried when his daughter wouldn't talk to him, but he never really gave her the opportunity to. My dislike of him started to go away once we know more of the situation, but it was a little frustrating to me at first.
Reese was a very well written character as well, and Tate brought some humor to an otherwise serious story.
I liked that romance was not the focus of this book. It's very on the surface, and I was worried it was going to go deeper, but I'm glad it didn't. I felt like it would have cheapened the story.
This is a christian book, so faith plays a large part of this story, but I really didn't find it to be 'preachy'.
The author deals with a very difficult topic-why do bad things happen? And not just that, but why do bad things happen to good people? I don't know that I would say that that question was exactly answered, but I would say that it was handled well. I personally do not believe we are always meant to know why bad things happen. We just have to know that if we believe in an all-knowing God, we have to believe that he has a hand in every situation, whether we are meant to know the why or not.
I liked the diary entries and letters throughout the book. It just added something a little different to the story.
Overall I enjoyed this book. I liked the characters and found it to be very well written. I will certainly be checking out other books from this author!
I received this book from Blogging For Books in exchange for an honest review.
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