From the Bookshelf of Christian Fiction Devourers…

What Happens Next

Christina Suzann Nelson

Start date: October 1, 2024

Finish date: October 31, 2024

Why we're reading this: October 2024 Book of the Month
[close] October 2024 Book of the Month

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Oct 16, 2022 Iola rated it it was amazing

Shelves: 2022-read, 2022-new-author

True crime podcaster and mother Faith Byrne is newly and unhappily divorced. She’s even less happy when her ex wants to take her two daughters to Hawaii for the three whole months of summer, not just the short holiday she’s originally agreed so they could attend their father’s wedding.

But that does mean she’s free and unencumbered when she gets a strange request from the sister of a childhood best friend. Back when she was ten, she’d spent a summer at her grandmother’s house in Deep Valley, Oreg True crime podcaster and mother Faith Byrne is newly and unhappily divorced. She’s even less happy when her ex wants to take her two daughters to Hawaii for the three whole months of summer, not just the short holiday she’s originally agreed so they could attend their father’s wedding.

But that does mean she’s free and unencumbered when she gets a strange request from the sister of a childhood best friend. Back when she was ten, she’d spent a summer at her grandmother’s house in Deep Valley, Oregon, where she’d befriended Heather, the girl next door.

Despite their promises to write, Heather never replied to any of Faith’s letters. Now Faith finds out why: Heather disappeared a matter of days after Faith left Deep Valley. And her parents never told her.

That got me hooked. The story itself was told from three points of view: Faith, Dori (Heather’s mother, who is still grieving for her lost daughter and can’t understand why everyone else – including her husband – has moved on), and Heather herself, from 1986.

We therefore saw Health and Faith becoming friends at the same time as we saw Faith searching for her lost friend. It was an effective way to unravel the mystery and show Faith’s investigation.

While I enjoy a good crime novel, I’m not a fan of true crime novels (or nonfiction). True crime has real victims, and I’d much rather engage my imagination with make-believe than dwell on something that actually happened to someone … and which left behind mourning family and friends.

I think this is why I liked and appreciated Faith’s take on true crime: because she wasn’t focusing on the crime. She was focusing on the people. Her listeners expected stories of hope and healing, of people who fought through loss to come out stronger and still maintaining compassion and wholeness.

I’d describe What Happens Next as dual timeline women’s fiction with a touch of mystery. We did find out what happened to Heather, although I didn’t think the mystery was the main focus. It was more a story of relationships, particularly marriage, and grief.

Recommended for those who enjoy well-written novels with great characters.

Thanks to Bethany House and NetGalley for providing a free ebook for review. ...more

2 likes · Like · see review

Dec 12, 2022 Christine Hatfield marked it as to-read

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