afloat - by Erin Healy

Danielle Clement isn't completely satisfied with the choices she's made in allowing Tony Dean to become more than just protector and provider for her and her son, Simeon, but she figures as long as Simeon is taken care of, then it must be okay.  Until she and Simeon become stranded in the condo building that Tony has paid for during a sequence of events that cuts them and a small group of people off from the rest of the world. A sequence of not-entirely-natural events that not everybody will make it out of, and those that are left will be forced to confront not only their past choices, but make decisions that will affect the rest of their lives.  Can Vance Nolan, the architect of the floating condominiums, convince Danielle that she deserves better and that she should trust him?  Or will Tony convince her that her only choice is to stick with him through it all?

This book was a little bit outside of my typical genre choice; there were floating silver lights, and unnatural floods and sun-darkening, and a man who appears and disappears at odd times.  However, it was well-done, and I thought that the stories that were woven together about fear and faith and how our choices affect our lives and relationships were engaging and thought-provoking.  Given the same situation, who would we trust?  How could we make choices to protect ourselves and our children given such limited information?  On the other hand, this sort of situation really revealed each person's inner character, and showed that you can hide your motives and true self for so long.

My favorite quote from the book was "It was a devastating kind of grace, but maybe all new beginnings were."  I think that sums up the book's impact nicely - letting go of the past and reaching for a new future is never easy, but oftentimes the only thing to do.

I give this book 3 stars.  Although the characters felt very true-to-life in that a lot of them weren't very likable, it made it hard to love the book.  I could root for Danielle to make better choices from here out, but I couldn't applaud her choices to this point.  One extra plus that the book had going for it, though, is that when I skimmed the Book Discussion questions at the end, I was impressed with their depth and the potential for meaningful conversation based upon them above and beyond the characters within the book.

You can find afloat HERE.
The author's website is HERE.

I received a copy of this book from Thomas Nelson, as part of their BookSneeze program, in exchange for my honest review.