The Boy Who Loved Rain

By Gerard Kelly

ISBN# 9781782641292

Author’s Website: http://gerardkelly.org/

Brought to you by OBS reviewer Kayt 

Synopsis:

They say that what you don’t know can’t hurt you. They’re wrong.

David Dryden, pastor of a high-profile church in London, is admired for his emphasis on the Christian family.

But all is not well in his own family. He and his wife, Fiona, have been glossing over his son Colom’s erratic behavior. Then, when a commitment to die is discovered in Colom’s room after the suicide of a school friend, David finds himself out of his depth–and Fiona, in panic, takes Colom and flees.

A wonderful, intelligent, and searching novel about the toxic nature of secrets, and the possibility of starting again.

Review:

The Boy Who Loved Rain is heart wrenching, emotionally charged and punishing on your feeling and thoughts. Gerard Kelly writes with intensity and the reader can sense the pain and anguish in the characters, as well as the exuberance and concern in other characters. Lila Dryden and her husband David face a horrific situation but not together. David is the pastor of a high-profile church in London. Their son Colom is getting into trouble at school and wants to have nothing to do with either parent. His erratic and progressively dangerous behavior has them both at wits end.

When one of Colom’s school friends takes his own life the parents learn the friends had a suicide pack. David wants to lean on his church and Fiona can not deal with his attitude. Fiona takes Colom and flees with an old friend to Portivy France. Her friend Miriam takes them to her home town. Miriam has been working with people in the same situations and mind sets that Colom is experiencing. His dreams haunt him, he cares about no one and wants to leave it all behind and die.

In this peaceful setting of Portivy, Colom talks to Miriam. As she puts his words together, she finds something disturbing. Maybe Fiona is not telling her the whole truth about their lives. As things become revealed, the heartache Fiona is dealing with is so intense the reader feels it with her. Colom’s pain is also so fierce it hurts. This is not a feel good read. It pulls at your heart and sense of how things should be. At times I wanted to smack Fiona and Colom. Other times I wanted to grab them in a huge hug.

This is truly an intense novel, full of so many ups and downs, heartaches and pain. I think this is a novel that really crosses all genres of literature. I would recommend it to anyone that likes to be grabbed by a book. It is powerful and impressive. This novel tells the story of pain that comes from keeping secrets and the fallout that comes when they creep in to spill out. This is a griping novel that even though at times it can be hard to read, you have to read it through to the end. It does not let go. I highly recommend The Boy Who Loved Rain.

*OBS would like to thank the author and TLC Book Tours  for supplying a free copy of this title in exchange for an honest review as part of their ongoing blog tour*