Pupu's Bookshelf: Upcomming Reading

Before the Storm (Before The Storm #1)by Diane ChamberlainRate : 4.04

I had a tough time with the rating for this book. While I thought the story itself was entertaining, it was a bit hard to fully connect with all of the characters. And towards the end, there were just so many secrets and it started resembling a soap opera. The book goes back forth from present day to Laurel's history and her marriage to Jamie in the early 90's. After the birth of Maggie, Laurel experiences horrible postpartum depression. 

She feels no connection to her daughter, Maggie, and all she wants to do is sleep all the time. Laurel's husband, Jamie, tries to be patient with her. The problem is that neither one of them thinks drugs are a good idea. Even though Jamie knows there is a problem with her, he tells her that she does not need medication and she agrees. That infuriated me. There was no name for what Laurel was going through. Every doctor she talked to just told her she had "the baby blues." And they got frustrated when these "baby blues" lasted for years. I know the 90's weren't that long ago, but the way the author portrays it, PPD was not widely diagnosed back then. That did not make sense to me, especially since Laurel was a nurse who worked at a pediatrician's office. You would think she  would have encountered many mothers with PPD there and maybe she would have found it easier to ask for help. Laurel then becomes an alcoholic during her second pregnancy and her son, Andy, is born with fetal alcohol syndrome. That was the most interesting thing about the story, I think. The author did a great job of researching this disorder and educating the reader through Andy's behavior and his emotions. There were many points of view throughout the book, but one of the most interesting was Andy's POV. His thinking was very different from the other characters because of his disorder so it really set him apart from everyone else.

The main issue in the book was the question of whether Andy set the fire at the church or not. The author did a great job of revealing clues, one at a time, never revealing too much. There were so many reveals and twists in this book that my head was spinning. Laurel was very insistent that her son could never do anything like this, but even she had to admit the possibility of Andy;s guilt when evidence kept mounting against him. And maybe it was because she suffered from PPD when Maggie was born and they didn't bond for the first three or four years of her life or maybe it was because of Andy's disorder, but Laurel basically threw all her mothering energy onto Andy and left Maggie alone. Maggie's POV was one of the chapters as well, so we realize that she also has secrets and she needs a mother just as much as Andy. I really thought I knew who set the fire, but I was completely surprised. This was a pretty okay book with some interesting characters. I will be reading the sequel.