This book is very appropriately titled. I am sure that we have all had storms in our personal lives and can relate to the story. Some of our storms pass more quickly than others. Some storms leave lots of damage. This book dives deep into a storm in which the aftereffects were never dealt with. When another traumatic event occurs, it is time to rise above the storms.

However, while this is a very emotional read, it did move slow for me and I had a hard time sticking with it at times.

A heart stopping, catch your breath story. From the first page, I could feel the intense emotions of the characters. Secrets, tragedy, and questions are deep in the lives of each person. Life has unexpected events for everyone. Excellent read. I received a complimentary copy of this book. No review was required.

Rae is dealing with the unexpected loss of her teen daughter with the help of her father and best friend. She finds herself with a houseguest that she's not quite sure what to make of. This book was a slow read for me, but the last half of the book picked up a bit and answered some questions. Thank you to Lake Union Publishing and NetGalley for a copy of the ARC.

This is a beautifully told story of love, healing and eventually joy as one family moves through grief. Rae, Connor and Quinn are each facing storms in their lives and they will draw you in as they explore their hopes and dreams of a cloudless future. Ms. Nolfi is a skilled writer who develops characters in a way that allows the reader to grow with the story.

What a very interesting and emotional book! This is definitely a page turner and hard to put down for any length of time.
Rae is a mother trying to come to terms with her teen daughters untimely death. This is her story of surviving life's unexpected tragedies and putting the pieces back together so she can live life again.
This book is about life, mistakes made, secrets, a mother's love, healing and moving past the heavy sadness that can engulf us.

The Passing Storm is a book that will tug on your heartstrings, full of raw emotions, grief, and secrets. This book explores intimate subjects such as grief, betrayal, abuse, with honesty and compassion. Compelling and complex characters, as well as a small town where everyone knows everyone’s business, give readers a unique perspective on a touching story about reconciliation and hope.

Oh how I love a good book by the ever talented Christine Nolfi! This book brings two families differences together one about their past and present and how to pass through life’s storms. No matter the storms that come our way be thankful for the ppl in our lives to help carry us through it.

There is a unique intimacy found in small towns. It comes from families, friends, and neighbors sharing history, customs, celebrations and struggles. When people experience life together they often assume they know all about you, your story, and secrets. In truth, that is rarely the case. A small community is a place where strong feelings, extremes of both positive and negative, run deep. Relationships are complicated and those in The Passing Storm have unusual entanglements. Christine Nolfi skillfully weaves this story together with several unexpected twists. It’s an interesting read and one I think you will enjoy. I want to thank NetGalley and Christine Nolfi for the opportunity to read and review this Advanced Reader’s Copy. #NetGalley #ThePassingStorm

I highly recommend Christine Nolfi's latest beautiful book, The Passing Storm. This mesmerizing tale artfully examines how the human heart weathers the storms of grief and trauma. Rae is a wonderfully complex character who has faced more of life's storms than the average person. Nolfi's descriptive prose depicts life in a small midwestern community, where everyone is connected, whether they like it or not. Rae's relationships with her father, her best friend and a young man named Quinn feel authentic, as do her tempestuous emotions. The storyline is intriguing with a few surprises along the way. I enjoyed this story and was disappointed when I realized I had reached the end, only because I wasn't ready to say goodbye to these characters.

Christine Nolfi has written another wonderfully emotional family drama that takes place in a small Ohio town. Rae Langdon has lots of baggage from her past , most of it she keeps secret. In fact, there are many secrets to unravel in this story. It starts out slowly as the tension builds between several characters. Rae lost her mother in a terrible snowstorm they call the White Hurricane, while she was still in high school. She is now an adult and we learn that she recently lost her teenage daughter Lark in a terrible accident at a sleepover. Soon a neighbor boy, Quinn Galecki, is taken in by Rae and her father, Connor, when Quinn is kicked out of his home by his parents. He is a senior, almost ready to graduate. The secrets begin to unravel as Rae discovers the relationship between Quinn and Lark she was unaware of. She learns that Lark had been on a mission to find out who her father is since she wouldn’t tell her.
This story is filled with loss, love, old flames, family relationships, forgiveness and renewal. I enjoyed it and would recommend it.
Thank you to the publisher and author for an advanced readers copy.

The author of this book, Christine Nolfi, and I have had an author/reader relationship for some time. But I haven’t recently delved into one of her books, mostly because she writes in a genre that I don’t generally lean toward. Yet I couldn’t turn down the opportunity to receive an Advanced Reading Copy and post my two cents’ worth in a review of The Passing Storm.

At the outset of this review, I want to emphasize that Christine has an amazing grasp of the English language that is readily apparent in any of her books. This one is no exception. That said, when I started reading this book, I found the complexity of her writing almost a diversion from the crux of the story. I didn’t start to get engrossed in it until I’d read a few chapters. Once I was hooked, though, I couldn’t put it down. It’s well crafted, especially if you love language (which I do). So, if you think that you might not want to continue reading at first, I suggest that you set that thought aside and move on.

The main character, Rae, a young woman in her early thirties, at the center of this book, has had more than her share of tragic loss. First, her mother, Hester, dies in a severe snowstorm event; then her teen daughter, Lark, dies in a freak accident. I know that every person’s reaction to loss is different. Some will never recover; others will go forward slowly toward a hopeful future. Rae recovers from her losses in different stages. I wasn’t sure about her resilience at the beginning of the book. But by the end, her understanding of loss changes.

Living and growing up in a small Ohioan town, Rae’s experiences center around people she’s known her entire life. I was born in a small town in Southern Illinois where I lived until I was twelve. On a personal level, I related more to Rae’s daughter, Lark, than Rae herself. Although she doesn’t actually appear in person, Lark’s presence is strongly felt throughout this book. Like Lark and a basic tenet of the story, I didn’t know my biological father. I knew of him because his parents, as well as his sisters and brother, lived in and around my hometown. They welcomed me with open arms into their family, while my father moved thousands of miles away to New York, and he was never an active part of my growing up – or my life. He kept my existence a secret from the children of his second family, and I didn’t even meet him in person until I was 33 years old. His absence and failure to acknowledge me as his daughter has had a profound effect on me. I know firsthand the damage that family secrets can do. Consequently, I can feel the depth of Lark’s pain that her mother, Rae, feels guilty about. To me, it’s guilt well placed.

While growing up in a small town can be warm and fuzzy, it can also be a hotbed of gossip and lack of privacy. These dynamics are evident in the town where this story takes place. However, my family moved in the early 50s from our small hometown to Los Angeles where my stepfather was told the streets were “paved with gold.” Jobs abounded there while they were rapidly disappearing in the Midwest. So personally, I can’t even fathom having had a best friend since grade school. Unlike the experience I’ve had, Rae and her friend, Yuna, have known each other “forever” and thus understand one another intimately. But I can easily visualize the farm on which Rae and her father, Connor, live because my paternal Grandma and Grandpa lived on such a farm where I visited every summer. My family and I also spent many Sundays at my aunt’s farm. She lived on the same acreage and in the same rundown farmhouse up until her husband died.

There is always “that family” in a small town that’s majorly dysfunctional, either through addiction, abuse, or both. True to form, there’s a family like that here. Their son, Quinn, formerly a friend of Rae’s daughter, unexpectedly fills a void in Rae’s life that she couldn’t have previously imagined. There’s a twist, too, that I’ll not divulge because I’ve probably already given away too many spoilers. But I hope not.

The story in this book is complex because the characters’ lives are complex, and Christine has created people who’re relatable and very real. The only facet I found a little overdone was the conclusion. Life stories aren’t always tied up nicely and neatly, and I felt the ending was a little contrived.

Everything I’ve said aside, I feel this is an extremely well-written book with many surprising twists and turns in the story’s evolution, and that it’s definitely worth reading. I thoroughly enjoyed it even though, as I’ve mentioned, it isn’t a genre that I usually gravitate toward. Keeping this in mind, if it’s a genre you normally read, I think you’ll have an even greater sense of satisfaction after finishing it. As I said earlier, I received an Advance Reading Copy of The Passing Storm, asked to post an honest review, and that’s what I’ve done. The opinions expressed herein are mine and mine alone.

Christine Nolfi has once again stolen my heart. Her characters feel so real to me. I loved this story. Even with quite a shocking discovery toward the end, she made us a happy ending. There were many things dealt with in this story. Loss of a parent, loss of a child, loss of innocence, and gaining friendships as well. Really beautiful story. Thank you to Christina Nolfi and Netgalley for the earlyread!

From the very beginning you get drawn in. The characters are very well written, you can feel the emotions of each individual. You get a sense of what is going on, but the more you read the more intriguing it gets. A definite page turner. The ending wasn't rushed, it wasn't drawn out. It ended just right. I am looking forward to Christine Nolfi's next book, she never disappoints.

This is another amazing book by Christine Nolfi! The story deals with the grief and pain of the main characters who have buried their secrets within. Like peeling an onion, Nolfi peels back the layers of secrets enshrouding them. As the secrets are revealed, you can see the growth of the characters as a new dawn of hope appears. I loved the main character, Rae, who tended to act quickly from emotions, but then was willing to step back and see things from a different perspective. With each secret revealed by each character, Rae continues to move forward finding love along the way and the promise of better days ahead. I thoroughly enjoyed how all the characters' lives were intertwined with each other in that small town. This was yet another book by Nolfi that I found hard to put down. Her descriptions are so vivid that you can feel what the characters are feeling. I highly recommend this book!

Sadly i was excited for this one but it let me down. I couldn't connect with the plot nor the characters. I gave this a 2.

There are no words. The most beautifully written book that spills emotions on every page
Love, loss, anger, grief and sadness, forgiveness and friendship.
Rae has had her share of loss, it has hardened not only her but dad.
Quinn is the teenager in their town that needs a break, his parents don’t want him, and
he has no friends.
Can Rae forgive him enough to help him? can she forgive herself?
There are so many secrets and plot twists in this small town that I couldn’t turn the pages fast enough nor slow enough to savor every page, word and emotion.
The characters are so well written and the storyline, which has a lot going on, holds your interest and flows together so seamlessly.
I highly recommend this book!

This story deals with some tough topics and those are mostly handled well. The overwhelming grief that the main character is struggling with resonates with those who have lost loved ones unexpectedly. As the story progresses she becomes stronger and more confident, taking steps to correct wrongs and learn painful truths. I like to see characters grow and become better people. However, I found the pace of the story to be slow and the revelation of a brutal attack in the past just didn't fit in with the overall tone. It was easy to guess the parentage of the dead daughter and once that was figured out, the story seemed to drag on as characters were slow to divulge their secrets. Honest communication between many of the players would've made this one less frustrating and more interesting.

The Passing Storm is a touching tale of healing, hope, and belonging. The characters were richly layered, and the satisfying ending hit a perfect note. Highly recommended!

This book is very appropriately titled. I am sure that we have all had storms in our personal lives and can relate to the story. Some of our storms pass more quickly than others. Some storms leave lots of damage. This book dives deep into a storm in which the aftereffects were never dealt with. When another traumatic event occurs, it is time to rise above the storms.. While this is a very emotional read., it did move slowly for me. Thank you to NetGalley for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

When a storm passes it leaves a new day to walk into. A new chance to heal and start again.
This is a journey Rae and her family take together. Rae needs to find a way to break through her own storm and find hope and a way to forgive.
Can Rae allow family and friends into her own storm to help her move on? Heal her heart and soul.
A beautifully written and heartwarming story of loss, healing, hope, love, grief, happiness and forgiveness.

Thank you NetGalley and Lake Union Publishing and Christine Nolfi for the opportunity to read this book.