Before the Storm (MIRA): A Powerful Psychological Drama of Arson and a Mother’s Fight for Her Son

This book is perfect it keeps you guessing till the end, lots of changes and turns. The author always writes each chapter from a different persons point of view and its amazing how she can change her writing style to do this. In this one its even more important, she gets the way of the world from the point a view of a child with fetal alcohol syndrome across extremely well. I loved this book so much i bought the next one.

Another great book from Diane Chamberlain. This was very "her". All her books involve the same kind of scandals but I don't tire of them - she is an excellent writer and I enjoy her immensely. "Before the Storm" is focused on a 15 year old boy with Foetal Alcohol Syndrome which causes his mind to work in different ways to your average Joe. An interesting and unique subject matter. This poor boy is accused of arson which resulted in three dead. All evidence is pointing at him but the argument is that he doesn't have the mental capability to harm another human being. Did he do it? A predictable and somewhat anticlimatic ending but I certainly enjoyed getting there. I love books that touch on real-life matters and I rarely hear of the condition featured. I would like to have been given more information about it - but this wasn't written to educate. Another little gem from Diane!

I have just lost a whole Bank Holiday to this book. I simply could not put it down. I am slowly working through all of Diane Chamberlain's books and this one again has not disappointed. The characters were so believable and the story had so many twists, (some i have to say i did see coming but this was outnumbered by those i didnt!) and yet when I did put it down to do other things, I was left thinking of the characters and the turmoil they were going through and got sucked back in again. Not very many books can get me thinking about the characters after i have put the book down! Highly recommended and jumped straight into the sequel straight after!

Diane Chamberlain is my favourite author and I love every book of hers but I was so disappointed with this one. I found the story lacked any depth and couldn't wait for it to be over. It was very predictable and I found the characters quite boring and I wasn't interested in getting to know them.

This novel had me gripped from start to finish and there were many twists i just never seen coming. Fans of Jodi Picoult will love this book. Chamberlain tells the story of a young boy named Andy who suffers from Foetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder and the affect it has on his family. Chamberlain hihglights the affects of the condition by telling the story from several perspectives. Andy and his mother's life is turned upside down when the local church catches fire and everyone in town begins to point the finger at Andy. His mother is determined to prove his innocence but even she has to question whether Andy really did it. A gripping read and definately one of Chamberlain's best!!

Great book recommend

As always, a perfect read. Haven't come across one of her books I haven't enjoyed!

this is the first book i have read by this author and i will be reading more particularly the one after this. i enjoyed it a great deal but am not giving five stars as it was evident that, although andy was under suspicion for the fire, he had not the ability to set it so therefore this always meant that you knew another person was to blame and were really just waiting for them to be revealed

Diane Chamberlain is a writer who is brilliant at getting inside her characters' heads and letting the reader feel along with them as the story unfolds. In Before the Storm, she tells the story from multiple viewpoints, something only a skilled author can do successfully. The narrators are Andy, a fifteen-year-old who was born with foetal alcohol spectrum disorder, his seventeen-year-old sister Maggie, their mother Laurel and her brother-in-law Marcus. As usual with Chamberlain's books, the plot is inventive but plausible. When a fire breaks out at the local church hall during a school dance, Andy, who has a childlike ability to focus on some things at the expense of others, manages to assist most of the partygoers to safety and is hailed as a hero. This is a novel experience for the special needs teenager, but as it becomes clear that the fire was deliberately lit, suspicion begins to fall on him. As with The Courage Tree, the cover has a sappy picture which doesn't relate well to the story. It's not affecting my rating, just a heads up as most readers, myself included, are inclined to judge books in part by their cover! I struggled a bit with Laurel's character. At times I really didn't like her. This isn't a reflection on the way she is portrayed, but a reflection on my personal lack of patience with her destructive behaviour. I can't say much more without giving away parts of the story, but it does drop my rating down to four and a half stars rather than five.

I can tell "once the social worker, always the social worker". I knew Diane when she was "one of those" in San Diego. I do believe her novels are so awesome because of her background, her knowledge, her experience in human frailty and insight into the not so perfect people in this world. Her writing is superior to many authors, her story telling is captivating in every sense and she makes you want the story to continue for much longer. The good news is this time----she's writing the sequel. So we all have that to look forward to. The characters in this story are very human---they make mistakes that change their worlds. A woman becomes a single mom of a much rejected daughter and a fetal alcohol syndrome son. Her life is complicated as is the lives of the children and everyone around her. There's a fire at a church, her son becomes a hero when he saves others but then the story does a few twists and turns before you have a chance to discover who is to blame. This story keeps you riveted to the pages and makes you want more. And we'll get more----I hope sooner than later. I'm so proud of you , Diane, and all your success. Every book you write becomes my "favorite". Keep it going------I love reading your books. And it appears others have also "found" you and enjoy your stories as much as I do. I'm so thrilled to have "known" you and can proudly say you're the greatest-because I always knew you were.

Make sure you read 'The Secrets She Left Behind' after this book.. It's a good book. Have always liked Diane Chamerlain's way of writing. I had bought the 'Used' book..was not in pristine condition. But was still ok.

This book had me from the first page.....I knew the main character, Andy, had Fetal Alcohol Syndrome as a friend who recommended the book to me had told me....I don't feel this is a spoiler because you learn this piece of information early in the book. I know very little about FAS and yet I KNOW this boy intimately and I LOVE this boy like my own....he is a fictional boy version of my oldest daughter....and he gives a voice to my son....and he is an expressive version of my youngest daughter....he is my three amazing children wrapped up in one amazing boy. In my opinion, Diane Chamberlain is brilliantly skilled with written words and characters....the way Andy describes his feelings and perspectives is so authentic....bugs crawling in his muscles...; the way Andy relates to others; what is most important to Andy (how he wants to celebrate that he was a hero and how he learns from his mother about bragging, how he skims over the deaths because he was a hero); the way Andy processes a situation, always remembering specific lessons to apply to a situation instead of using flexible thinking....these are just a few components of Andy.... The literal interpretations, like the lighter that could not carried on the plane....I know this is exactly how my oldest girl would interpret that sign....one difference though is the reaction...I don't think my daughter would try to hide it...I think she would panic and cry and stop and not know what to do. And it's not just Andy....his mother, his sister, his Uncle - wow, together, they are me....I love this description from Andy's sister's point of view: "As a mother, Mom was borderline okay. She was smart and she could be cool sometimes, but she loved Andy so much that she suffocated him, and she didn't have a clue. My brother was my biggest worry. Probably ninety-five percent of my time, I thought about him. Even when I thought about other things, he was still in a little corner of my mind, the same way I knew that it was spring or that we lived in North Carolina or that I was female." So true....when you have a special needs child/sibling, EVERYTHING you do and think about revolves around him/her no matter how subtle. The first Diane Chamberlain book I read was The Secret Life Of CeeCee Wilkes - I was enthralled with her writing and excited to read more....I gave that book a very easy 5 stars....and I still believe that book fully deserves that rating. But Before The Storm just raised the bar! To me, this book is off the charts...5 stars does not cut it ! Diane's writing is such a pleasure to read....you just read...you never have to stop to figure things out, to go back to read something twice; you never stumble over grammar or complexities.... it's just smooth!....and yet the characters and the plot are never simplistic....and are so full of emotion....a treasure to find a book like this. When I read, I typically skim through the flashbacks searching for the information I need to know to understand what is happening in the current story...they are usually boring, dragging portions of a story, revealing one piece of information that might have better been woven into the story in another way - but Ms. Chamberlain writes in a way that make me want to read every word of the flashbacks and want for more....the flashbacks don't just give you more information about the character and why they behave or act the way they do...they are more than that...they have a little bit of suspense to them to, a story of their own. In The Secret Life of CeeCee Wilkes, the flashback was the main story....In this book, what begins as a flashback, ends up as the second story weaving and catching up and finally meshing with the present. Nothing in the book can ever be said to be 'filler' - everything moves the story forward ! At this point this is only the second book of Diane Chamberlain's that I have read....and yet I can confidently say that she is my new favourite author....

great read