The Gathering Storm

Title: THE GATHERING STORM
Authors; Bodie and Brock Thoene
Publisher: Summerside Press
August 2010
ISBN: 978-1-60936-033-7
Genre: Inspirational/historical

American born Loralei Kepler is the daughter of a missionary family in Belgium. Nazi’s are invading Brussels and the Jews are trying to make a quick getaway. The Kepler family isn’t safe, and Loralei’s father makes the difficult decision to take his two daughters, one eight months pregnant, and his young niece and flee the country. But before they leave, they learn the horrifying news that the German’s have slaughtered everyone on the front lines, meaning its likely that the husbands of both daughters died in the battle.

The harrowing flight of Loralei and her family lead them into the arms of child refugees who have sacrificed everything for their lives, and toward a mysterious figure that guards an ancient secret…

THE GATHERING STORM is book one in the Thoene’s newest series The Zion Diaries. It is a continuation of The Zion Covenant series and The Zion Chronicles series.

The story starts out with a prologue in modern times, written as though Ms. Thoene herself has met with and talked to one of the characters in this book. Then the first part moves on to 1940 when Nazi’s invade Brussels, and the next part goes back further to 1936.

I found the jumping forward and backwards in time disruptive, and I had to take the time to get myself grounded into the story again after the break and the jump. There is also a bit of fantasy in the book which is a bit…weird and also disruptive. The story is written in first person, which I actually don’t mind but I know some people do, so I thought I’d mention it. But over all the whole story was worth it and the Thoene’s have once again written a tale that will stay with the readers for a long time to come. I recommend this book to anyone who has read the Thoene’s previous books. Discussion questions are included at the end. $14.99. 380 pages.