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A review by simplystacie
The Good Father by Diane Chamberlain
5.0
Diane Chamberlain has quickly become one of my favourite authors. Her writing style reminds of Jodi Picoult with the way she uses multiple narrators. In fact, I’d even say that I prefer Diane Chamberlain of Jodi Picoult. That’s saying something about how much I love Ms. Chamberlain’s books because Jodi Picoult has always been one of my favourite authors.
I read The Good Father at lightning speed even though it was 347 pages long. It’s one of those books that you cannot put down and I even found myself thinking about it during the day wondering what was going to happen to the characters. Now that I’ve finished reading it, it’s still with me and it’s one I would read again a second time.
The story follows Travis, a young single dad, and his little girl, Bella. I really felt for Travis. He had such a hard life with his dad dying when he was young, growing up poor and then raising a daughter on his own. Then his mother died in a house fire and he was in dire straits….quite literally. I could feel his worry about not having enough for him and his daughter to eat and not having a place to live. The stress of not having a job and living in a terrible economy really took its toll on Travis and I thought Diane Chamberlain was exceptional at conveying this.
Some of Travis’s choices I certainly did not agree with, but I understood where he was coming from. Perhaps if it was me in the same situation, I might have done the same thing. He was doing what he had to in order to survive. I found many of the situations he found himself in immensely stressful. Even reading it, I was holding my breath and wondering what was going to happen. It just goes to show you that good people can find themselves in bad situations.
The other main character, Erin, lost her daughter in a terrible accident and has never recovered. She’s an empty shell of what she once was and is consumed physically, mentally and emotionally by the pain of her loss. It’s her entire life. I enjoyed seeing Erin’s interactions with Bella and watching her healing unfold throughout the pages of the book. Her loss was so raw and painful and my heart really went out to her. I could not even imagine what she went through.
The other person we meet in the book is Robin, Bella’s biological mother and Travis’s ex-girlfriend. We learn the reasons why she gave up Bella and how she came to realize that she missed the daughter she never got to meet.
All three characters eventually become intertwined as the story unfolds. This is a book that is about the characters, but it also has a fast moving plot too. If you are looking for a summer read, pick up this book. You won’t be able to put it down once you start!
I read The Good Father at lightning speed even though it was 347 pages long. It’s one of those books that you cannot put down and I even found myself thinking about it during the day wondering what was going to happen to the characters. Now that I’ve finished reading it, it’s still with me and it’s one I would read again a second time.
The story follows Travis, a young single dad, and his little girl, Bella. I really felt for Travis. He had such a hard life with his dad dying when he was young, growing up poor and then raising a daughter on his own. Then his mother died in a house fire and he was in dire straits….quite literally. I could feel his worry about not having enough for him and his daughter to eat and not having a place to live. The stress of not having a job and living in a terrible economy really took its toll on Travis and I thought Diane Chamberlain was exceptional at conveying this.
Some of Travis’s choices I certainly did not agree with, but I understood where he was coming from. Perhaps if it was me in the same situation, I might have done the same thing. He was doing what he had to in order to survive. I found many of the situations he found himself in immensely stressful. Even reading it, I was holding my breath and wondering what was going to happen. It just goes to show you that good people can find themselves in bad situations.
The other main character, Erin, lost her daughter in a terrible accident and has never recovered. She’s an empty shell of what she once was and is consumed physically, mentally and emotionally by the pain of her loss. It’s her entire life. I enjoyed seeing Erin’s interactions with Bella and watching her healing unfold throughout the pages of the book. Her loss was so raw and painful and my heart really went out to her. I could not even imagine what she went through.
The other person we meet in the book is Robin, Bella’s biological mother and Travis’s ex-girlfriend. We learn the reasons why she gave up Bella and how she came to realize that she missed the daughter she never got to meet.
All three characters eventually become intertwined as the story unfolds. This is a book that is about the characters, but it also has a fast moving plot too. If you are looking for a summer read, pick up this book. You won’t be able to put it down once you start!