You Were Made for The RIver

“The River is magical…The River is wild, free, and untamable…The River is alive. The River is timeless, and it’s moving all over the world.”

Gabriel Clarke was at home with the River, as was his father and his father before him. It was safe to say he loved the River. But when Gabriel was only five years old, he was witness to an event that forever changed his life, an event that built an impenetrable wall between his heart and the River.

But the River never stops moving. It never stops calling. “You were made for the River.”

The story of The River begins in Colorado, winds to Kansas, and cascades back to Colorado and finally into every crevice and gorge of the human heart, leaving everything changed in its steady current.

Michael Neale, Grammy award winning songwriter, forges ahead with his debut novel, The River.  It is passionately filled with characters you will come to know and love in just a few pages and ones you will cry with before you are done. Neale will raft into your heart as the River opens up new points of entry.  The River will lead the reader to reflect on life and inspire to live a life of purpose.  It is a book saturated with real-life hurt and pain, but never without hope for overcoming. When looking your greatest fear directly in the face, The River is the book saying, “Go for It!”

One of the characters in The River says:

I’ve run The River hundreds of times, and right before I hit those rapids, I still get that butterfly feeling in my gut—and then the rush of adrenaline takes over. I think that feeling will always be there whenever you connect with something bigger than you are. It’s part of what makes life beautiful. If you stay connected only to that which is small enough for you to understand and control, then you have nothing—no adventure, no destiny, and no purpose.

 I recommend this book to anyone wanting to leave the safety of the bank and ride the rapids of life to the other side of the places that have dammed up the heart. This is for those who need to know and believe and hear that:  You were made for The River!

(This book was provided at no cost from the Thomas Nelson Blogging for Books program in exchange for an honest review.)