It All Comes Down To This: The unforgettable story of three sisters discovering the truth about the past

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To make things more intriguing, meet the fabulous (LOVE) C.J. REYNOLDS. From South Carolina, originally from a well-to-do southern family with money and lots of control. He was sent to prison for a crime he did not commit due to his controlling father trying to teach him a lesson.

Thank you to St. Martin’s Press for providing me with an arc via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review. It All Comes Down to This, Therese Anne Fowler’s latest family drama, is the perfect example of my conundrum. It’s a story of three sisters who have recently lost their mother, all of whom are struggling to rearrange their lives after her death. The story is compelling enough. The narrator, Barrie Kreinik, did an adequate job of bringing the characters to life. Yet I found I was never fully engrossed in the story.The loss of their mother wasn’t exactly a surprise, they knew there was a strong potential for it on the horizon, but hoped for more time with her. Enter C.J. Reynolds, an enigmatic southerner ex-con with his own hidden past who complicates the situation. All is not what it seems, and everything is about to change. Claire, the middle child, is recently divorced from her husband, Chad. Although she is an accomplished and highly regarded pediatric cardiologist --- every parent’s dream! --- she thinks that her boring life can’t hold a candle to those of her sisters’. Her achievements, while hard-won and impressive, are not written up in magazines and journals like theirs are, and now that her marriage has unraveled, she doesn’t even have a stable relationship to brag about. What she does have, though, is a terrible secret: for years she has been hopelessly, desperately in love with a completely unattainable man.

The middle daughter Claire is a doctor who is recently divorced after her husband discovered she ‘settled’ for him. Claire juggles her career and child and dog, adding up to tension and high blood pressure. Okay, well, no, I am not high, I’m just relieved to be done with treatment. All those days of feeling terrible.” She coughed, and coughed some more, then, after catching her breath, said, “I’m so tired of that. And food doesn’t taste like anything. And I’ve got all these damned pills. Surgeries. Infusions. So many trips to the clinic. It takes up your whole life! It’s too much, and I’m glad to be done with it. Is that crazy?” I felt Therese captured all the qualities I had anticipated—yet, the plot was spinning in so many directions, no one thing ever happened that became the ‘main’ focus of the book.

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It's on the longer side of a listen at 11 hours and 37 minutes, easy to follow along at 2x. Barrie Kreinik was a perfect narrator. I SIMPLY adored Therese Anne Fowler’s prior book A Good Neighborhood. It was in fact one of my favorite reads of 2019. I, therefore, couldn’t wait to get my hands on her next release..and then I did. Jesus wants disciples. He wants those who are willing to be baptized into the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Those who will identify with Jesus’ death, burial, and resurrection through water baptism. Those who will identify with and unite with a local church filled with other disciples of Jesus. In the meantime, Arlo looks up to C.J. as a father figure, who lost his parents in a plane crash, and Ms. Callaghan is worried about his future since she is getting up in age and bad health. Arlo and CJ develop a strong bond—love these two together with the grandmother. CJ also has a grown daughter who lives in Portland. The mission is here and the mission is there. The mission is every place that has a breathing person.

You must have. But chemo brain, you know. Okay. I’m going to find the pipe and try it. I hope if the neighbors smell the smoke, they won’t give me any trouble about it.” When we go in the name of Jesus, on mission for Jesus, with the authority of Jesus, He is with us. We have His authority to go. The dialogue at times also felt very off. I'm not quoting exactly, but there is one point after a big reveal where a character responds not with the expected indignation, sadness, or anger, but with an (almost cheerful) "Wow. You've given me a lot to chew on!" which just felt so insincere and out of place it almost took me into eye-roll territory. I understand these characters needed to be unlikable on some level (and truly, all of them are in one way or another) but I think if they had felt more realistic I could have overlooked some of the frustration with their (very stupid) decisions.CHARACTERS: I LOVED the mother, Matriarch Marti Geller, as well as C.J., Arlo, and his grandmother. Well, just like a little newborn horse that stands up on its legs and tries to practice walking, so also, practice the mission this week. Pray for a missionary, offer to pray for someone in the community, serve someone else and tell them that you’re doing so because you love Jesus and Jesus loves them, share the story of how Jesus has changed you with a friend or neighbor; practice the mission. Remember, as you do so, Jesus is with you, to the very end.