Crazy Book Tours: Cross Currents by John Shors

Title: Cross Currents
Author: John Shors
Publisher: NAL Trade
Publish Date: September 6, 2011
Source: I received a copy as part of the Crazy Book Tour.

Why You're Reading This Book:

• You like exotic locales.
• You like stories about the human ties that bind us.

What's the Story?:

From Goodreads.com: "Thailand's pristine Ko Phi Phi island attracts tourists from around the world. There, struggling to make ends meet, small-resort owners Lek and Sarai are happy to give an American named Patch room and board in exchange for his help. But when Patch's brother, Ryan, arrives, accompanied by his girlfriend, Brooke, Lek learns that Patch is running from the law, and his presence puts Lek's family at risk. Meanwhile, Brooke begins to doubt her love for Ryan while her feelings for Patch blossom.
In a landscape where nature's bounty seems endless, these two families are swept up in an approaching cataclysm that will require all their strength of heart and soul to survive..."

My Two Cents:

Oh boy, this book absolutely sucked me in. Stors sets the scene on a gorgeous tropical island in Thailand. This sounds like a place that I would love to visit. Gorgeous beaches, clear water, yummy food. Stors then introduces us to some wonderful characters. There are the American brothers: Ryan and Patch. There is the gorgeous American woman: Brooke, Ryan's girlfriend. Then there is the Rainbow Resort family: Sarai and Lek and their 3 cute little children and the incomparable grandmother, Yai. Stors gives us these characters and makes us really care for them.

The first half of the book is spent exploring the ties between all of these characters. We get to see their dreams, their strengths and also their weaknesses. We know who they love. We know what they want out of life. They are really 3D characters. It's really the characters and the connections that make this story. I really cared for all of the characters.

The story takes place during December of 2004, which if you recall is when the major tsunami occurred. I really liked that this book spoke about a subject that I haven't seen tackled in fiction before. It was really fresh and unique. I'm always excited when I come across a book that covers something off the beaten path. As Stors says in the afterword, the tsunami is something that there really was not enough coverage of. It totally devastated some very poor countries and destroyed so many lives. I thought Stors did a really good job of writing about this very difficult time in a very respectful and sensitive manner.