Book Review: "Book of Days" by James L. Rubart

Summary from Christianbook.com: What if you were losing your most treasured memories? Of your wife who passed away, of your dad who died far too young? What if you heard of a book where all of those memories are recorded and you could get them back? And what if this book also told your future? Would you believe it? Would you go on a desperate search for it, holding onto a strand of hope it would bring healing and answer all your questions?

Young Cameron Vaux's mind is slipping. Memories of his wife, killed two years earlier in a car accident, are vanishing just as his late father predicted they would. Memories he knows are critical to remember. But his only hope for answers, and a cure, seems to lie in search for a book--and a God--he doesn't believe in.

I was intrigued by this story. Cameron's quest was to find a mysterious book that his dementia suffering father talked about on his deathbed. This leads him to a place in Oregon, where Cameron finds that he is losing his memory as well. Memories of his wife, who died tragically years before, keep surfacing to help him try to find his goal of searching for the Book of Days. These memories contain clues to know what exactly is inside the book, a book that many have been searching for many years.

The story is a bit supernatural at times though it feels more like magic realism than straight out paranormal or supernatural elements. I really found the bits about the cult-like atmosphere intriguing as well as Ann's, a journalist and friend to Cameron's wife, journey to finding out about her mother's background. There is some romance in the story but it's not really central to the plot and doesn't distract the reader from Cameron's main goal.

However when I got near the end of the story, it kinda fell flat to me. I understand the concept and I understand the symbolism but it wasn't what I wanted for the story. I guess I had been expecting a huge revelation or something that involved the story to go out with a bang. I just felt a bit let down. This is not to say that other readers won't appreciate what is written, but for me I just felt that the story had been built up a lot on this one plot and then just went nowhere.

Still Rubart's writing is engaging and well written. The first 3/4 of the book has a lot of twists and turns and there's a lot to think about in the story. I really liked Cameron and Ann's characters as we got to know more about their back story as they went on a discovery to find out more about their own selves. The story is fast paced and is a page turner. I haven't read Rubart's previous book Rooms yet, but I have a feeling that it will be sneaking its way up higher on my TBR pile soon.

Book of Days by James L. Rubart is published by B and H Publishing (2011)

This ARC was provided by the publisher

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