Following Shadows: Book One of the Finding Home Series - A Gripping Fantasy Adventure Novel for Teens & Adults | Perfect for Book Clubs, Gifts, and Rainy Day Reading

This is the story of a typical modern day family - slightly dysfunctional but with all the good qualities. As the family faces the latest rehab crisis of the protagonist’s brother, the brother’s therapist asks his (the brother’s) father to open up about his experiences and hardships in Japanese concentration camps during World War II. The story alternates in following the lives of the family in their current situations, and snippets telling stories from the camps.I’ve always found historical fiction - particularly WWII - to be interesting, and this booked delved into a portion of the war that I haven’t really read much about. I found the story of young Jakob, his family, and the entire Pacific theater to be very compelling. The author has done her research and writes it all very well. In fact, I would have liked this book to be more about that story, and found myself wondering what happened to the other members of the family. There were hints here and there, but this book focused on specific timeframes and specific characters.I’m giving it 5-stars because my next comments are not a reflection on the author and her writing. But I was not interested in the current-day portion of the story. It made the book twice as long and I’m not a big fan of flashbacks. I do understand why the author was trying to tie the modern day family problems with the past, but I tend to be impatient with those who can’t get their life together, and it was a bit challenging at first to follow the back-and-forth nature of the narrative. After a while I got the hang of it and could follow along. And the current narrative was well written and easy to read. You’d never guess this was the author’s first book, it was smooth and professional. I will definitely read the next one.