Thank you to NetGalley for the ARC. Here is my honest review.

I could be persuaded to bump this up to 3.5 stars.

Very well written. The characters were very clear right from the start and the story had me engaged from the first chapter. It's hard not to cheer for someone who has spent his entire life trying to do the right thing--even at personal cost.

Thanks to NetGalley for the ARC for my Kindle.
I have read and purchase several of Charles Martin's books and enjoyed them all. "Send Down the Rain" is definitely one of his best books!

Another winner from Charles Martin who skillfully brings together a disparate set of characters and slowly reveals the secrets that connect them together. Forgiveness for past actions is a major theme of this book. Recommended.

Review based on copy received from NetGalley.

If you enjoy strong characters that you can root for, this book is for you. I loved the setting, the mysterious plot points, and the tone. Although it took me a little bit to get into, I swept through the last half of the book in one sitting. Incredible writing and will certainly not be my last read by Martin.

Thank you to Thomas Nelson and NetGalley for an advance e-copy of Send Down the Rain by Charles Martin in exchange for an honest review. I must admit that the first few chapters are quite baffling but the author soon knits them into his storyline and off we go with quite a book. Allie had inherited her Florida restaurant, the Blue Tornado, from her parents and, after two failed marriages, lost her life's work. Joseph, a Vietnam vet with too many tours of duty, has been a loner and drifter for most of his life due to all the emotional baggage that the war has left him with. Allie and Joseph had grown up together and there had always been love between the teenagers, till Joseph left for Vietnam. The book is basically about what happens when Allie and Joseph's paths collide, almost fifty years later. You will laugh and you will cry but, most of all, you will enjoy reading Send Down the Rain.

A great new story by one of my favorite authors!

Allie has had a rough life. What started as a promising childhood with loving parents owning a popular local restaurant was dashed when her father become addicted to gambling. Once her father went into debt, he started drinking, which led to physically abusing her mother. Her childhood sweetheart was lost to Vietnam. Her first husband was lost to drugs and trying to put him through rehab cost her the restaurant. Now her second husband has just been tragically killed in a crash with his semi not far from home. Even though their marriage was far from perfect, being left alone again might be all that Allie can take of life.

Joseph’s life isn’t perfect either. His father left him, his brother and mother when they were young. So they threw themselves into other things. Joseph became good at physical activities such as karate. His brother was good with people so he worked as a grocery sacker. Joseph ends up shipped to Vietnam where he serves four tours, but each tour takes its toll. He becomes a trained killer and is tasked to do things that never leave his dreams at night. He can never shake all the bad that he is done in life no matter how much good he does. This is why he has isolated himself in a cabin, but fate has ways of bringing people back together when they least expect it.

As usual, Martin brings an incredible story that life that is entertaining and heart wrenching all at the same time. Allie and Jo-Jo were meant to be together, but circumstances in life kept them apart. And they were not perfect by any means. That is one of the things I love most about the characters that Martin develops. Each character is extremely flawed and from the outside you would probably want to avoid them if you ever met them. But as you get to know them, their edges soften and you begin to understand them. In fact, you actually want to be friends with them. The unlikely cast of characters includes a drug addict, alcoholics, physical abuse, Vietnam war vet, and illegal immigrants.

This book is packed full of family issues, romance, PTSD, and even action with a Mexican drug cartel. But through all of the circumstances, wounds heal and they are able to become somewhat of a family. The theme of the story is forgiveness and it takes the entire story for Joseph to finally accept that. He has tried to atone for what the has done in the past through good deeds, but it is never enough.

There is so much that goes on in this book that the only way to understand it is to just read it. I highly recommend this book for readers that just want to enjoy a great story!

I received a complimentary copy of this book from the publisher. The views and opinions expressed within are my own.

This is my first Charles Martin book and WOW! It is, hands down, the best thing I've read in quite awhile. Nowhere near predictable. Surprises at every turn. I cannot possibly write a review to do this book justice.
Joseph (JoJo) has such compassion and a caring heart. He suffers greatly, before allowing anyone he cares about to. Even to the point that much of his suffering is all based on a lie by someone once very close to him.
Allie and JoJo were friends from childhood, with JoJo and his brother Bobby even coming to her rescue from her drunken dad. Life took them different places and it was oh, so great when life brought them together once again forty-five years later.
PTSD issues and a reminder for all of us on the reception our Vietnam veterans received when coming back home. Heart-wrenching.
Great ending, except for Rosco.
This story took me through so many emotions.
Charles Martin has so many characters in this story with their lives all woven together. Amazing talent! I will be reading more of his books!
I received a complimentary copy of this book from Thomas Nelson through NetGalley. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own.

Not all casualties of the Vietnam war were fatal. Deep emotional and psychological casualties were brought home. This is the story of how two brothers reconciled their relationship after one of them came home from the war and the other became a senator. The story flips back and forth through their memories of growing up with a single mom to their present day situations. It is also a love story to be reckoned with. For one of the brothers.

Roll every cliche in and about contemporary womens' literature into one book and you would probably have a pretty close facsimile to this book. I was expecting more after reading and loving The Mountain Between Us (read the book, don't bother with the movie) but this was so cheesy. I also didn't like its "message" that you are a horrible person and traitor if you disagree with and/or protest war. This book was like one long commercial in support of the military, which is not a bad thing but things are not always so black and white. I also didn't like the treatment of immigrants and found portions of this book to be quite insensitive to people of color. I would not recommend it.

Send Down the Rain came out earlier this month on May 8, 2018, and you can purchase HERE.

The military would fly me home to deliver my men to their families. Sometimes it was just me and one casket. One time it was me and twelve caskets. I'd leave over there, fly thirty-six hours, deliver my friends, or their pieces, to their loved ones, fly thirty-six hours back alone, land, hope on a helo, and they'd drop me back in the jungle. Somewhere in the process the place in my heart that felt things like love and desire died. It just quit feeling.

Send Down The Rain Is a story of P TSD, secrets, being in a loveless marriage and loss. Joseph is a Vietnam vet who has secluded himself from the woman he loved and the brother he loved. He finds a woman in the woods with a child running from - - Hey wait I can't tell you everything, you will be surprised thugh - believe you me. What does Joseph do? What about his brother and the woman he loves? Do things work out?

I loved this book! Was such a heartfelt story! These characters will stay with me a long time. It is a story of loss and finding love in the end

Something for everyone in this book. JoJo's life has been an adventure of ups and downs but also one of love. I like the fact that he still had the heart to give others even after the trials he's been through. Vietnam war veterans paid a dear price so maybe he can relate to other's hardships a little better than most. A very touching story.

Charles Martin has been one of my favorite authors for years and he has once again not disappointed. Each book is unique but they all will touch you on a deep emotional level. Send Down the Rain is a moving story of love, family and sacrifice that I will be recommending to my reader friends.

Romance, clean, but really a novel; mild Christian faith elements
Joseph's life story, his secrets, his worries, the love of his life, and his family story is a poignant, compelling read. As I say this is a romance, it is really his life story, his secrets, his heart, his caring for all those he loves, and the struggle against good and evil in the world. His heart, his dog, the world that he protects and cares about is revealed over the course of the novel. Between flashbacks, the different people that Jo Jo (Joseph) protects, watches over and helps over the course of the novel, this story is so compelling.
The story of Jo Jo/Joseph's caring heart, his loved ones, and the people who he protects is passionate, explosive, heart wrenching, and poignant. The hurts of the past, and those in his heart as they gradually get exposed over the course of the novel is a wonderful, beautiful story of love, hope, and forgiveness. Joseph's sacrifice, his moments where he 'saves' others and gives freely of himself and finally builds a home in the paradise where he grew up, paint him as a Christ figure in a way. He helps others, fights for them, pays their debts, redeems them from the hurts and losses they suffer from other's evil intentions and acts, stands trial for defending those he loves, beautiful Christ figure in the sacrifices, payments, redemption, and other aspects of this story, including the Vietnam setting as well. C. M. has crafted a true hero, and a beautiful novel that anyone would enjoy reading. Humanity at it's finest in the face of evil, and love and goodness in it's purest form.

A book hangover is said to be the inability to start a new book because you are still emotionally attached to the previous one.

Once again, Charles Martin has given me a hangover.

Charles Martin is, for me, that author whose book I will buy without question. No synopsis needed. No reviews read. As an author, he has proven himself to me without a shadow of a doubt that his stories will amaze me and

Send Down the Rain is no different. A Vietnam vet with a questionable past, an illegal immigrant doing her best to keep her family safe, and a widow trying to figure out where it all went wrong. Martin puts you there, in the moment, as soon as your eyes rest on his words. He takes you away and places you in that remote cabin in the woods or in Florida, along the coast. He has the ability to transport you like no one I’ve ever read. And I haven’t even gotten to the characters in any sort of detail yet.

He makes you care. About people who don’t truly exist, not really. They are but characters, who are this illusion of something real. Because they could be real. And that little bit of realism makes you care like you didn’t even know you could. Jo-Jo is still on my mind, and I think he will be for some time.

Send Down the Rain is a story of love, loss, and redemption. You’d be a fool not to read it.

I received an advanced copy of this amazing book. All opinions are my own.

When Charles Martin tells a story, he infuses it with such tremendous atmosphere and mood that you feel as if you're right in the middle of it. Straight from the top, during a prologue set over fifty years previously, you become a part of this story as you sit with brothers Joseph and Bobby as they try to process the fact that their family is changing.

Martin then takes you to a truck tanker explosion, which appears to be unrelated to the two boys. As is his wont to do, he shows you how these two are very much intertwined, along with a third thread involving a young woman and her two children. Thanks to his fluid storytelling, he wends these three threads together, revealing his characters and their motivations. There are a LOT of people in this book, yet you feel like you get to know them all.

I was struck most by Martin's theme of forgiveness. Nearly everyone in here needs to be forgiven for something, whether venial or mortal. As Martin shows, even the most innocuous infraction has its ripples, its effects felt deeper than the perpetrator may realize. The gift of forgiveness, then, is reciprocal. The giver needs it as much as the receiver.

"So one important lesson of Vietnam is, the first casualty of an unwise and unjust war are the American troops called on to fight it. Their service should be honored." (Paula Begala)

Forty five years is a very long time to hold a secret. For Joseph, a Vietnam War veteran, he has been plagued not only by this secret but also by the years he has been separated from the woman he loved, Allie, his brother, a now famous Senator, and the home he once knew and loved. Can Joseph ever go back? He is so scared by what he did, what he saw, and what he became in fighting this war.

Joseph is a wonderful man man who is tenderhearted and lives alone secluded in a cabin in the woods. He discovers a woman and her two young children lost and running from an evil drug cartel man. Joseph volunteers to see this family safely back to Florida where relatives and friends are migrant workers. Joseph witnesses the aftermath of a terrible accident, an accident that will reunite him with his lost love, Allie. She has, through the indiscretions of her husband lost everything, including her highly successful restaurant. Joseph pledges to help Allie rebuild and though the fires of their former love kindle, the secret Joseph carries will destroy what they once had.

This story was told with much compassion and a fine look into the torment that many veterans have. The Vietnam War, any war really, has not only destroyed and maimed millions, it has also left those who have returned home with scars that mar their life and their soul. Mr Martin has written a book that not only makes you feel and like his characters, but also makes one ever so cognizant of the sacrifices these brave men and women gave for their country. From the Vietnam War, so many of these soldiers who did come home came back to the scorn and vitriol of a country they had sworn to defend. Dreams are destroyed by war, hopes are often dashed, but the human spirit is strong and sometimes all that has been lost can be found once again.

Thank you to Charles Martin for a very emotional touching novel, Thomas Nelson Publishing, and NetGalley for providing me with and advanced copy of this novel.

This book... I don't feel the need to repeat the storyline, it's been done. I lean toward speaking about this story and the ripple effect Charles Martin always seems to create in each and every story he's written.
My first trip to the grocery after finishing this book, I picked up a package a Oreo cookies. I don't like them and never did, but I wanted to take them down to the river near my house and toss a few across the water. I'll never look at Oreo's the same.
No matter what he writes Charles seems to have a way of pulling you into the story and letting it burrow deep, you're not just a reader, he pulls you right into the story. You could be any of the characters in the book. The two brothers, Joseph and Bobby have an inextricable bond and a story between them that only they know. One that calls both of them back home. One brother who can't seem to settle, and one who's settled for something other than. Allie, Joseph's childhood sweetheart who he left behind when he went to Viet Nam. Multiple tours coming home with a case of PTSD, keeps him away from home, but it doesn't mean he doesn't have a life and the things he does with his life, we see in flashbacks are at times eye opening, yet like the story will tug at the very heart of your being.
This story is about many things, sacrifices made in silence, a redemption of sorts, acts of love for no other reason than love itself and what the selfless act of one person can do through his lifetime.
An incredible story told by a writer with a gift to wrap themselves up in his stories. He just knocked this one out of the park. It truly is not to be missed.
It deserves so much more than 5 stars.

Thank you to NetGalley and Thomas Nelson Publishing for the advance copy for review.

Right from reading the first sentence, I was mesmerized.
2 siblings sharing a memory during a traumatic time
I could relate and I could not stop reading.

The story then moves to 53 years later.
We meet a lonely man who is suffering unresolved feelings, but when he sees a
dangerous situation- he immediately steps in and steps up. He helps the family that
desperately needs assistance and he personally takes them to a better place.
Then, he takes a scenic trip
where he visits an old friend who also needs his help.
While going down memory lane we get more of the story and background.

Charles Martin shows us the other side to veterans, to PTSD, to drug abuse, to illegal aliens, to lies
in a way that I have never read in a book before. I will think of this book for a long time from now.

A veteran living with scars inside and out.
who needs sleep because he is bone and soul tired
in a storm with lightning and thunder and high winds
asking for God to 'Send Down the Rain'
He is needing to wash away the pain wash the past back to past
to wash the dirty places clean to wash life's storm over him

For us living in this angry, evil world; this World at War-
we need to go back to childhood
to that hope to that love
Love heals the scattered pieces!

I was gripping the book and could not put it down!

I read and loved Charles Martin’s The Mountain Between Us so I was super excited when I saw Charles had another book on Netgalley! I requested Send Down The Pain and the day I got it I dove right in! The story Charles crafted of these two brothers (Joseph and Bobby) was amazing. They were raised by their mother due to the fact their father walked out when they were ten. As they grew they went into different directions, Joseph went to Vietnam and Bobby became a Senator.
Charles Martin deals with some heavy issues like PTSD, addiction and abuse but he deals with it in such graceful manner. I really enjoyed this book and look forward to reading more from Charles!