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There Will Be Stars

"Faith Doesn't mean checking your brain at the door every church or throwing all you think you know out some stained-glass window.  It means trusting.  I have to trust now.  It's all I have."
There Will Be Stars, by Billy Coffey, is the story of Bobby Barnes, a man who lives in a small southern town and has settled into a life filled with alcohol and sadness.  He cares about no one but himself and his 8-year-old twin sons, Matthew and Mark, until he is greeted by death one day and Heaven isn't quite what he expected.  Bobby finds himself stuck in a time lop with six others from his small town.  The longer he is there, the more suspicious he becomes of this place he is stuck in.  He also begins to question himself as a person and the life he lived.
I am not a super religious person.  So I was shocked when I found out that Billy Coffey is a christian author.  I don't read religious books.  But this book is so good and written so well that you don't even realize that's what you are reading and it was by far one of my favorite reads this year.  This story had me on edge the entire time!  Ultimately I found it to be a story about the choices we make and who we are.  It's also a story about faith, but not in the way you'd think.  
Billy Coffey has a beautiful writing style.  The character of Bobby was so well done that I fell in love with him immediately despite his downfalls.  In fact, his downfalls made him even more likable.  None of us are without our flaws.  
Trigger warning...there is a lot of alcohol abuse and the loss of a child.

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