Readers of the Thoene Zion Chronicles and Covenant books (myself included) have been dying to find out what happened in the period between the series. Bodie & Brock Thoene return to the 1940s and revist old friends and introduce new ones. Enjoy this insight into the main characters for their newly released The Gathering Storm.
Over to you, Bodie:~
Lorelai Bittick
Loralei is 18 when we first meet her and 22 during her escape from the German Blitzkrieg in 1940. Over the course of the story she progresses from immature and self-centered to courageous and self- assured.
Texan by birth, she has lived abroad most of her life as the child of missionary parents. Through the time period of the novel she experiences loss and sorrow, as well as love and hope.
In appearance and quick-wittedness think Kate Hudson.
Eben Golah
Eben is ruggedly handsome. Visualize Clive Owen.
Eben is thirty-ish and appears to never change, but the gravity of his nature sometimes makes him seem older. He has a mysterious past, operating in the clandestine German resistance to Hitler, and trying to spirit Jews out of harm’s way.
Eben has great compassion for the victims of tyranny and oppression and is not afraid to put his life on the line. But he is clearly holding something back….what secret is beneath his surface?
Background to the story
The Gathering Storm, told as Loralei’s first person account, follows the turmoil in Europe from before WWII, through the explosive drama of the Nazi sweep westward and the flood tide of desperate refugees, on into the Battle of Britain. Loralei must learn to set aside personal grief and loss in order to battle evil by saving one life at a time.
Synopsis
As Nazi forces tighten the noose, Loralei must flee her beloved Germany.
But is anywhere safe from Adolf Hitler’s evil grasp? When her father, a German opposition leader, is imprisoned by the Nazis, Loralei is forced into hiding and then on a harrowing flight that will eventually lead her to London. In the midst of grief and deep losses of her own, Loralei finds meaning in helping the overwhel
ming flood of refugees, including thousands of children, who escaped Hitler’s reach and made their way to freedom, yet sacrificed everything in exchange for their lives.
While in London, Loralei meets a friend of her father’s from her pre-war life in Germany…and falls deeply, passionately in love. Yet he’s a man she can never marry – a mysterious figure who closely guards an age-old secret. As air-raid sirens now wail over blacked-out London and Luftwaffe fighters fill the British skies, Loralei looks for a new reason to live in hope, even amidst the debris of so much brokenness.
Thanks for sharing, Bodie. My 1980s copies of both the Zion Covenant and Zion Chronicles are very well read and I’m really looking forward to adding The Zion Diaries to my collection.
On Monday, the spotlight shines on Lisa Samson’s May Seymour from Resurrection in May
Relz Reviewz Extras
Visit Brock & Bodie’s website
August 5, 2010 at 1:30 pm
This sounds fantastic! I was so excited to hear about this new series. I loved the Zion Covenant and Zion Chronicles when I was a teen and I used to reread them all the time, especially the Zion Covenant which was my favorite. I enjoyed your post 🙂
August 5, 2010 at 3:35 pm
I just read and reviewed this book as well. I loved it! Also looking forward to the future books Zion Diaries.
Love the photo's, yummy Clive Owen.
August 5, 2010 at 4:56 pm
Thanks so much for giving us the chance to share about The Gathering Storm! I really do think Kate Hudson would be the best Loralei and Clive Owen is the perfect Eben! Since the novel is now in pre-production for a movie, we'll send the link to our movie producers! Many blessings! Big Hugs! Bodie
August 5, 2010 at 5:31 pm
Sounds good to me.
August 7, 2010 at 6:23 am
Thanks to you all for dropping by 🙂
Bodie ~ that sounds excellent! Hope to see them on the big screen soon 😉
April 23, 2023 at 8:54 am
Just read this book for the first time and my mind’s still spinning. I should probably reread it. At first, I was dead sure that it was a true story. And then the more I found out about Eben Golah, the more confused I was 😆 His constant reference to “centuries”… at first I thought he was just being sarcastic. But THEN I realized… 😳 And I’m still confused. It’s almost creepy and yet it’s fantastic. BRILLIANT writing. Although the way the two love stories were handled, drifting back and forth between Eben and Varrick… I didn’t like that much. I half-wish that Varrick had died when she thought he did, so there wouldn’t have been such conflicting interests of love. And the way the character loved Eben, then suddenly loved Varrick, then loved Eben again, then loved Varrick again and so on and so forth… ugh… I think that was the only part of the book I didn’t much like. And there I go, rambling again. I should stop. But still an amazing book, loved it, I’m definitely going to be devouring all of the Thoene’s books from now on!!!