"Chasing The Wind is a heartfelt depiction of love and familial ties"

• ASIN: ‎ B095MLBBSN
• Publication date: ‎ May 22, 2021
• Language: ‎ English
• Print length: ‎ 262 pages
• Genre: Christian Fiction and Romance

The BookViral Review:

A survivor of unspeakable loss, an uncertain future and the first blush of love set the scene for what proves to be a powerful debut from Maria Rivera. Combining insightful writing, luminous characterization and a lively plot Chasing The Wind’s cumulative emotional power captures us unaware in its ability to move us as deeply as it does.

The twin themes of Chasing The Wind are the strength of familial bonds, especially the bond of love, and the gift of hope with something fierce, noble and deeply affecting in Rivera’s prose. Writing with directness and a fine ear for the nuances of everyday speech Rivera’s  characters seem real and plausible after only a few words, they are uniformly strong and most importantly they sidestep genre clichés to create a rare sense of vibrancy.

The result is a novel of intense familiarity. We understand quickly enough who Marisol Colucci and Felipe Ortega’s characters are and what their lives are like, but we have no idea how their relationship will ultimately evolve because so much depends on Marisol’s legal right to live in the US and the spectre of loss that lingers over her. But where far too many novels seem to enact rituals with plot lines and variations to watch out for Chasing The Wind taps into the accidental nature of life, the unscripted tragedies that often shapes it and the power of faith.

On this level, Chasing The Wind is a heartfelt depiction of love and familial ties that manages to be witty, warm, uplifting, and it’s here that Rivera invites us to peer closely at each of her main characters. Wwanting us to know them as individuals as opposed to bit players in Marisol Colucci’s life as she reminds us of the different spheres we inhabit when we fall in love and the enduring role of faith in how we make sense of life as our relationships evolve.

Proving a powerful start to Maria Rivera’s series Chasing The Wind is highly recommended.