I love a book that draws me in deeper and deeper until I just can't wait to read it again! You can see things unfolding, and you wonder if this or that is going to happen. Sometimes you're right and sometimes you're wrong.

What a wonderful story! Although it was emotionally draining, it was also deeply satisfying! The characters seemed real!! The whole story was believable! I felt like I knew them. I wanted to know them! Intrigue, mystery, romance, adventure, and satisfaction!

I felt sad when I finished the book! I wanted the story to keep on going...

I consider a good read to be anything that can transport me mentally into the book so that its not so much reading as it is taking a journey into another world. As I walk through that other world the best journey is the one that will cause me to smile, laugh and cry tears of joy and heartbreak. This book did all the above and more.The only slightly negative about this book was that in the beginning, I found myself flipping back through to see if I had missed something only to realize that the author had never revealed what I was looking for yet. Once I began to trust my reading and memory skills, this book quickly sucked me into a world where my emotions ran raw. This book centers around a man and a young boy who dont know who their parents are and in up in the foster care of Uncle Willie. You will quickly find yourself hurting, laughing, crying and overwhelmed with joy as you journey through the lives of these characters as they try to discover who or whose they really are. This book will break your heart, but in the end, it will be worth the journey.

I am a big fan of Charles Marting and don't know why it took me this long to read this book. Maybe because he mentioned it in They Turned the World Unside Down which is a must read. I was heart warming and soul searching like most of his novels. I am wondering if the name of the boat is where the boat in Water Keeper got it's name? I am still wonderin why it took so long for Unc to tell the truth about his brother. Uncle Willie is a great role model for all dads. I loved all his sayings. It takes me back to my childhood when one would hear sayings like them all the time. I recommend this book to everyone

I have to say that The story started out a little slow but once I reached the first chapter I was hooked. I love Chuck's writting technique and the characters were relational and true in the eyes of my soul. I'm currently involved in a sexual abuse case with a young girl and this story resinated with me. I heard great words of wisdom and I just loved this book.

This is a story every southerner must read because we all have an Uncle Willee, whose claim to fame is his hilarious one liners termed as Williee-isms in the book -my favorite including "It's so dry the trees are bribing the dogs" and a beautiful but haunted cousin Tommye, as well as a friend like Chase Walker, who is good as gold but walks around aimlessly looking for something he's had most of his life. When a kid is found abandoned, abused, and acrimoniously silent, Chase, a local reporter searches out his past and in turn, finds his own. Martin ceremoniously tells a story of keeping secrets as long as necessary, crazy relatives on the proverbial back forty acres, and the sacrificial love that only fathers can give as close to your heart as possible; something all southerners instinctively know from birth but it's worth saying again and reading about.