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Finding My Thunder
The story takes place in the late sixties. Hilly Grunier has been in love with Danny Boyd since she was a kid telling scary stories on summer nights at the fire hydrant while Danny pulled close on his bike. But when Danny is thirteen, their friendship ends when he and his brother Sukey have a vicious fight over Hilly. Years pass, and Hilly carries a secret and growing love as she watches Danny rise athletically to the top of their school’s food chain. He even dates the prom queen and rumor says they are engaged. Now Danny has graduated and shows up in her dad’s shop looking for some temporary employment until the army picks him off for Vietnam. He’s thrown aside his college scholarship and the golden girl. He seems to be searching for something new before he leaves town. He seems to be searching for her. Hilly can’t let him go overseas without showing him how she feels. But once he’s gone, her own battle intensifies. It’s a long road to finding her thunder.
364 pages, Kindle Edition
First published March 28, 2015
About the author
Diane Munier
13 books84 followersLiving comfortably in the heart of America with the people I love. I live an extroverted life, but I'm a genuine introvert. An urban kid, I spent much of my youth running in various neighborhood establishments. There I met many colorful characters and I learned to love them and be fascinated by them. My love of story comes from them. I learned to sit on a bar stool or a kitchen chair or in a pew and hear story. There is no greater honor than to hear someone's story. If you feel that way about the tales I tell...what more could I ask.
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Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews
March 31, 2015
Diane Munier's writing and style is just gorgeous.
Her stories connect.
The characters make you feel down to your marrow.
You are pulled to your childhood while Diane has you crying and laughing while she fillets your heart....only fill it with a cadence of words youll remember for days and sew you up forever changed.
Not enough good things to say. Full review to come.
Her stories connect.
The characters make you feel down to your marrow.
You are pulled to your childhood while Diane has you crying and laughing while she fillets your heart....only fill it with a cadence of words youll remember for days and sew you up forever changed.
Not enough good things to say. Full review to come.
May 16, 2015
Diane Munier has cleverly managed to memorialize the late 1960’s in this powerful story of a young girl. Nearly a junior in high school, Hilly Grunier has a voice of her own. Unique, tough, and fiercely independent, she is the most compelling of her kind. We feel sorry for her and we root for her, and we question if she will make it through this dark time. There is some humor in her circumstances - smelling like iron and looking filthy in her baggy shirt. It all seems so desperate but there is a glimmer of hope on the horizon because she won’t let her mother’s ‘crazy’ in. She loves black-haired Danny with a passion - a love on pause and ready to move forward. And her drug is hope.
Munier’s writing is impeccable. She has managed to crawl into the mind of a young girl so that we can see what she sees and feel what she feels. One of my favorite paragraphs sums up the essence of what this story is about.
Mama . . . I wasn’t crazy and I wouldn’t let crazy in. Naomi . . . hard to look in her eyes. Eugene . . . traveling the gray between the two houses. Lonnie . . . I’d stood up to him. Robert . . . waking up the girl in me. Danny . . . blind to what was meant. And me . . . blind to myself . . . until now. This was my Vietnam. They were the frontline for my civil rights. And I was demanding. They just didn’t know it yet. They didn’t know me. I’d only met her myself.
I admire Hilly for all her secrets, her trials and her sense of loyalty. She does nothing by half-measures, an all or nothing kind of girl who really gets under your skin. It’s a haunting tale that will stay with you for weeks to come.
Munier’s writing is impeccable. She has managed to crawl into the mind of a young girl so that we can see what she sees and feel what she feels. One of my favorite paragraphs sums up the essence of what this story is about.
Mama . . . I wasn’t crazy and I wouldn’t let crazy in. Naomi . . . hard to look in her eyes. Eugene . . . traveling the gray between the two houses. Lonnie . . . I’d stood up to him. Robert . . . waking up the girl in me. Danny . . . blind to what was meant. And me . . . blind to myself . . . until now. This was my Vietnam. They were the frontline for my civil rights. And I was demanding. They just didn’t know it yet. They didn’t know me. I’d only met her myself.
I admire Hilly for all her secrets, her trials and her sense of loyalty. She does nothing by half-measures, an all or nothing kind of girl who really gets under your skin. It’s a haunting tale that will stay with you for weeks to come.
April 22, 2015
"This was my heart. Hate could squeeze me, choke me, pierce me…but it could not choke the love from me…it would not. Love had to win."
[Munier, Diane (2015-03-28). Finding My Thunder (Kindle Locations 3053-3054). Kindle Edition.]
This is the battle cry of Hilly Grunier, narrator and heroine of Diane Munier's sophomore novel, Finding My Thunder. As we meet Hilly, dangerous secrets swirl around her, accusations lurking in every hello and how-de-do. But Hilly doesn't fear small-town scandal or the speculation about her relationship with the Negro woman living behind her house. She doesn't fear her father's temper or her mother's babbling. Opinions of the faceless town or rudeness at school...none of these trifles make the short list.
Hilly Grunier fears one thing and one thing alone: never having a chance with Danny Boyd, the eternal, undisputed champion of her heart.
It doesn’t matter that Danny hasn’t spoken to her in years, that the childhood incident in the woods ruined their relationship forever. It doesn’t matter that Danny has a popular, pretty girlfriend who represents everything Hilly is not and does not wish to be.
All that matters is Hilly loves Danny, and love has to win.
Read the full review at http://www.deniseleoramadre.com/2015/...
[Munier, Diane (2015-03-28). Finding My Thunder (Kindle Locations 3053-3054). Kindle Edition.]
This is the battle cry of Hilly Grunier, narrator and heroine of Diane Munier's sophomore novel, Finding My Thunder. As we meet Hilly, dangerous secrets swirl around her, accusations lurking in every hello and how-de-do. But Hilly doesn't fear small-town scandal or the speculation about her relationship with the Negro woman living behind her house. She doesn't fear her father's temper or her mother's babbling. Opinions of the faceless town or rudeness at school...none of these trifles make the short list.
Hilly Grunier fears one thing and one thing alone: never having a chance with Danny Boyd, the eternal, undisputed champion of her heart.
It doesn’t matter that Danny hasn’t spoken to her in years, that the childhood incident in the woods ruined their relationship forever. It doesn’t matter that Danny has a popular, pretty girlfriend who represents everything Hilly is not and does not wish to be.
All that matters is Hilly loves Danny, and love has to win.
Read the full review at http://www.deniseleoramadre.com/2015/...
June 9, 2015
I really enjoyed this book. Hilly Grunier plods along in life with an alcoholic, abusive father who doesn't really seem to know she exists, and with a mother who is mentally ill. She is and has been in love with Danny Boyd for years. Danny is good for Hilly. With him she learns to be stronger than what she thought she was. She learns her family's secrets and decides to let them make her into a better person. The author did a wonderful job of creating the time period and the characters. You feel the tension of the time with all the racial tension, the Vietnam War, the hippies and free love. She gives you characters that are so well drawn that you can't help but hate some of them. Hilly's father was a real piece of work. I hated him from the beginning. I understood part of what shaped him, yet I could not forget the way he let his hatred of her mother and Naomi cloud his opinion of Hilly. I think I realized how strong my feelings were when he tried to get to move out of the house. This author has a way of weaving the feeling through the writing that makes it almost poetic. I will be reading and reviewing her book Me and Mom Fall For Spencer in a week and now that I've read this one I can't wait to start on it.
I received a copy to facilitate my review. The opinions expressed here are my own.
I received a copy to facilitate my review. The opinions expressed here are my own.
January 11, 2016
Can't stop thinking about this book.
So meaningful, poignant and true. This story is alive.
I think what I find most admirable is the honesty in these pages. How the author holds nothing back.
What I took away from this story is that there are people in this world that think they have it all... money, cars, family, the good life. But most of us don't have all the faith, strength, integrity, character, wisdom, happiness and fulfillment that sixteen year old Hillary Grunier does.
There is something here in this book for everyone to take away with them. Naomi, so strong in her faith, finds her way straight to your heart and her voice stays in there, talking to you long after you've closed the pages.
Hilly Grunier is the strongest female character I've ever read. The way she overcomes wave by wave of strife, opposition, sorrow and sadness and never lets it take her, but always fighting, building, growing and learning from those things, makes her the most admirable character I've ever known. The way she listens. The way she has faith. The way she fights.
I connect so deeply to Hilly and Naomi that they've stayed with me for years after reading this the first time.
And though this is the third time I've read this, it feels like the first time every time.
This wasn't a book for me, it was real.
So meaningful, poignant and true. This story is alive.
I think what I find most admirable is the honesty in these pages. How the author holds nothing back.
What I took away from this story is that there are people in this world that think they have it all... money, cars, family, the good life. But most of us don't have all the faith, strength, integrity, character, wisdom, happiness and fulfillment that sixteen year old Hillary Grunier does.
There is something here in this book for everyone to take away with them. Naomi, so strong in her faith, finds her way straight to your heart and her voice stays in there, talking to you long after you've closed the pages.
Hilly Grunier is the strongest female character I've ever read. The way she overcomes wave by wave of strife, opposition, sorrow and sadness and never lets it take her, but always fighting, building, growing and learning from those things, makes her the most admirable character I've ever known. The way she listens. The way she has faith. The way she fights.
I connect so deeply to Hilly and Naomi that they've stayed with me for years after reading this the first time.
And though this is the third time I've read this, it feels like the first time every time.
This wasn't a book for me, it was real.
April 18, 2015
I connected with this story in many ways.
Hilly Grunier is a survivor and a fighter. She's compassionate, forgiving, and when she loves, she loves with everything she has. She grew up in a time of great change, with a mother who was too ill to take care of her and a father who didn't want to. This is the story of Hilly and Danny, the boy she has always loved. So much of Hilly's life, from the family secrets to the way of life she lived in a small southern town, mirrors my own mother's life.
Diane makes you feel like you are living and breathing the lives of her characters. I can't wait for her next one.
Hilly Grunier is a survivor and a fighter. She's compassionate, forgiving, and when she loves, she loves with everything she has. She grew up in a time of great change, with a mother who was too ill to take care of her and a father who didn't want to. This is the story of Hilly and Danny, the boy she has always loved. So much of Hilly's life, from the family secrets to the way of life she lived in a small southern town, mirrors my own mother's life.
Diane makes you feel like you are living and breathing the lives of her characters. I can't wait for her next one.
September 8, 2016
Hilly is my hero!!!
I didn't think it was possible to love Muniers writing any more than I did, but then I read Finding My Thunder. Hilly is a great big loving ball of wonderful! And Danny isn't so bad either.
I didn't think it was possible to love Muniers writing any more than I did, but then I read Finding My Thunder. Hilly is a great big loving ball of wonderful! And Danny isn't so bad either.
June 1, 2015
Eric and awesome! You will love some characters,and you will hate some.A great original story.Brought up so many emotions.I wish it were available in paperback!
April 13, 2015
Review to come. :)
Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews