Celebrate Lit / April 25, 2020

The Joy of Falling

About the Book The Joy of Falling

Book: The Joy of Falling

Author: Lindsay Harrel

Genre: Women’s Fiction

Release Date: April 14, 2020

Eva and Angela must learn to live again. One step at a time.

It has been fifteen months since Eva and Angela lost their thrill-seeking husbands in a scuba diving accident. Both women are trying to navigate their way through the grief, but neither one is making much progress. Angela is barely making ends meet, angry at her husband for leaving her to raise three children on her own. Meanwhile, Eva is stuck, unable to move forward after losing the love of her life and her source of inspiration.

But then Eva gets a life-changing phone call. Before Brent and Wes died, they had signed up for a race of a lifetime—an ultra-marathon in beautiful New Zealand. Eva begs Angela to run the race with her in their husbands’ place, and Angela finally agrees, hoping to finally understand her husband’s choices.

Training is exhausting, and the race is even more demanding. Their journey grows more complicated by the presence of two men—Marc is Brent’s best friend who is running the race with Eva and Angela, and Simon King is a writer who is covering their inspiring story. With every step, Eva and Angela must ask themselves questions that they haven’t had the courage to ask before. As the women literally put one foot in front of the other, they wonder: Is it possible to find their way forward in hope?

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My Thoughts on The Joy of Falling:

What an interesting book. It’s definitely one that is going to keep you reading. I love how the author brought you grief and healing, and finally new love and growth. This book covers hard topics and does them with ease and grace.

I really enjoyed this book. When starting it I wasn’t so sure whether I would or not. Grief is such a hard thing to read about. And in this book, we have two different women grieving the loss of their husbands plus children and a mother-in-law. I think I felt the most compassion for the mother-in-law even though she wasn’t the main character and she was a Christian with a great grip on life, but losing two sons at the same time. I can’t even imagine. It would probably turn me into a crazy woman.

When you’re married, at least for me, you do think about what might happen if your spouse were to die. With having 11 kids here in our house I think I could definitely relate to being angry at being left to raise them all alone while also being sad and in denial.

This is a well-written book that will keep you reading. The characters are well developed and engaging. Even the supporting characters are wonderful and feel like a perfect extension of the main characters.

There were a few spots that made me raise my eyebrows. A fundraiser that’s at a casino and involves gambling. This isn’t normally something you’d find in a Christian fiction book. There is also another hot topic in that of premarital sex and pregnancy. Another thing keeping me from letting my teenage daughter read the book are some crude sexual language.

Overall this is a great book and I would recommend it for adults who enjoy a good engaging read.

I have voluntarily reviewed a complimentary copy of this book which I received from Celebrate Lit. All views expressed are only my honest opinion. I was not required to write a positive review nor was I compensated in any other way. All opinions expressed are my own. I am disclosing this in accordance with the FTC regulations.

About the Author of The Joy of Falling

Lindsay Harrel is a lifelong book nerd who lives in Arizona with her young family and two golden retrievers in serious need of training. She’s held a variety of writing and editing jobs over the years and now juggles stay-at-home mommyhood with writing novels. When she’s not writing or chasing after her children, Lindsay enjoys making a fool of herself at Zumba, curling up with anything by Jane Austen, and savouring sour candy one piece at a time. Connect with her at LindsayHarrel.com.