I Love the Voice of Marybeth Whalen ~ She Makes it Look Easy ~ Review

This week, the Christian Fiction Blog Alliance is introducing She Makes It Look Easy David C. Cook (June 1, 2011) by Marybeth Whalen

ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

Marybeth Whalen is the wife of Curt and mom of six children. The family lives outside Charlotte, NC. Marybeth is a member of the Proverbs 31 Ministries writing team and a regular contributor to their daily devotions. Her first novel,The Mailbox was released in June 2010. Her next novel, She Makes It Look Easy, will be released in June 2011. Additionally, she serves as director of She Reads, Proverbs 31 Ministries' fiction division.

ABOUT THE BOOK   

Ariel Baxter has just moved into the neighborhood of her dreams. The chaos of domestic life and the loneliness of motherhood, however, moved with her. Then she meets her neighbor, Justine Miller. Justine ushers Ariel into a world of clutter-free houses, fresh-baked bread, homemade crafts, neighborhood play dates, and organization techniques designed to make marriage better and parenting manageable.


Soon Ariel realizes there is hope for peace, friendship, and clean kitchen counters. But when rumors start to circulate about Justine’s real home life, Ariel must choose whether to believe the best about the friend she admires or consider the possibility that “perfection” isn’t always what it seems to be.


If you would like to read an excerpt of She Makes It Look Easy, go HERE.


My Review:

It’s a picture straight of Southern Living, but with a plot straight out of the heart of America’s hometown.

Ariel and Justine are two women living in the same neighborhood and as I read their parallel and intersecting story threads I found my heart thoroughly entrenched in the “behind the scenes” details of these two women’s lives.

We become who we truly are behind closed doors, where no one can observe us. There is such a complexity of that in “She Makes it Look Easy”. I crawled deep into the characters and what made them tick. I think Ariel so perfectly encompasses our own personal demands to be more “perfect” or what seems a thin veneer of “perfect”.

Justine has so many problems, but once I really dug into her as a character I saw where her actions were leading.

This is a powerful story. The ending gives hope, but also shows what happens when we stray into the path of temptation. There wasn’t a thread of preachy promises through any of the story, but merely a thoroughly captivating story of two women. I could not put this book down. The writing is superb, the characters deep and the plot wide and full.

Women’s fiction fans are going to love the voice and story by Marybeth Whalen.

This review is my honest opinion. Thanks to the publishers for my copy to review through CFBA.