
Hi Readers, Happy Friday!
This has been a busy month for me, but I’ve enjoyed reading new books and sharing all of them with you (and I have one more to show you next week – so stay tuned!) I’m part of another Blog Tour by Celebrate Lit and today’s book is The Joy of Falling by Lindsay Harrel – so let’s get started!
About the Book

Title: The Joy of Falling
Author: Lindsay Harrel
Publisher: Thomas Nelson
Release Date: April 14, 2020
Genre: Christian fiction, Contemporary fiction, Inspirational, Romance, Women’s fiction
From the Back Cover
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?
Click here to get your copy and you can click here to read the first four chapters.
About the Author

Lindsay Harrel is a lifelong book nerd with a B.A. in journalism and M.A. in English. She lives in Arizona with her young family and two golden retrievers in serious need of training. Lindsay has held a variety of jobs, including curriculum editor for two universities, medical and business writer, and copywriter for a digital marketing agency. Now she juggles stay-at-home mommyhood with working freelance jobs, teaching college English courses online, and–of course–writing novels. When she actually has time to do other things, she loves to sing, read, and sip passion iced teas from Starbucks. She loves to watch God work in ordinary lives to create something extraordinary, and she writes to bring hope to those who may have lost it along the way. Connect with her at www.LindsayHarrel.com and any other place she hangs out online, including Facebook and Twitter.
Here’s what I thought about the book
I feel like I just took a trip to New Zealand, ran a 150 mile race and came back – Whew, I’m exhausted!!
I’ve never read any of Lindsay Harrel’s books, but I remembered meeting her at CFRR (Christian Fiction Readers Retreat) in 2019, so I decided to give this book a chance… and I am SO glad that I did! Her writing style is different than most of the authors I’ve read previously and the way she wrote the book gives you the story from the perspective of Angela and her sister-in-law, Eva. This was especially interesting because the two main characters couldn’t have been more different in, their attitudes, their personality and in the way they each handled their grief. Having been single my entire adult life (as of right now), I can’t imagine the thought of losing your husband/significant other, but it was amazing to see the character’s grow and each learn to handle their grief differently. I also totally understand why they would be afraid of falling in love again, given what happened to their husbands but, in the words of Angela and Eva’s Mother-in-law Sherry, “New love is difficult for a number or reasons, but there’s nothing but beauty in it”. I also loved the message of hope and faith in a creator God, who gives us color and who should be our inspiration. This was intertwined so perfectly within the story, that you can’t help but want to praise the Lord for his amazing creation.
The author also describes New Zealand in such a way, that I could picture the beautiful snow-capped mountains and hear the lapsing of the water in Wanaka lake. The only thing that I found disappointing was the end of the race. I LOVED the perseverance that Angela, Marc and Eva showed to run/walk/jog in this Ultra Marathon, but having participated in a race before (which was only 4 miles, not 150), I was hoping for more details about the end of the race. Like did they go home and celebrate, did the three of them collapse on a coach, order pizza and not get up for a week? But unfortunately, I’ll never know, because in the book, time fast fowards to when they are already home.
Other than that, I really enjoyed reading this book and am going to have to go order “The Secrets of Paper and Ink” because I’ve heard so much about that one (and if this one was good as it was… I can’t wait to read her previous book!) Overall, because of the end of the story, I would give this book 4 out of 5 stars ****.
Blog Tour Stops
The Power of Words, April 17
Adventures of a Travelers Wife, April 17
My Devotional Thoughts, April 17
Book Reviews From an Avid Reader, April 18
Debbie’s Dusty Deliberations, April 18
Through the Fire Blogs, April 19
Remembrancy, April 19
Genesis 5020, April 20
Splashes of Joy, April 20
Mypreciousbitsandmusings, April 20
Read Review Rejoice, April 21
Hebrews 12 Endurance, April 21
Older & Smarter?, April 22
deb’s Book Review, April 22
Texas Book-aholic, April 23
janicesbookreviews, April 23
Inklings and notions, April 24
Hookmeinabook, April 24
For Him and My Family, April 25
Just a Your Average reviews, April 25
Tell Tale Book Reviews, April 26
Hallie Reads, April 26
Reflections From My Bookshelves, April 27
CarpeDiem, April 27
Stories By Gina, April 28
Truth and Grace Homeschool Academy, April 29
The Becca Files, April 29
Locks, Hooks and Books, April 30
Bookishly Beverly, April 30
Spoken from the Heart, April 30
Thanks for stopping by guys! Hope you enjoyed checking out this new book – Happy Reading! 🙂
>>Special thanks to Lindsay Harrel, Netgalley and Celebrate Lit for letting me read and review this book – all opinions are my own.

























