There are some books that make you think for a moment or two and then those thoughts run off forgotten as they become just another book read. There are some books, however, that keep you thinking and wondering for days, weeks, or even months after you have finished reading them. Such was this story.

This is a story of four people, three of which are people of faith, while one is a non believer. Charles and James are new ministers landing a position at the same church, who together with their wives Nan and Lily try to forge forward in a religious life for the three of them, and a life bereft of God for one of them. Nan is an affirmed believer in God while Lily, the product of the early tragic death of her parents, is a nonbeliever. The dilemma seems to be how can one reconcile being married to a minister when you do not believe in what he does? There is a large amount of interplay between the characters and as the story continues the tragedies of life invade the marriages and one would think a faith in the almighty would be enough to carry one through. But is it?

This story had currents swirling beneath the surface of its words. So many themes were touched upon and the reader was left to understand and find their own explanation of events and happenings. So many questions were asked of the reader. Can one be married to someone who doesn't share your religious belief. Is God the only way to peace in life? Is it possible to be too good, to mask your feelings in an attempt to please God? Is tragedy in life a way that God shows you a way through it, or is it the human spirit, often resilient that offers one peace and a way forward? Can marriage work when up against adversity? What really attracts one person to another even though they are as different as night and day?

This was a wonderful book that had great components and would be absolutely perfect for a book club discussion group. There was much to fathom here, and much to ponder as you read about the journey these two couples embarked upon as they tried to both understand their position in the world and the way forward in life. I definitely recommend this story for all the aforementioned reasons.

Thank you to Cara Wall, Simon and Schuster, and NetGalley for a copy of this book.

The Dearly Beloved is about four people, two couples who become part of each others lives when both men become co-pastors of a church. I have to be honest here since I didn't finish the book. The characters were mostly unlikeable and came across flat to me which turned this novel into a chore for me.

It was selected by my IRL book club and I had great hopes for it after reading the synopsis but I didn't care what happened to any of them even after reading more than 50%. Several others in my book club loved it and I do agree that it brought up many questions about love, family, faith, and forgiveness.

Thanks to the author and Simon Schuster for the advance copy in exchange for an honest review.

I requested access to this book because I was interested in reading about a relationship in which one person is a leader of a church & the other doesn't believe in god...and...this book did not disappoint. The author does a fantastic job of capturing the effect caused by opposite beliefs in a relationship.

Cara Wall has written a beautiful novel of friendship and faith. Charles and James are called to be co-pastors at a Presbyterian Church in NYC during the time of the Vietnam War and changing times in the US. Their very different wives, Lilly, Charles' wife and Nan, James' wife are very totally dissimilar and take an immediate dislike to each other. Co-pastoring requires all of them to work very closely and the men develop a deep bond, while the wives mostly stay away from each other while trying to find a relationship. The story follows the two families through good times, through dark nights of the soul, through challenges in all of their lives. Each character is very well-developed and the novel is a powerful story of love, friendship, forgiveness, and faith.

DNF at 40%. The four characters' stories were interesting to start with, and as they began to intertwine. Then it lost steam and was sooo slow. I didn't connect emotionally with any of the characters and didn't find them particularly believable. I quit because I didn't care where the story was going. The writing is solid but the story wasn't strong enough to keep me engaged.

This story of 2 couples, Charles and lily, James and Nan greatly exceeded my expectations. It may seem like their stories are about religion but the exploration of faith, what does it mean to have it, lose it, want it etc was the overriding premise and it was brilliantly explored. I think everyone can see parts of themselves in each character through the story. I loved that it was set in NYC which was the perfect backdrop. Weeks later, I still miss these characters

One of the best book I've read this year and will be recommending it to everyone I know! I appreciate how the author weaves religion throughout but in a gentle way. It's a beautiful story.

Beautiful depiction of faith- in God, in ourselves, and in others.
Story of 2 couples and their successes and defeats and they grow and mature- in life, in faith, and in their marriages.

One of the best books of 2019. It will definitely be in my top 5 for the year.
Have recommended numerous times and hand sold many copies!

Two pastors, two couples, four very different relationships to faith, marriage, family and life. This book had me from page one where we begin to meet each of the four primary characters. We are given background about who they each are, how each couple met and decided to marry, and why both men decided to enter ministry. Eventually, they are called to co-pastor a church, and that sets the course of their moments and days for the rest of their lives. They go through struggles with each other in marriage and ministry, in having and raising children, in relating to their congregation, and most of all, in relationship to their faith, or lack thereof. This is not a Christian or even religious novel, but it does treat faith with a respect often lacking in contemporary literary fiction. It is a quiet, beautifully written book.
“But they were already gathered and joined, he thought, all of them made
useful together, like the mechanisms of a clock. These few people, here in
this church, were the gears and switches in his life, the tiny metal pegs that
made it turn. If he opened any hinged door in a shadowed room, one of these
people would be there.”
This is a debut novel for Cara Wall, and I am anxiously looking forward to what she may do in her next outing.
A copy of this book was provided to me by Simon & Schuster, via NetGalley, in exchange for my honest review.

I am not the audience for this book since I’m not interested in Christian fiction and I found the characters incredibly boring. I made it to the 25% point and gave up. I received a free copy of this book from the publisher.

The Dearly Beloved by Cara Wall is a book about two couples from the 1950s to the 1960s: Charles and Lily, James and Nan. The book begins by giving a backstory to each of the characters and I must admit, at first it did not catch my attention and felt like a lot of detail was unnecessary because the main character's parents were probably not going to be part of the book as the story went on. I was wrong. Wall knew exactly what she was doing when she wrote the backstory of these main characters. The backstory was crucial for how the characters will be shaped later in life.

As the story went on, I was taken aback by how honest this book was. For example, Nan’s true feelings about Lily becoming a mother and Charles having doubt of god at one point. Wall has written some complex characters, especially Lily, but they are real people. The book is centered on religion, and that’s because Lily and Nan’s husbands are ministers at the same church. But this book is not about religion but about these two couples who happened to be connected to the church.

Readers would even feel like the religion has connected these two couples together but really it is Charles. The last few chapters are remarkable and I was glad to read this book. I gave this book ⅘ stars because I personally felt like the story was a bit long but overall, it was great and I definitely recommend people read it.

*I received an advance review copy of The Dearly Beloved from the publisher through NetGalley; all opinions are my own.

This is a lovely debut about two families, two marriages, very separate and distinct visions, and yet shared responsibilities and love. Two ministers and their wives converge on the same church in NYC. We watch as the husbands grow close as co-pastors, while the wives are anything but friends. But through the births of children, the families seem to find common ground. Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for allowing me to be an early reader in exchange for my review.

From debut author Cara Wall comes THE DEARLY BELOVED, a heartfelt and poignant novel that asks readers to consider the “what ifs” of faith, love and commitment. Following four individuals from the far corners of Mississippi, Chicago and Greenwich Village through their highs, lows, marriages and friendships, the book covers decades of emotional evolution, echoing the works of authors like Ann Patchett, Elizabeth Strout and Mary Beth Keane.

In the beginning chapters, Wall introduces her characters one at a time, starting with steadfast and intellectual Charles Barrett. Equal parts doomed and fortunate to have the brains to follow in his esteemed father’s academic footprints, Charles is sent reeling when an unorthodox lecture awakens him to God, turning him on to a path of faith and ministry. From there we meet Lily, a bookish, thoughtful girl whose entire life is turned upside down when her parents are killed in a tragic car accident. Rather than turning to a higher power for solace, Lily decides that there is no entity that would allow something so terrible to befall her beloved parents and vows never to love or trust again.

In a very different part of the country, we meet James MacNally, a bright, stoic young boy whose life is darkened by his alcoholic father and beleaguered mother. James does not think much of religion or education, but he knows with all his heart that he must escape the confines of his small town and its mentally crumbling men --- all weighed down by memories of war and the knowledge that their wives and children will never know the darkness they have seen. So when a distant uncle (a man of faith, no less) offers to send him to college, he leaps at the chance and winds up in a world of privilege entirely foreign to him.

Last of all is Nan, a preacher’s daughter whose life is wholly dedicated to her faith --- not only in God, but also in her fellow men and women, her family and herself. Unlike the other characters, nothing remarkable has ever happened to Nan...until the day her father tells her he is sending her away to school so that she can see the way others live, thus deepening her respect for faith.

Faith-driven Charles and staunchly atheistic Lily meet in college. He is instantly drawn to her quiet stability and thoughtfulness. Unfortunately for him, she is just as immediately turned off by his belief in something greater. Still, the two are keenly intelligent and share many good meals debating anything and everything --- except the one thing that could break them apart. On a different campus, James spies Nan for the first time and is captivated by her goodness: she is perhaps the only woman who could ever accept him --- hardscrabble beginnings and all --- and maybe, just maybe, help him become a better man.

As each couple starts down the path of marriage and eternity, they are all forced to confront their faiths (or lack thereof) and what role God will play in their relationships. While Charles and Lily silently agree to avoid the topic, James and Nan devote their lives to ministry, even as James continues to question his calling and his own beliefs. As the years pass, each couple experiences their share of joys and discontents, but the story really kicks off in Greenwich Village in 1963, when Charles and James are both called to preach at Third Presbyterian on the corner of Twelfth and Fifth Avenue.

Charles and James are not an obvious match at first: Charles' devotion is unstoppable, and his version of God is one that gives him peace and a quiet resolution to find answers. James, on the other hand, finds God in acts of activism and questioning injustices. Third Presbyterian has long been suffering at the hands of a flighty minister, and the board believes it will take the best of both men to bring it back to its highest potential. But when James pushes the parishioners too far and Charles begins to doubt his faith in his marriage with an unapologetically godless women, the two couples must learn to lean on one another and find whatever version of faith will keep them happy the longest.

I do not often gravitate towards books with non-secular themes or avid discussions of faith, but the faith that Cara Wall writes of in THE DEARLY BELOVED is something universal: a willingness to believe in something, anything. Wall is neither judgmental nor preachy, but rather intelligent, unbiased and meditative. Each of her characters is wholly realized, and their different approaches to faith, love and commitment are carefully balanced yet unflinchingly realistic. While I often disliked Lily, I also found her self-awareness admirable and strong, and felt that she added a much-needed edge to an otherwise intensely hopeful set of characters. At the same time, I found Nan’s capacity for faith inspiring and heartwarming. Yet it was the men, and especially Charles, who shined the brightest for me: Charles is someone you will trust and root for, and James’ passion and inability to ignore injustice makes him unignorable.

Set against the backdrop of the civil rights movement, war and the beginnings of political revolution, THE DEARLY BELOVED feels both timely and timeless. It is a perfect book club choice that will encourage its readers to consider the ways that faith and enlightenment play into their lives and how they can find the compassion within themselves to always do better. Religious, spiritual or atheistic, every reader will find a character of merit here, and hopefully a reason to believe in something greater than themselves --- be it love, family or something more intangible.

Wall is a gifted and thoughtful writer whose words are dripping with meaning and metaphor. I believe that THE DEARLY BELOVED will have a lasting impression on all who read it.

THE DEARLY BELOVED by Cara Wall is an absolutely stunning debut novel. There is something for everyone in this novel.

The book features two couples you will not likely forget after reading this book; Charles with his resolute certainty of God’s existence, Lily, his wife, who is equally resolute in her non-belief of God’s existence. James, who wavers in his belief in God but joins the ministry to contribute to the world and Nan, James’ devout, daughter of a minister wife.

James and Charles are co-pastors in a New York church, they learn, they grow and are thrown together in every aspect of their lives. Though the men are fascinating, their wives will take your breath away. Lily is like a character I have never encountered. At times I disliked her intensely but deeply admired her at the same time.

The writing is lyrical, Ms. Wall makes her characters come alive on the page and engages you in their lives. I did not want to leave these people; I did not want to turn the last page. I did not want to read another book when I finished, I just wanted to stay with James, Nan, Charles and Lily a little longer.

This book is easily one of my favorite reads of 2019. I will be on the look out for Ms. Wall’s next novel, she is a true story-teller and I will read anything she writes for the sheer pleasure of her words

This book grew on me the further I got into it. I loved the writing and it was an overall enjoyable read.

What a spectacular debut from Cara Wall. This was a poignant story about two couples who are on very different paths but the husbands end up serving as ministers in the same Church jointly. They each bring different strengths to the job and their wives are very different in both their backgrounds as well as their current dreams and lifestyles. Some of the most intriguing aspects of this book for me were regarding the question of degree of faith and belief within the minister and the family of a minister and how that may impact the Church community or the minister and his ability to do his job. Also, once the children played a role in family life, obviously each wife had very different perspectives of motherhood and given the time frame that this was taking place, the options for education and decisions about possible placement into an institution for the child who was diagnosed with autism added an interesting twist in the story as well as each person's relationship with the others.
Many of these issues are things that I had never considered about the ministerial life and what having a family involved in that would be like. It really is a family career, given all of the presumed responsibilities of the minister's wife within a Church. How would the faltering of faith or the lack of belief in God or Christianity affect this role? This would honestly make a terrific bookclub read.
Thank you for the early copy!

#TheDearlyBeloved #NetGalley #SimonandSchuster

[4.5 stars]

The Dearly Beloved is a yet another gorgeously written character-driven novel (we’ve been swimming in riches with these this year and I’m not mad about it!) involving two families. The writing style reminded me of Mary Beth Keane’s in Ask Again, Yes (my review). But, I wasn’t sure if I’d like this novel in the beginning…would be it too much religion (I’m not a super religious person)? Or, too quiet? It is relatively quiet and is most definitely a story about the characters’ inner lives. But, it gradually got under my skin, really made me think, and I wanted to know what would happen to these people. Each character has a very different outlook on faith…making it easy to find at least one person to identify with. And, they all struggle with what exactly they believe for various reasons and they all evolve throughout the book. My one quibble is that I had a hard time keeping the characters’ backgrounds straight in the beginning, but that worked itself out as I got farther into the story. The Dearly Beloved would make an excellent book club pick and is also going on my list of character-driven novels I couldn’t put down!

Two different families navigate the world of faith (and not having faith) in this immersive novel. I absolutely loved this novel about two very different couples and their problems over decades. What does it mean to have faith, to belong to a church? What does it mean to belong to a family? This novel was absolutely engrossing.

I am 50/50 on this book. I did not enjoy the beginning but I loved the ending.

Charles and Lily meet and get married. Charles believes in God and wants to become a minister. Lily does not believe in God. If there was a God, why would he allow her parents to die while she was so young?

Nan and James are married also. He grew up in a dysfunctional family and has a hard time trust in God but he still becomes a minister. Nan was raised by a minister and can't wait to be the perfect preachers wife.

A small church hires both ministers to work together. At first it takes time for them to adjust to each other's techniques. Nan wants to be Lilys beasties but Lily is not having it. She doesn't even go to hear her husband preach.

Each family has their battles with God. Charles starts to doubt his beliefs. Between James, Nan, and even his wife, Lily his fait is restored in God . Lily also establishes fate in people which she never had.


Thank you Netgalley for allowing me to read this ARC of Dearly Beloved in exchange for my honest review.

This is a well-written book - remarkable for a debut book. It was interesting following the lives of these four people through some tumultuous times. Sometimes the endless discussions of faith - or no faith - became somewhat tedious but they were at the core of the meaning of the story so necessary to it. There are some beautiful lines of prose and the characters are believable.