I have to admit, at first I thought that this book might be a little depressing, but I kept going a bit more and found that it wasn't! 😊 It's a story of relationships of many different types, yet it does not feel overwhelming. I grew to love the different characters, especially Eva, Angela, Simon and Kylee. Lindsay is great at drawing the reader into the characters' lives! I loved this book, and hope to read some more about these same people one day--hint, hint! 😉

Thanks to the publisher for an advance e-copy through Netgalley! All opinions expressed are purely my own.

Lindsay Harrel’s newest book, The Joy of Falling, is in my opinion, her best book yet. With two very different women—sisters-in-law—trying to fulfill their husbands' dreams, they learn a lot about themselves, each other, and the many shades of grief. I truly enjoyed this story.

Eva is floundering trying to figure out how to honor her husband but not succeeding when she receives an unexpected phone call. Apparently, her husband signed up a team for an ultra-marathon in New Zealand before he died, she wants to run in his honor. She persuades her sister-in-law to be a part of her team, along with the best friend of one of the men.

Angela has worked hard to meet her family’s needs. With three growing children and no one else to rely on, she feels the burden of single-motherhood. She’s also angry that her husband made the choices he did that resulted in his and his brother’s deaths.

When Eva begs her to be part of the team to run the ultra-marathon, she reluctantly agrees. Each woman comes at the training in different ways. As they train together and with Marc, the third team member, they must face the questions they’ve tamped down or struggled with.

In the process, they each learn more about themselves and their husbands. And each finds a little romance in the bargain.

This story is a beautiful depiction of coming to terms with the death of a loved one. The questions, the feelings, the confusion all resonated as authentic throughout the story.

I loved the epic adventure that Harrel brings the reader on as the trio trains and travels and competes in the race. Each person on the team has to help the others if they are to complete the ultra-marathon. Each woman comes to the end of herself and discovers new ways forward in the process.

And New Zealand? The setting was perfect for the race and for the lessons learned by each woman.

Harrel’s characters are nuanced and hold depth, and that held me through the story. I really liked each one, and they were so real as they grappled with their struggles. The children in the story and the secondary characters added depth and a sense of reality to the journey Eva and Angela embarked on. I found myself tearing up a few times as my heart resonated with things they encountered.

The themes of hope amid grief and learning how to move forward run through this story. As the women learn to trust each other, they also are able to help each other answer the questions that have haunted them since the day their husbands died.

If you enjoy adventure and relational stories with themes of hope and encouragement, you will love this book.

***I received a complimentary copy of this book from NetGalley. A positive review was not required. These thoughts are my own.

The latest release by Ms. Harrell is a sensitive narrative of walking through grief.
Two sister-in-laws who haven’t been all that close are drawn together to run a marathon in New Zealand in honour of the brother husbands they lost to a diving accident. The premise is interesting and some tense moments between the two characters emerge. One character is a mother and the other not – which presents opportunity to illustrate completely different perspectives and colour the story with reality. An interesting tug-of-war between two women who have loved and lost, yet want to honour the memory of their husbands in their own ways, pursues.
As always with novels by Ms. Harrell, there are pop culture references sprinkled throughout the entire novel and detailed descriptions of locations and characters. The second half of the book is set in New Zealand so readers can expect to learn slang and experience the beautiful country through the written word. There are plenty of likeable secondary characters who challenge our main characters in their quest.
I was surprised to find one of the female leads was a yogi – a controversial issue for more conservative readers of inspirational fiction. The reader is introduced to the practice of yoga (including names of poses with body positioning) as a scene or two plays out.
When it comes to the faith journey, I had to look for it in the first half of the book. It doesn’t pick up until the midway point, when the women with their third team member start the 150 mile marathon.
The pacing felt a bit slow to me. It took a very long time for the characters to get to start their marathon. The first half of the book involves them training and grappling with the decision to do this or not. And I’m not really sure how I felt about the one sister-in-law who had all kinds of money and paid for absolutely everything. It didn’t quite feel right (as the one sister-in-law felt too), but then again, maybe the author intended it to be that way.
This novel didn’t knock it out of the park for me, despite some beautiful moments.
I received a copy from the publisher through Net Galley. All opinions expressed are my own.

The story of two very different women grieving the lost of their husbands. This is a very moving story that allows readers to experience through words very personal losses. I enjoyed the vivid description of New Zealand and the ultra marathon. I could almost imagine myself being there. This story shows that the grief process is different for each person and no one should be pushed along. Recommended.

This book deals with some heavy topics, and there's a lot of depth to the characters and story line. Grief is prominent in the book, and it was passed over lightly. It was nice to view the different people/sides and loss and how different people process things differently. Overall, it's a beautiful story about moving forward after loss. (And it can apply to any loss, not just the loss of a spouse, as in the book). Vivid descriptions help the reader feel a part of the story.

This was a really sweet story. This novel is about sisters-in-laws Eva and Angels who both lost their husbands (both brothers) in a tragic accident and moving on in their lives without them. They both agreed to enter an ultra marathon in New Zealand their husbands were planning to do with their best friend Marc. Throughout the journey, they both soon to learn more about themselves. I like reading about the preparation of the race, the training, and the marathon. The romances were both sweet and I like that they weren’t rushed. I found this story inspiring. So many great words to live life by. The spiritual aspect was really nice, too. I love how the Sherry, the mom-in-law, talked about joy bring different from happiness. With joy, you can trust God when things don’t turn out the way we hoped. It wasn’t preachy but it was woven throughout the story.

All of the secondary characters were great in this story and added to it really well.

I definitely recommend this story!

Last year, I had the opportunity to read a beautiful story called The Secrets of Paper and Ink. I immediately fell in love with the beautiful storytelling in this book and went on to read another book by the same author titled The Heart Between Us. It didn't take long to realize that Lindsay Harrel had a way of creating beautiful stories that really drew me in and pulled at my heartstrings in a pretty astounding way. When I saw that she had a new book coming out-The Joy of Falling- I could not wait to get my hands on it.

The Joy of Falling tells the story of two sisters-in-law who lost their husbands in a tragic accident. We meet them nearly a year and a half after the fact, as they are still coping with their new normal. When they learn that their husbands had planned to run an ultra-marathon in New Zealand, they decide to take their place as a way of honoring their memory. This trip and their experience is a beautiful story of healing, moving forward and yes, even finding love again. While the idea of picking up a book that on the surface is about loss and grief seems like it would be rather depressing, it actually was a beautiful story of hope and healing that I absolutely loved.

I must admit that I'm always a little apprehensive when reading romance books involving widows...and particularly those with a fairly fresh loss. Obviously, losing a spouse is not something that I have experience with, I always wonder how the author will tackle that new love without diminishing that previous love. To me-again never having been there, I've always just felt it would likely take a lot of time. I feel like the way Lindsay Harrel approached the topic was absolutely beautifully done. Both women (not to mention their mother in law and Angela's children as well) all dealt with their grief quite differently... as is the truth in real life as well.

While there is certainly some romance though, there is so much more to this story than that. It is a story about a journey. A story about overcoming. A story about sisterhood. And ultimately a story about faith and hope. Once again, Lindsay Harrel has knocked it out of the park with this beautiful book.

**I received a complimentary copy of this book from the publisher via Netgalley for consideration. All thoughts are 100% my own.

Both Eva and Angela have lost their husbands (brothers) and while they have that in common, they really can't seem to find a base for a deep friendship. They tolerate each other but that's about it. Then they find out that the brothers had signed up to run a multi-day marathon with their friend before they died. Eva and Angela decide to join Marc on the run and start training.

The book then follows their training routines and the successes and challenges they face while preparing. They move down to New Zealand for a few months in order to train before the race.

I felt the book started off strong but then dragged in the middle. The ending seemed a bit abrupt to me - I would have liked to see more depth to the relationships and the end of the race did not seem to be the high I would have expected after the long and difficult journey.

I absolutely adored this book. The characters were so real that it sucked you in and made you feel a part of the story. You didn't want it to end!

Eva and Angela recently lost their husbands, who were brothers, in a scuba diving accident. Both are trying to cope with the loss, each in their own way. Eva is hoping to honor her husband's life by volunteering in a place close to his heart, while Angela is angry at her husband and trying to support her three children. When Eva finds out that the two brothers, along with their friend Marc, had signed up to run in an ultra-marathon in New Zealand she decides she wants to run in her husband's place. After much persuasion, she talks Angela into running too. Their journey is exhausting, both physically and mentally. The author tells the story of their personal growth through this journey as they try to move forward in life.

The story of Eva and Angela’s life after both of their husbands perished in an accident paints a portrait of how the grief process differs for each of us.

Angela is nowhere near as eager as Eva is to embark on a journey to complete an ultramarathon their husbands had signed up for before their death despite having been a runner in college. Yet it is the process of training and completing the race that forces her to finally confront her grief and how she felt about some of the choices her husband had made before her death.

Eva, unlike Angela, seems to embrace her grief and has given up pieces of herself to live in the shadow of her dead husband.

During the course of training for the race, both women learn much about themselves, their husbands and each other. They started the book as two women grieving separately for their husbands but in the end became a family.

Know God–the faith elements were faint and I had hoped to see the characters truly learning into their Heavenly Father for strength. There was some of that but it was mostly seen in the secondary character Sherry, mother in law of both women, who had also lost her husband. But the truth still stands. God understands our pain and he wants us to choose him at all times. He’s waiting to bind up our wounds and heal our pain.

Know yourself–there was a lot of self-exploration in this book. Both Eva and Angela had to learn how to stand on their own after their husbands deaths. They had to relearn what they loved and seek out new passions and desires.

The invitation is there for all of us. How many of us have fallen into a rut? Or simply allowed life to run away our dreams and desires? We need to spend time learning more about what we’re capable of because that’s the only way we will truly become the person God created us to be and embrace his healing for our lives.

Run your race–The characters in this book literally had to run a race. But they learned that it was okay to walk when you don’t have the strength to run. They learned to accept help and lean on others. They learned to work as a team. While it’s important to learn not to compare ourselves to other people, we have to learn to coexist with them, to support and accept support as we do our best to fulfill our part in God’s master plan.

The book started out lamenting Eva’s desire for color and I got that. It was the perfect analogy for an artist who felt they had lost their ability to create. But while it was mentioned several times throughout the book, her actions contradicted her words. She was too appreciative of the beauty in nature and too caught up in the taste of food. But I did enjoy that the author took us through the complete image of Eva’s belief about herself. She started out not being able to find color but she didn’t end the book that way.

The Joy of Falling is a tale of love lost and the journey from grief to new beginnings. It was a poignant reminder that life doesn't always turn out how we want it to but we have a choice how we respond. We can choose to mourn what's lost and wallow in despair, or we can celebrate our experiences and seek to find the lesson in our experiences.

I received an advanced reader's copy from the publishers through Celebrate Lit and NetGalley; a positive review was not required.

Thank you to NetGalley for the opportunity to preview this book. This is the story of two widows, sisters-in-law, who have lost their husbands in the same accident. I enjoyed the journey with Eva and Angela; they're good characters and I always am drawn to stories of rebuilding and rebirth. Harrel does a good job with the grieving process, especially with two completely different women who have different patters of grief.

“You know, when you’ve loved deeply and lost deeply, it’s okay to feel deeply.”
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The Joy of Falling takes you on a beautiful journey of finding yourself after your life takes a drastic turn of events following the loss of a loved one. The two main characters, Eva and Angela, are figuring out how to navigate life after the loss of their husbands in a tragic scuba diving accident. Having been thrill-seekers, Eva and Angela learn that their husbands had signed up for the marathon of a lifetime in New Zealand. Deciding to race in place of their husbands, they learn more about themselves – and each other – every step of the way. They ask each other the hard questions and force each other to open themselves up to new possibilities. Highly recommend this book to anyone who is looking for a story of courage and hope and a success story for how to move beyond grief after losing someone you love. The Joy of Falling releases ‪on 4/14‬, and you are going to want to grab yourself a copy! Thank you to NetGalley and TNZ fiction for an e-galley in exchange for an honest review.
** I received a complimentary copy of this book. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own.

When I first started this new novel, I was afraid that it was going to be depressing since both of the protagonists lost their husbands (brothers) in a freak accident the year before. As I continued reading, I saw this was more a story of hope. Both Eva and Angela deal with the grief of losing their husbands in very different ways, but both journeys rang true. At times I was frustrated with Angela and her reactions, but I came to realize that it was because I connected with Eva's journey of grief more personally. Lindsay Harrel weaves a beautiful tale of two seemingly different women who must find their way through the grief to live a life of true joy that the Lord has waiting for them. I also loved the descriptions of New Zealand that was the setting for much of the story. The race that the women go to New Zealand to train for and run in honor of their husbands becomes symbolic of their journeys through grief. I don't want to say more because I don't want to give too much away. I highly recommend this new novel by Lindsay Harrel who has become one of my favorite authors.

Lindsay Harrel did a really good job writing about grief for different characters. It was nice to see Angela and Eva focusing on something new and not just mourn alone. It was nice reading about a goal they had set for themselves and although there were problems on the way, as in real life, they took realistic approaches to get past them.

This is a story of second chances after the grief of loss. Sisters-in-law lose their husbands to a diving accident. With the help of a friend of their husband's they embark on a yachting race in New Zealand.
Although I really enjoyed the story, I found it somewhat hard to grasp that both Angela and Eva would find new love after losing "the love of their life".
I recommend this book as the overall story is original and engaging.
Thank you Lindsay Harrel, Thomas Nelson and NetGalley for allowing me an advance copy for my honest feedback.

The Joy of Falling was the perfect book for a vacation read for me. Lindsay Harrel always writes another book that in her style of complicated relationships. Eva and Angela are sister-in-laws who lost their husbands to a scuba accident the previous year and they are struggling with resuming lives without them. Eva is trying to fill her days to forget her grief while Angela’s days are too filled with two jobs, three kids and trying to forgive her husband for dying. The sister-in-laws decide to join their husbands’ friend in an ultramarathon in New Zealand and through their training they search for the peace and love for which they yearn. Put The Joy of Falling on your summer reading list!
I received a complimentary copy of The Joy of Falling through Thomas Nelson, but all opinions are my own.

This book just felt sort of stale to me, as if a ton of other books just like it with similar storylines exist. I feel we work up so much to this big race (perhaps one of the only unique parts of the story), and there really are little to no scenes actually dealing with how difficult it is or focusing on the hardship during the race.

I don't think it was necessary for there to be two romantic storylines; it seemed to take away from the idea of getting over grief. I would've appreciated one of the women simply learning to move on without a man. I also didn't quite understand the angst that the character Angela feels. I feel this book was trying to do too much, and yet, still felt dragged out to me. The references to religion also didn't work for me, this book wasn't packaged as such, and it felt a bit much. This book does it's job of being a typical women's fiction title, but I likely wouldn't read more from this author.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

A thoughtful and uplifting examination of grief from the perspectives of two women whose husbands, who were brothers, died in a tragic accident. My only quibble is that the happily-ever-after had to involve a new romance for each woman; I feel like it would have been more realistic without that plot development.

*Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for providing an e-galley in exchange for an honest review.

FTC Disclosure: I received a complimentary copy of this book from NetGalley. A positive review was not required. These are my honest thoughts.

Grief isn’t the easiest topic to write about, but Mrs. Lindsay Harrel mastered it in The Joy of Falling. The emotions Eva, Angela, Sherry, Kylee, Marc, and Simon all experienced were palpable, raw, real, and as varied as their personalities. I was blown away by how Mrs. Harrel vulnerably displayed a few of the faces of grief. Strong, weepy, joy-filled… they each held their ground well in the story. They may have at times clashed or partnered or walked alongside one another, yet they each added a very distinctive thread that was integral to the entirety of this beautiful journey across the globe.

I especially liked that the leads were sisters-in-law. That isn’t a relationship often featured in Christian fiction, but I felt like it was perfect for this particular story. The ladies didn’t have that natural lifetime-long bond of sisterhood to fall back on. Instead, they had to work hard to build common ground, and the fact that they didn’t always get it right added depth and genuineness to the plot. This wasn’t the only familial connection in the story, and all the other ones added so many overlapped layers to the story that it would be impossible to separate them without destroying the overall picture.

The setting—both that of New York City and New Zealand—came alive in my mind because of the author’s detailed expression of colors, buildings, scenery, and any number of other things that helped the story feel three-dimensional rather than flat and lifeless. This is something I’ve come to expect in Mrs. Harrel’s books, yet it finds ways to surprise me every time I choose to read one of her stories.

Okay, so I have to mention the secondary characters. Every one of them was well developed. They each showed up at the exact right time and left the scene at the exact right time. They did not overshadow the leads, and they felt organic in the scenes—including personality, dialogue, and actions—every single time. This is a hard feat to accomplish, but Mrs. Harrel did it beautifully.

While I expected to weep my way through this novel, I only cried twice, and both of those occasions happened after the eighty-five-percent mark. I’m not exactly sure why that is, since I’m typically a weeper when it comes to reading books, watching movies, or listening to music. My emotions are usually wrapped up in whatever entertainment I’m enjoying. Not that I cry every time, but with a book about grief, I did go into it expecting to need a full box of tissues. I enjoyed the majority of the book, but for some reason I can’t define, it held my emotions in check throughout many of the chapters.

I’m thinking one reason could have been the “casino night” fundraising event that consumed an entire chapter. I’m not one to gamble or even promote gambling, and I wasn’t expecting the leads in a Christian fiction book to do so either, as gambling is a vice that is a huge problem in society today. If anything, I would have expected it to be shown as a negative thing to be stopped or avoided, but it was used in a positive way instead. That was off-putting to me, and that might be why a sort of wall was erected between this book and my emotions.

Overall, I enjoyed this book and would recommend it to those who enjoyed the author’s The Heart Between Us or Melissa Tagg’s Walker Family series.

Content: “casino night” fundraiser event, “richer than God” comment early on, four crude sexual terms, alcohol (wine and used in food), pre-marital pregnancy, “in the cards” phrase (which references tarot cards)