Fleeing from a chaotic.home life, Liz thinks that life with her husband Thomas will give her the structure she needs. But, as a pastor's wife, Elizabeth finds herself constrained and repressed. When Thomas passes away after two decades of marriage, Elizabeth has the chance to reclaim her freedom. What comes next is a tumultuous but liberating exploration of love and chosen family.

Many thanks to NetGalley, the author, and the publisher for providing me with a copy of this book. All thoughts are my own.

Beautifully written, painfully honest. Another wonderful book written by Kerry Anne King. It kept me engaged from start to finish. I look forward to reading more books by King.

Really enjoyed this book. Steady paced, great characters, I was absorbed throughout. Will be reading more King books in the future!

SPOILER-FREE REVIEW: I was very happy to read and review A Borrowed Life by Kerry Anne King, which will be published by Lake Union Publishing this fall. The gorgeous cover drew me in, but the topics are what really intrigued me.

We meet our protagonist, Elizabeth Lightsey, as she quietly prepares for another routine day of being the pastor's wife. Married to an incredibly strict husband who sees every woman's role in life as being submissive and the "helper" for her husband, she hides her trashy romance novels and her journals where she writes her innermost thoughts...and then burns them once they're full to destroy the evidence.

Elizabeth was once just Liz, trapped with neglectful parents - one an alcoholic, one an enabler - and unsure of her own future. She works on sowing her wild oats until she meets Thomas, whose dashing good looks and church-focused charisma sweep her off her feet. They marry quickly when Thomas tells her he is being offered a church to lead and needs "a good wife," and Liz soon learns that his definition of a good wife is a very narrow, subservient, controlled one. She stays to raise their daughter, and spends the next two-plus decades learning how to control her emotions and keep her true feelings to herself.

When Thomas drops dead in the middle of Elizabeth's knitting circle, she is horrified and shocked - and, also, unexpectedly, free. Thomas is no longer there to criticize the cleanliness of the floors, or her friendship with her "godless" neighbor Val, or to refuse to allow her to bring pickles into the house. And when Elizabeth needs support, is it the gossipy, judgmental church ladies who come to her rescue? Surprise: it's Val, her tattooed, smoking, cursing friend, who takes care of Elizabeth when she needs it most.

Elizabeth slowly begins to find herself again - Liz has always been inside, she realizes, but she wasn't allowed to be free under Thomas's iron fist. Much to her tightly-controlled daughter Abigail's chagrin, she finds herself auditioning for a role in a local play and accepting when the lead is offered to her. Even as Liz begins to slowly open up to her own wants and desires, she must face alienating her own daughter - whom she begins to realize she raised, along with Thomas, to be afraid of her own true self and to tamp down her desires for those of her future husband. (Why be a surgeon when you're just going to be the woman of the house some day, Thomas said? Nursing school is fine until you find a suitable man.)

Liz's life changes at warp speed as she begins to reconsider her home, her belongings, and her purpose in life...and as she begins to feel very real, and very foreign, sparks of attraction to her leading man in the play. Thomas's chastising voice never quite leaves her thoughts as she makes one reckless yet freeing decision after another, but when one of her biggest moments of passion backfires, how will she ever be able to find and stay the right course? Will she and her daughter be able to make amends and find a truly loving and open relationship? And what on earth does Liz REALLY want for her own future?

This was my first book by King, and I was very pleasantly surprised. Her writing style and topics remind me of some of my favorite women's fiction authors, like Kristan Higgins, Katherine Center, and Colleen Hoover (particularly her recent book Regretting You). Liz is an incredibly well-written character; we know her background, and why Thomas would have seemed like an appealing option, even as he began to control every aspect of her life. "And it was easier, safer, to let him make all of the decisions. To tell me who to be and how to be that person. To let him dictate how to raise our daughter, how to spend my time." (Chapter 31)

Liz's path to emotional maturity will ring so incredibly true to women who have had to make sacrifices in their lives - for their parents, their partners, their children. Her joys and struggles with her newfound freedom lead her to realize that choices aren't necessarily right or wrong, damned or blessed - they are just vehicles that get us to the next moment of our lives and determine what new avenues open up. She takes the time to make decisions just for her, refusing to cater to anyone else's timeline, and that is incredibly refreshing in what could be considered a modern romance novel. Just because the swoon-worthy, flawed, sexy love interest proposes to you doesn't mean you have to accept...especially when you're just beginning to put together the many confusing puzzle pieces of your own life.

I am giving this book a rare 5 stars (for me), because I thoroughly enjoyed the story and the depth of the characters and the relationships within. No character was a shallow, one-dimensional stereotype; there was redemption and disaster for everyone alike, just like in real life. This books celebrates how messy circumstances and troubled relationships can still be beautiful, and life may take different turns that put us in better places than we could ever have previously imagined, even after unspeakable tragedy.

Thank. you for the advanced e-ARC win exchange for my honest review. I will post my review on Goodreads and Amazon.

So well written emotionally moving .A novel that drew me in a reflection on the life you thought you were living.,The widow of a pastor who realizes how difficult her life really was.#netgalley#lakeunion

Proof that even as we age we are still capable of change we once thought impossible. It filled me with hope that the world hadn't changed too much.

A Borrowed Life is so well written that it’s nearly shocking to find out that it’s fiction. First of all, the character Earlene IS my memaw but without any redeeming qualities. I LOVED her presence in this book and it really helped paint the picture of small town church gossip. I really enjoyed this book and I can’t wait to recommend it to all of my friends. 👏🏼

Excellent handling of the 'coming of age later in life' theme, with the added emotional weight of shedding a heavy cloak of a controlling marriage and religion. King has mired her character Liz in multiple layers of trapped, and we feel all of that...so we too experience the surprising feelings of suddenly being free. But where did the fear come from? Why is reinventing oneself a weight of its own? As Liz starts to explore her own past and her current connections for markers and lessons of her life's re-start, it's a gripping read. Hard to put down. The kind of read that opens your eyes and heart and changes you. With such a great narrative and such great characters, this book is a natural for fall reading on the porch or by the fireplace.

This story is about Liz who becomes widowed at the age of 49. Her life has been quite restricted as her husband was very much 'stuck in his ways' and was very particular about what they did. Now that she is widowed, Liz is not only getting used to life without her husband, but also life as herself - who is she? She begins to find out...

I found this book quite difficult to get into. It was quite slow and laborious and I wasn't totally convinced by the characters, I just couldn't relate to them or figure out why they did the things they did. I enjoyed some aspects of it and it did make me think about the things I'd like to do before a certain age too.

This is an enjoyable read but just not one which totally absorbs you and stays with you afterwards.

This book started out a little slow to me given what Liz goes through in the first 50 pages alone. I liked the book but I wasn’t in love with it. I respected Liz and her seemingly crazy at the time decisions but I was so happy she got to experience love, lust, and theater! After such a strict life she got to have some fun. I mean what would you do finding out another insane life changing event at 49!

I found this to be a deeply satisfying novel about a middle-aged woman coming out of widowhood and discovering who she really is. The combination of the background of the theater community group and the church community Really spoke to me and added much to the multi dimensional emotional layers of what Liz, the former preachers wife, and her daughter had to go through. It is beautifully written, with emotional depth and believable characters throughout.

Thanks to NetGalley, the author and publisher for an advanced reading copy of this book in exchange for my honest review.

A Borrowed Life by Kerry Anne King is an interesting look at the life of the widow of a pastor. When her husband dies suddenly, Liz Lightsey is thrust suddenly into a single life she didn't expect. Her husband, Thomas, was a disciplined, religious man and expected her to act to a certain, rigid standard. When he passed, Liz wasn't sure how to act. She went a little crazy, found some new friends, joined a theater group, met a man, found out what sex could really be like and found herself pregnant.

I found the characters difficult to connect with and there were times when I couldn't understand why Liz did the things she did. I admit, I had a difficult time getting through this book and I felt that the pregnancy was just a plot device to get from one place to another, which it did rather awkwardly.

Thank you to the author, Lake Union Publishing and NetGalley for an ARC of this novel in exchange for my honest review.

Liz was a very young girl who fell in love with Thomas a new pastor. A short time after getting married she realized she did not know what she was getting into. She spent the next 26 years of her life being the perfect partner to her husband and playing her part as the Pastor’s wife. But maintaining the appearance were very difficult, taking care of a demanding husband and really over time she lost who she was trying to be what everyone else expected of her.

Thomas suddenly and expectantly dies. Liz is shaken by these events. However, somewhere deep inside a part of herself hopes to find freedom she has not expected in years. Liz finds herself trying to find a new path forward and her daughter Abigail pushes back on her mom not wanting any change to occur. Liz finds some hope in her new life as she takes a role in Community Theater and new friends. Liz is even surprised by her unexpected relationship with the Leading man in the play.

Liz feels she is making her way, only to find out she is pregnant at 49 yrs old. What will Liz do? Does her relationship with her leading man have a chance? How will Abigail handle the news? Will Liz be able to find freedom to live her life her way?

This was a story about appearances and how others can little by little control us to the point that we lose who we are. It is a discovery of Liz in her pre-Thomas self and trying to find a path forward. Liz recognizes that she needs to help her daughter break free of expectations and reach for her dreams.

I enjoyed this story. This was a troubled difficult journey that you want to cheer Liz on to find her way. Your heart hurts for her as she struggles to get the expectations of her husband out of her head telling her how she should act, feel and live. I found this story to ring true. There is not a quick resolution or the instant happy ending. Instead you are part of the journey of how Liz finds freedom and finds a way to live her life her way.

Thank you to netgalley for my complimentary copy. The thoughts and opinions are my own.

This is a great book! King does a good job of not being predictable, and keeping the storyline interesting. I’m personally a very involved church member so at times I took issue with the way church was portrayed, but as the book went on I felt like it was more sensitively approached. And all the religious themes in the book do exist in real life- I just felt the extremes lacked the balance of more healthy religious people.

Thanks to Netgalley and publishers for a review copy.

Liz has lost her husband and she quickly starts to realize that the life she once knew, wasn’t hers at all. After coming to terms with the fact that her now deceased pastor husband was; abusive, controlling, manipulative and just a plain old jerk, Liz decides to take her life back. But not without a few roadblocks. You will root for Liz all the way. You will laugh and cry and you won’t be able to put this book down!

OH how I loved this book!!! I loved going on Liz's journey with her - absolutely couldnt stand Thomas and his mentally abusive ways and how he weaponized God and the church to control her - I was so angry to see the extent that he went to, to control her. I enjoyed seeing her go from a controlled "perfect" woman, to a flawed forgiving loving life embracing person in her own right. Her love story with Lance may have happened a little out of "traditional" order, but it was a love story none the less. There were times that Abigail needed a good butt whoopin, but it was very satisfying to see her open up and come around. I absolutely ADORED this book and am looking forward to reading more by Kerry Anne King!!! Thank you to Lake Union Publishing and Netgalley for making it possible to read an advanced copy of A Borrowed Life!

Kerry Anne King specializes in novel’s about women on journeys of self-discovery and growth, and this one fits that description perfectly.

Liz has played the role of perfect wife for two decades, but when her husband, a pastor, suddenly dies, she finds herself single again in her almost-fifites, and surprised that what she feels instead of just grief, is relief, to finally be able to live life on her own terms.

But does she even know what those terms are? What type of life she really wants? And why does she feel like she’s acting out more like a teenager than a grown woman?

I loved how this novel tackled the question of what do we do when life’s doors are flung wide open and we aren’t sure what direction to go with our new freedom. And how do we reconcile the decisions we made about how to be in the past, with who can now become for the future?

A fun and fulfilling read that you won’t soon forget.

It's a shame to say that I didn't like this book. I started reading the book and I just couldn't get into it. I dnf'ed the book about 25% through. I'm sure this book is more appealing to other people, it just didn't conquer up any emotional attachments from my side.

Great writing and strong voice. Recommend if looking for a story that is as captivating as it is well-written.