Joy

Rating:
Summary: One star away from being a full-blown snooze.
Review: JOY by Victoria Christopher Murray features Anya Mitchell going through some serious tests of faith. She's engaged to marry Braxton, a man of faith that she seems to feel ambivalent about, but says she loves enough to marry; and she's also attempting to mentor her younger cousin, Sasha, and introduce her to the Lord.

I found all the characters to be lacking as far as development, but most notably I found Anya to have extremely contradictory characteristics. It seems the reader should be empathetic to her plights and struggles with faith, yet she openly flirts with David, a subordinate at work, she readily tells "white" lies as it suits her moods at the time, and she's far too self-absorbed and shallow to endear anyone to her.

The only plus that I found in the story, hence the two stars, was the brief passages throughout the story that were from the perspective of Anya's stalker. These sections were the most well-written in the story and showed the most depth, in my opinion. I was truly drawn into this man's world. However, the "suspense" fell completely flat. Let's put it this way, Stevie Wonder could see who the culprit was.

Overall, the story was about 100 pages too long. It's plagued by unnecessary and insignificant minute-by-minute, hour-by-hour details in the first 3/4 of the book and then rushed along in the end when it's too late and the reader is undoubtedly expecting it to wrap up. I may give the author's work another try, but if it's all in the same boringly long-winded fashion, it will be the last.

Rating:
Summary: To Long
Review: This book was incredible. The characters were real and it was based on Faith. I really loved the ending.