Review: Amy Inspired by Bethany Pierce

ISBN #: 978-0-7642-0850-8 (se)
Page Count: 320
Copyright: 2010

About the Author:

(Taken from back cover)

After completing a master's in Creative Writing and working as a visiting instructor at Miami University in Ohio, Bethany Pierce now lives with her husband in Charlottesville, Virginia, where she is a member of the McGuffey Art Center and continues to write.  Her first book, Feeling for Bones, was one of Publishers Weekly's Best Books of 2007.

Summary:

(Taken from back cover)

Amy Gallagher, aspiring writer, has an unabashed obsession with words.  She gave up a steady, albeit unexciting, job to pursue a life of writing.  However, two years and one master's degree later, she finds herself almost exactly right back where she started.  Discouraged by the growing pile of rejections from publishers and afraid that she has settled, Amy knows something has to change.

Then she meets the mysterious, attractive, and unavailable Eli.  Amy finds herself struggling to walk the fine line between friendship and something more with Eli, even as she tries to cope with the feeling that her friends and family are moving on without her.  When the unexpected begins pouring in, Amy doubts the love and fulfillment she seeks will ever come her way.  Forced to take a close look at who she has become, the state of her faith, and her aspirations for her life, she must make a choice: play it safe yet again or finally find the courage to follow her dreams.

My Review:

I received this novel from Bethany House Publishers in exchange for an honest review.  If you would like to review books for Bethany House Publishers, you can click here to sign up.

I am one of the many individuals who has thought about taking up the art of writing ... not a novel necessarily, but writing nonetheless ... so, to read about a writer's life (even fictionally) was intriguing for me; for I know that, in some way, all fiction is based on a semblance of truth.

The major characters in the novel were well thought out and interacted well with each other.  The supporting characters had just enough depth to them that you felt like you recognized them as members of your own family.

Reading the novel made me feel several emotions: humor, sadness, indignation and thoughtfulness.  To have a novel invoke those feelings means that the author has written his/her story well ... which is what an author is supposed to do, correct?  Make you feel?  Whether it be passion, or anger, or humor, etc.

Some of you may even like to know that, even though this is a Christian novel, you weren't really "slapped in the face" with Christianity.  You knew which characters were Christians, but they weren't radical about it.  The author stuck more with what was going on with the characters.  The spiritual portions accentuated what was going on in the novel, rather than being the reason the novel was being written ... if that makes any sense to ya'll ...

It really is a novel that you would enjoy reading at least once, so why not pick up a copy? =)