This beautifully written book details the growing friendship of Joy David and CS Lewis that culminated with their marriage. In the early 1950s, Joy was unhappily married to Bill, an alcoholic, unsuccessful writer. She was also a writer. Born Jewish, but an atheist, and later even a communist, she found God one night waiting for Bill to come home. She proceeds to continue to struggle to keep the marriage together as some sort of Christian duty. She strikes up a correspondence with CS Lewis which ...

Becoming Mrs. Lewis by Patti Callahan is a 2018 Thomas Nelson publication. This book is the fictionalized version of the love story between Joy Davidman and C.S. Lewis. I have been meaning to read this book for ages and have been wildly curious to see how Callahan approached the material. While I did like the story, and appreciated the way Joy’s particular challenges were presented, I struggled to stay invested. The relationship is fascinating, their initial correspondence very insightful, espec...

I love the backstory on this: when a friend asked Patti Henry what she would write about if she could write about anything: the answer came at once: Joy Davidman. Years later, this book is the result of that conversation.

In this biographical novel, Henry tells how American poet and mother Joy Davidman became the wife of C.S. Lewis. While I thought I was familiar with the story, I learned something new on every page, and polished this off in an enjoyable two days.

I'm in the minority on my rating of this book, so I'll just say it was not my cup of tea. Had I not been reading it for my book club I would have DNF'd the whole thing. I was frustrated and bored because it felt as though the author couldn't decide whether this was a biographical novel, religious fiction, or chick lit, and the combination just did not work for me.

Brutal. I’m actually disappointed and finally decided to stop reading it at page 320. Can’t take the drivel anymore! The italicized thought of Joy mid page 320 “or take me in your arms and set me down on that bed and make love to me”. I actually eye rolled. I wonder if either Lewis or Joy would want things like that included. Doubt it. My main issue, besides the mediocre writing, which made it easy to skim big portions at a time, was with Joy’s portrayal. She’s selfish, promiscuous, and even chi...

Started off ok, but this book is severely lacking in one thing: Jesus. This smacks of someone who only understands the motions of religion and the forced human tradition, rather than actually knowing Jesus.I feel as this has been heavily researched, but I have to severely question Joy--and even C.S. Lewis's--actual Christianity if this book is entirely true. The characters represented here do not resonate with actual Christians who have read any of the Bible, rather than just sort of skimmed thr...

This is going to be less a review than just myself explaining how I was all over the place while reading this novel. I think most people have heard of C. S. Lewis and his Narnia, but of his only wife Joy, very little. Was what drew me to this book. I liked it, I didn't like it, found it repetitive at times, interesting at others, grew frustrated with all the spirituality, philosophizing, the tone was so melancholy, not much joy to be found within. So conflicting, a good look at a woman who wante...

I have to say that this book took me completely by surprise. Honestly, I think sometimes when I approach a book about real people, in this case C.S.Lewis and Joy Davidman, I cannot help but ask myself "So which one is going to be the jerk?" But Patti Callahan unfolds the story of the meeting of the minds as much as much as that of the heart. People, this book is #relationshipgoals, the type our mothers and fathers hope we will encounter as we travel the road of love. Seventeen years in age dif...

This is some kind of special! 5 stars! ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ Patti Callahan (Henry) is one of my favorite authors. How do I know this? I own all of her books and a few are “saved” unread for the book apocalypse. You know, I’m well-prepared for that. When I read that she was writing historical fiction for the first time, and that it also involved C.S. Lewis, I was all in. Joy Davidman is the main character. The book begins with her life as a wife and mother, and I could sense right away that something i...

Pulled me in, kept me up, left me joyful. Need I say more?In case you aren't yet persuaded to snatch up this beautiful book for your reading stack, let me add that Patti Callahan's writing is at times so breathtaking, as a writer, I paused to reread a turn of phrase. As magical as the writing is, though, the novel's true magic is the revelation of the man behind the stories we all know and the woman, the outsider, who captured his heart. Joy Davidman and C.S. Lewis were an unlikely match, separa...