A Kingsbury Collection

"A Kingsbury Collection" Three Novels in One: Where Yesterday Lives, When Joy Came to Stay and On Every Side. Author Karen Kingsbury. The book is comprised of almost 800 pages of Christian fiction written by a New York Times Best-Selling Author. Each story contains a strong lead female character. Each is either a journalist or a TV news anchor. Initially I found this rather curious until I learned the author has a history in each. With "Where Yesterday Lives" we travel with the main character as she struggles with less than ideal circumstances in her marriage and her family of origin. Her Father dies at the beginning of the story so Ellen travels back to her home town to be with her family to make arrangements for his funeral. The story explores the various struggles and history of each of her siblings, as well as those of Ellen, and culminates with each having a better understanding of each other as they make peace at their fathers funeral. As a reader I found I was promptly drawn into the story. While I found the characters to be complex, as people are, I did find I began to question the authenticity of some aspects of her characters, which, as a reader, I found a little bothersome--this being particularly true with the character Jake, Ellen's boyfriend of six years prior her marriage, to another man. The author started to lose me about three fourths the way into the story, as I found it felt to me like it was time to wrap it up. I basically skimmed the last few chapters to get to the conclusion of the story. "When Joy Comes" is a story of both an adult woman, Maggie, and a child, Amanda Joy. Maggie is married to her golden boy husband, a devout Christian man, and she is employed as a journalist. She and her husband serve as foster parents. Early in the story you realize Maggie has a secret that haunts her. Amanda Joy is a lovely little girl who finds herself in the foster care system, and suffers some horrible experiences in the process. Fairly quickly things begin to unravel in Maggie's life and the reader begins to get the inside story to her dark secret. I found I was really drawn into this story. As I began piecing the story together I was anxious to see it work towards a happy ending. As with the previous book, again I found about three fourths the way into the story the writer was again beginning to lose me. I'd already figured the plot out and simply wanted to get to the point where it was all resolved. The writing, at this point, felt like needless filler, so I skimmed it to get to the culmination of story. Were this story based on true events, I'd not expect such a happy ending due to the circumstances that brought about the problem, but for a fiction novel the reader is provided with a very joyful ending. "On Every Side", in my opinion, is the best of the bunch, of the three stories. I actually liked the main characters, Faith Evans, and Jordan Riley. The essence of this story is a legal battle that involves a statue of Jesus which stands in the center of a town park. Faith is a newscaster who is also a passionate Christian. Jordan, a powerful attorney, has an ax to grind and goes after the town with a lawsuit mandating the statue be removed. The conflict comes as we learn Faith and Jordan were very close friends as children until Jordan's mother dies, leaving him and his sister orphans, separated from each other and lost into the foster care system. As the story unfolds, things become complicated when Jordan and Faith find each other again, yet find themselves on opposite sides of the legal battle. In the process the reader is able to travel the journey Jordan has taken up to this point, allowing for the opportunity to understand his confusion and pain. At the same time the reader is also able to journey with Faith and feel her passion, and understand her struggles to find balance between her career goals and her values and beliefs. As the reader I was very drawn into the story, feeling the emotions of the characters, championing for them, and experiencing the story as if I were there. This story engaged me from beginning to end and I really enjoyed what I felt to be a truly happy ending. "I received this book for free from WaterBrook Multnomah Publishing Group for this review."