I received an ARC of this book through NetGalley- thank you!

I was surprised by how much I enjoyed this book. Patti Callahan Henry weaves the story of Joy Davidman and C.S. Lewis in a way that's both interesting and relatable. I liked the way she portrayed Joy, and I really liked learning more about how their friendship and then relationship formed.

Sadly this was another book that just wasn’t for me. I really wanted to like it. But it could be the perfect book for someone else. I am so grateful for the publisher and Netgalley for giving me the opportunity to read it.

Fans of CS Lewis who don't know much about his wife Joy will enjoy this novel which gives voice to her. It's very much a faith based story, Thanks to Netgalley for the ARC. A good and educational read.

*received for free from netgalley for honest review* oh wow. not my cup of tea at all. really had to fight to finish this book.

Becoming Mrs Lewis by Patti Callahanis a remarkable book that tries to take on a remarkable story. Written with a distinct voice as you would expect from a story about C.S. Lewis, this book reads like a love story. Overall, I think it is a wonderful book. The task that this author undertook was monumental, with a character that is larger than life. Yes, I agree that parts of the book are certainly romanticized, but that is exactly what C.S. Lewis himself did after his wife's death. To me, it fit the story's narrative and purpose. I deeply enjoyed this book and recommend it. I received a digital copy of this book from the publisher with no obligations. I also purchased a copy. These opinions are entirely my own.

LOVED LOVED LOOOVED this book! I am SUCH a sucker for any historical fiction stories, and this one did not disappoint!!! this was a highly anticipated read for me, and I am so happy it lived to my expectations! definitely a must read for historical fiction fans!

I received an arc of this title from NetGalley for an honest review. This was not a typical book that I would read but I found it hard to put down and wanted to know more about their marriage once I finished with this. Amazing story.

Wow, wow, wow. That ending! You’ll need at least one Kleenex... If you are a historical fiction fan, read this book. If you like character-centered stories, read this book. If you like C. S. Lewis, read this book. So well researched! The prose is poetic and beautiful.

Thanks Netgalley for the ARC! All opinions are unbiased and my own.

Note- a little swearing, alcoholism, adultery, abuse, and sensuality (nothing graphic)

I have mixed feelings about this book. I know that many have loved it, and I can understand why they do. The writing is really excellent, and I think that this author did a wonderful job finding Joy’s “voice” for this story. The fact that it’s written in first person made it very personal (at times it felt almost too personal), but also added to it being compelling reading.

But for some reason—-and I can’t put it into words—-something about this book bothered me. I wish I could identify what it is, but it’s there. So while I think this book has great merit to it, I can’t quite recommend it. I’m giving it a five star rating, because the excellent writing deserves it. But it’s not the book for me.

I received a copy of this book from the publisher. All opinions are my own.

I really loved how the author wrote about Joy and her experience with God. Joy had been living live with masks on in order to survive until her correspondence with C.S Lewis started. This story was about Joy as she traversed life discovering herself and God. I admired Joy's resolute to love despite her husband's woes. I loved the history in this book with all wonderful architecture of England. It was so sad to read how her childhood especially her relationship with her dad influenced the way she viewed love. The love between Joy and Jack was really improbable. I saw myself wishing for a love like theirs. I loved this book in its entirety. Beautiful, captivating, wonderful lessons to learn. They were a force to be reckoned with. Two people humanity should never forget.
The author dad an absolutely fantastic job writing this book. This book will outlive us all.

A brave and indomitable woman was Joy.

A beautiful tear jerking, heart wrenching story of how we can only discover our lives by surrendering it to God. God did not love us because we are lovable but because He is love.

I received a copy of this book and this is my honest opinion.

A friend has informed me that there were things that I would find content that I wouldn't like -- that there is some bad language -- and that a quote that is said to have been C.S. Lewis' was not actually his, but was shown in the movie based on his book.

It took me awhile to get going but ultimately, I am glad I did. What a beautiful story loosely based on the love of Joy Friedman and C.S. Lewis. A meeting of the minds through letters, they finally meet after two years. Joy has been married to an alcoholic, unfaithful, and at times, a violent man. She has two young sons and has struggled to be the housewife with everything under control but trying to craft her work. It is a glorious tale of love, redemption, and finding your true face in love. Marvelous.

Becoming Mrs. Lewis imagines the improbable love affair between Joy Davidman and C.S. Lewis. The story begins during a disheartening time in Joy’s life. Her husband is an alcoholic, they are no longer in love with one another, and she’s suffocating under the weight of raising two sons and keeping up the home in Ossining, NY in the late 1940’s. All she wants to do is write poetry but can’t find a way to rise above her oppressive circumstances and tap into her creativity. She seeks wisdom and guidance from God … and C.S. Lewis! In a letter to Lewis, she introduces herself and her spiritual crisis, he responds, and they begin a slow letter-exchanging dance to an emotional and intellectual affair that changes the course of her life.

With the vivid descriptions of setting and personal surroundings, it feels like you are getting an exclusive backstage pass at their lives. Their intimate thoughts, feeling and inner longings are revealed, making it seem like the author had an inside track. It also gave an interesting historical perspective on domestic life for women in the 40’s, and the artists’ struggle throughout time.

I read this during at the beginning of the quarantine and COVID pandemic, when I was trying to get my literary grove back on. It moved slow for me, and I got a little distracted and dispassionate about the characters, hence my mediocre rating. In the interest of full disclosure, however, I wasn’t a Lewis or Davidman devotee prior to reading, and had I been it may have captured my interest more. I may revisit at a different time and place.

Thank you to NetGalley for an ARC of Becoming Mrs. Lewis in exchange for an honest review.

Sometimes I believe it is only the paper and the words that understand me. I hadn't know that love could not be earned or bought or manipulated; it was just this- complete peace in the other's presence. All the years wasted believing that love meant owning or possessing, and now the greatest love had arrived in my greatest weakness. In my supreme defeat came my grandest victory. God's paradoxes had no end.

Before reading Becoming Mrs. Lewis, I did not know anything about Joy Lewis, CS Lewis's wife. The only thing I knew is how much he grieved for his wife. So what was it about this relationship? What kind of woman was Joy? Becoming Mrs. Lewis is just about that. Their relationship started as pen pals while she was married to William Lindsay Gresham. William and Joy were both authors and shared that in common. However, they lacked connection in their marriage. William was an abusive and an alcoholic which lead to many problems in their marriage. They had two boys together. It was their search for Christianity that led them both to CS Lewis and ultimately the letter writing between Joy and Jack ensued.

Becoming Mrs. Lewis is really about who Joy Davidman was. Her demons, her passions, and her longings. Her attraction to CS Lewis while married to Gresham was not lustful but more of an emotional affair. Joy was a broken woman and she found peace in her relationship with CS Lewis. The tension of Christianity and their attraction to another was not one they took lightly. Their friendship was cultivated of a need for connection that they both were surprised by.

To be honest, I had a hard time liking Joy. She is awkward and very contradictory. She left her husband and children in New York to find peace in England while working. She had her cousin take care of her family while she was gone. She pretty much handed her marriage to her along with her children. She missed her children while she was a way from them but sent them to boarding school. Joy struggled with her decisions. I think it comes from my own misunderstanding along with many others that knowing the real Joy can be difficult, however, I think the author took great pains to make her vulnerable and real. A woman who found love while broken. A woman who found peace has God worked in her life. A woman who was becoming.

A Special Thank you to Thomas Nelson and Netgalley for the ARC and the opportunity to post an honest revie

One of my goals for 2020 is to read more of C.S. Lewis’ books. Before this year, I had only ever read The Chronicles of Narnia! So while I've been reading Mere Christianity, The Screwtape Letters, and The Great Divorce, I thought it would be interesting to learn a little more about Lewis' life.

I’ve heard a lot of great things about this book, and I really wanted to like it, but I have mixed feelings about it. For one thing, with a fictionalized biography like this, it’s hard to know how much is true and how much is the author’s imagination. That makes it hard to know if the parts I didn't enjoy as much, like Joy's feelings for Jack while she was still married, were historically accurate or not. There were other parts of the story I did enjoy, such as the vivid descriptions of Oxford, the snippets of Joy's writings throughout, and learning about her influence on Lewis' writing of some of his well-known books.

The story also felt a little long; it does cover a long period of time, but dragged on for me in places. It got better towards the end, and seeing how Jack and Joy's marriage eventually came to be was one of my favorite parts, even if it was a little bittersweet. Overall, this was an interesting, enjoyable story that I think fans of C.S. Lewis will appreciate.

I received a complimentary copy of this book from the publisher via NetGalley. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own.

This narrative of Joy Davidman's life and her love for C.S. Lewis was fascinating. I had read a little about their love story, but reading this was my first in depth look at them. I could see how the use of first person narration would be risky and it probably contained embellishments as a posthumous biography written in story from, so I didn't take everything I read as being accurate. There were many great and encouraging quotes that I marked as I read, and these alone were worth reading the book for. I enjoyed reading about their relationship and felt badly that Joy was treated so poorly for most of her life. I thought the sexual content and bad language were unnecessary to the narrative, especially for a book labeled as Christian and inspirational. I could tell that this was a feminist perspective, so I took that into account when reading as well. If you're looking for a more factual representation, read another biography. If you're looking for an overall well written and heartfelt book, I do recommend it, keeping my previous reservations in mind.
I received a complimentary copy of this book from the publisher through NetGalley. A positive review was not required, and all opinions expressed are entirely my own.

Each romantic story is unique and exciting. But, can your romantic story give way to create fascinating and priceless pieces of literature? Joy Davidmann was a young mother of two boys and began to realize her marriage was not the loving union it once was. During a pleading prayer is what changed Joy from an atheist to a believer in God. Slowly she found solace in her writings, as she was a college educated writer. Something her husband was not. Through mutual friends Joy Davidmann began writing to C.S.Lewis, or she referred to as Jack.
Through their letters and writings they formed a loving friendship. It was the trip to London to heal from an illness she had been battling that she found the friendship with Jack was much more than she imagined.
The book was lengthy and full of historical locations and interactions. I enjoyed the details and the historical meaning that lead to C.S. Lewis writings, his muse, Joy Davidmann Lewis.

This is a well written book, but I just couldn't get into it Something was just a little off about this book and I don't know how to describe it. Please don't let my review stop you from getting this book, a lot of people loved it. Thank you Thomas Nelson via NetGalley for the complimentary copy of this book. All opinions expressed are my own.

I knew of Joy Davidman Lewis from the film SHADOWLANDS and from the book THE NARNIAN and online bios of C.S. "Jack" Lewis, so I was interested in reading this novel of her friendship and then love for Lewis. I mostly enjoyed it, as it clearly illustrated how the pair intellectually stimulated each other through their letters and later through their personal relationship. You really got a feeling for Joy's increasing dismay into her disintegrating marriage (her husband, Bill Gresham, was an alcoholic and adulterer), her love of her two songs, and her admiration, first intellectually and then emotionally, of Lewis. Her descriptions of Oxford make me want to pull up stakes and move there. And the sad discovery of her real cause of illness and its terrible repercussions are all too vivid.

However, it pretty much asks us to admire Joy as an independent woman who chose to make a change in her life when we would have criticized a man for the same behavior. She pretty much leaves her husband and kids to her (as described by Joy) much more attractive cousin (and then seems outraged out of nowhere that hubby and cousin get cozy together!) while she's enjoying herself in England with Jack Lewis, his brother Warnie, and Jack's friends. Then she does reclaim her sons and brings them to England, but the book glosses over the fact that while the younger, Douglas, loved Lewis, England, and the whole arrangement, the older boy David didn't like Lewis or the whole situation and even today refuses to speak about it. Lewis, despite his eccentricities, seems almost too idealized as well.

I recently finished reading Becoming Mrs. Lewis, the expanded edition by Patti Callahan. Over the last year, I started reading historical fiction, as I have come to love the stories that are told, but also many of these share some actual factual information in them. Becoming Mrs. Lewis, I will say is by far my favorite historical fiction book I have read thus far and one I will be highly recommended, especially if you are a reader/fan of C.S. Lewis. Which I happen to be.
This story is about love and heartache. You will be crying by the end of the story, if not already in the middle of the story, mostly happy tears though. This story gave me also a greater appreciation of C.S. Lewis and the books he has written, which I have read a few of. The Four Loves, is one of his books that he wrote and I now have great appreciation and an even greater understanding of the four types of love through the reading of this story. You will see throughout the book, how Joy was so much a part of the many great works of C.S. Lewis, along with references and quotes from their writings. As Joy Davidman, herself is a very accomplished writer, though I had not heard much before reading this book about her.
The story of Joy, the lady who becomes C.S. Lewis’s wife, is a story of much growth, courage, heartache, inspiration, but also story of seeing God work and the true meaning of love. Amazing to see how God took an abused woman, who was at one time an atheist, ex-communist to the love of Jack, AKA ~ C.S. Lewis. But then again, he too once was an atheist, God does work in miraculous and wonderous ways!
The author went into great research to write this book, which makes it come alive. I didn’t want to put it down and I actually want to know so much more. At the end of the book, you will find additional information and research about Joy and C.S. Lewis, in addition to discussion questions.
“When I would discover that all there is, and all there ever will be, is this; Love, waiting for our surrender, from where we came and where we go. With the great roar of Aslan, I ended my life with these words, whispered in truth to Jack: I am at peace with God.”