Battling with grief can be overwhelming and all-consuming. This book navigates this and ties it in to faith. It is interesting to explore the idea of what happens to those we love after they die and how that impacts our life and world here on Earth. Thank you to NetGalley and RB Media and christianaudio for a copy of this book for an honest review.

I received an ARC of this audiobook through NetGalley in exchange for my unbiased opinion.

Tim is a Christian author who is feeling like a hypocrite these days. After three deaths of people close to him in the last 3 years, he is struggling with his grief and questioning how God could be good when he allowed his daughter, mother, and friend to die. Tim goes to a Christian retreat to deal with his grief. While there, he has a dream, a beautiful vision of Heaven. He sees his loved ones who have passed on and gets to visit his own room of marvels.

The author used his own real grief to write this work of fiction. The story is a good reminder of how small acts of kindness can impact others' lives, and for Christians, it is a reminder that their Christian loved ones are in a better place now, even though we miss them. This book reminds me of The Five People You Meet In Heaven and some of It's A Wonderful Life. If you like those, you will probably like this book, too. Above all, I would recommend it to Christians who are grieving the lost of Christian loved ones.

This book spoke to me. I recently lost my Grandmother and understand the struggle one has with faith all too well. I felt the author timed the emotions and built up well and carried me along nodding my head in agreement. Thank you for letting me read this book. It came into my hands at a very apt time.

"...the pain you are feeling is the pain of loss...
When we cry , 'Come Back', it is all for our own sake. We never stop to consider whether their return would be good for them. We want them back to restore our happiness."

A Room of Marvels by James Bryan Smith has come into my life at a most challenging time having lost my mom a few weeks ago.
I have been going through the angry stage of grief. The above quote from the book has helped me deal with my emotions. My mom isn't in pain anymore and is at peace.

The author has written a story about profound loss, not only of loved ones, but of a loss of faith that is based on real life events when in a three year period he lost his mom, his best friend and his 2 year old daughter. Through the character of Tim we are taken on a dream that leads him to meet people from his past who he had a profound impact on in life. Much like the movie "It's A Wonderful Life", Tim has no idea that his simple acts of kindness changed how these people lived their lives going forward.

The narrator William Sarris projected the right amount of anger, sadness and disbelief at just the right moments. I listened to all 5 plus hours in one sitting. I cried through most of it and hugged my dog through all of it. My heart was less heavy when I was done and full of gratitude for the author who through his own grief has created a cathartic story for people of all faiths. I am not Christian but the one thing I have in common with every human is the pain of losing a loved one. Do yourself and your heart a favor and read or listen to this writer's words. Just make sure to have plenty of tissues nearby.

I received a free copy of this audiobook from the publishers via NetGalley for a fair and honest review. All opinions are my own.

Thank you to NetGalley and RB Media for giving me this audiobook in exchange for an honest review.

I've been looking for more Christian books, without swearing and sex, that would uplift me and assist me to be a better person. So , when this book came across NetGalley , I liked the cover and thought I would give it a try. I am so glad I did! This was a story about a man dealing with heavy grief who decides to attend a silent retreat. While there, he has a "dream" about the afterlife. This is a well written book with what I'll call "bible based imagination", in other words it's fiction based on truths. I feel like this book could touch any of us who are searching for answers about the afterlife. It isn't fact, but no one has those facts unless you die. This book might also bring comfort to those who had a loved one who died, wondering what happened afterwards. I personally haven't experienced grief like this man, but would imagine this would make me feel a little comfort.
Short little story that packs a punch!

Wow! This book truly touched my heart in a way that few books ever have. I believe it started a deeper journey of healing myself. It was honest, yet full of hope. It was painful, yet incredibly healing. How our lives would be changed forever if we were able to experience such a journey. You have to listen to this book, it will change your life!

Nothing shakes us like the death of those whom we love the most. In his recently re-released novel, Room of Marvels: A Story About Heaven that Heals the Heart, author James Bryan Smith journeys through the darkness of sorrow. The story follows Tim Hudson who has been beaten low by the deaths of his mother, his friend, and his two-year-old daughter all within the span of a couple years.

Compounding the hurt is the guilt: how can a Christian who believes in the hope of heaven feel such pain? How can he feel this angry? This depressed? Shouldn't someone who has dished out theological answers to pain believe those answers himself? In desperation, he decides to check himself into a weeklong stay at a monastery. Perhaps the silence and solitude might provide him the space he needs to process his emotions.

When he falls asleep, he dreams that he is in heaven, guided and directed along a path by the many people who have passed away throughout his life. The resulting journey gives Smith a platform to dwell on the things scripture says to us about heaven, our hope in death, and the agony of loss.

The book is not exactly going to win literary awards—the prose is rather stilted and the dialog plastic. I listened to the audiobook version, which also didn't do the novel many favors; it just felt rather dry and sterile for the subject matter. Nevertheless, that's not really why anyone would pick it up. When you feel the pain too, you're not looking for the next blockbuster novel, but for encouragement to keep going, to keep believing that the stories are true, to hear affirmation that someday the sadness will not be the final note.

Stylistically, it sits somewhere between C.S. Lewis' The Great Divorce and William P. Young's The Shack (though generally more in keeping with Christian orthodoxy than the latter). Smith does a good job of underlining the sheer messiness of lament: in the sorrow of death, we often feel a sort of anger and disorientation that feels somehow wrong or "bad," yet the way forward is not over or around these emotions, but through them. Confessing our grief and anger and even shame is necessary work if we ever hope to move forward.

Though I would never discourage anyone in their imaginings of heaven, I admit that I was disappointed that the story seems to suggest that our pain is inescapable without a divine vision or dream. It is not until he sees his loved ones face-to-face in heaven that he is able to move on with his life. Certainly God in his wisdom can and does give people visions and dreams sometimes, but we should be careful to guard our hearts against thinking this is somehow normal or to be waited for. Indeed, 2 Corinthians 5:7 reminds us that "we live by faith, not by sight," and Hebrews 11:1 teaches us that though we might hope our deceased loved ones are now experiencing the beatific vision, it is precisely our lack of current sight that is the life of faith. We take Christ at his word, believing his promise is profoundly trustworthy. We take heart from the great cloud of witnesses who have passed these painful paths before us.

Let me be careful to say that none of that is to diminish the pain of death: all the theology and scripture in the world does not make pain less painful. In moments like these, we remember that death is the last enemy waiting to be destroyed (1 Cor. 15:26), and we long for that day to come quickly. In this time between times, though, our hope is not that the Lord would give us a vision or a dream, but that he would give us courage and strength through the Church Militant and Triumphant to persevere in faith even when it seems death commands the battle.

DISCLAIMER: I received a copy of this book from the publisher for the purpose of a fair, unbiased review.

William Sarris turns in a great performance as narrator and actor for the various roles in this piece. The result is a well-told version of a challenging yet inspiring story that helps readers deal with spiritual questions about death, tragedy and the hereafter.

I first went into this thinking, it’s going to be about the authors grief. His personal experiences with it. But it wasn’t.
It’s a story about a dream.
I wasn’t a fan of the narrator of this audiobook. The main character in this was immature and mostly annoying.
It felt like he hadn’t grasped what Christians hopefully learned early on with their relationship with God.
It was also one dimensional.
I really didn’t care for this audiobook.

Thank you Netgalley and the publisher for the ARC, in exchange for my honest review.