"A Time to Dance" by Karen Kingsbury

John and Abby Reynolds are the shining example of a long-lasting marriage to all their family and friends, or at least that's what everyone thinks.  Little do they know the broken hearts that John and Abby hide behind a facade. 

What started out as a beautiful romance and a promise of forever, now is falling apart after 21 years, and they have to break it to their kids.  The problem is that their daughter announces her engagement to a wonderful, Christian man, and they decide to put off their plan for divorce until after the wedding in order to keep from ruining the festivities.  Thus begins John and Abby's own mental, emotional and spiritual battles, wrestling with the big question of what went wrong.

I am new to Kingsbury's books, this book being the second one I've ever read.  I appreciate a few things about her writing.  First, I love a story that is driven by dialog, and Kingsbury does this well, in my opinion.  Second, she provides us with the ongoing dialog between her characters and God.  I appreciate hearing that "inside" conversation.  The third element I appreciate is that her characters are at varying degrees of spiritual maturity.  Some demonstrate great faith, and others have gone by the wayside but are being drawn back by the Lord.

Kingsbury knows how to make me feel what the characters are feeling, drawing me into the story within the first pages.  I certainly feel like I know these characters by the end of the book, as if they are real people.

With that said, I must admit that I became weary of the book for awhile.  About halfway through I was getting tired of the arguing and characters' negative self-talk, and it made me want to take a break from the book for a day.  It's possible that the author was desiring to evoke that emotion in the reader, so as to identify with the weariness of the characters.  If so, she managed to accomplish that feeling in me.

One other point worth noting is that there are a couple scenes that were somewhat sensual, at least to my standards.  For that reason I would not feel comfortable recommending this book to a teen reader.

Overall I would say I liked the book, but I didn't love the book.  I look forward to more of Karen Kingsbury's books.  You can find my review of Unlocked at this link.

I wish to thank BookSneeze.com for providing me with a review copy of this book.  I was not required to write a positive review.  The opinions stated here are my own.

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