Starred review from December 6, 2010
A young woman grows into herself and her faith in this superbly written second novel from Pierce (Feeling for Bones), a minister's daughter. Amy Gallagher is a newly minted MFA graduate teaching freshman English at her alma mater. Struggling to find a market for her articles and stories, she secretly envies her carefree coffee barista roommate, Zoë, whose prolific prose is published regularly. Recently dumped by her university colleague, Amy resigns herself to takeout, TV, and grading papers to distract her from her dead-end love life and perpetual writer's block. But when Zoë invites her friend Eli for an extended stay in their apartment, Amy comes to know herself—and her faith—on different terms. Pierce crafts a tight, deliciously engrossing novel from start to finish. Readers will be captivated by Amy's relationships, struggles, and choices as much as they will be riveted by the author's seamless portrayal of them. This novel can—and should—be enjoyed not only by Christian readers but anyone in search of a great read.
October 1, 2010
Life has not turned out the way that writer and creative writing instructor Amy expected. Despite the fact that she has carefully transcribed her life ambitions in several thousand lists, Amy has yet to check off anything from her Things to Do Before Thirty list, which includes getting published and finding someone tall and decent to marry. Instead, Amy shares an apartment with an eccentric writer/waitress named Zoe and a somewhat vagrant artist named Eli, while she catalogs the rejection letters she has received from publishers all across the country. Real-life author Pierce has created a thoroughly relatable protagonist, a flawed woman facing modern-day dilemmas and conflicts of faith, thus bringing a welcome dose of contemporary reality to the Christian fiction genre. With just the right amount of humor to leaven this tale about the plight of a single Christian woman today, Pierce provides readers of Melody Carlson or Neta Jackson with a new author to be inspired by.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2010, American Library Association.)