Book Synopsis:
An invitation to join The Fifth Avenue Story Society gives five New York strangers a chance to rewrite their own stories.
Executive assistant Lexa is eager for a much-deserved promotion, but her boss is determined to keep her underemployed.
Literature professor Jett is dealing with a broken heart, as well as a nagging suspicion his literary idol, Gordon Phipps Roth, might be a fraud.
Uber driver Chuck just wants a second chance with his kids.
Aging widower Ed is eager to write the true story of his incredible marriage.
Coral, queen of the cosmetics industry, has broken her engagement and is on the verge of losing her great grandmother’s multimillion-dollar empire.
When all five New Yorkers receive an anonymous, mysterious invitation to the Fifth Avenue Story Society, they suspect they’re victims of a practical joke. No one knows who sent the invitations or why. No one has heard of the literary society. And no one is prepared to bare their deepest secrets to a roomful of strangers.
Yet curiosity and loneliness bring them back week after week to the old library. And it’s there they discover the stories of their hearts, and the kind of friendship and love that heals their souls.
My Review:
4.25/5 stars. This book was cute and I loved the characters, but I wish the Christian themes were more prevalent at the beginning. The ending also felt like it was wrapped up too perfectly.
A lot of the one-star reviewers were rating it that way because they were totally caught off-guard by the fact that it was a Christian book. I can see how a non-Christian who didn't see that it was a Christian book would feel that way. For the first half of the book, there was almost no mention of God or any faith themes at all. With Coral, the character with the faith journey, there were subtle mentions when her past was talked about, but it wouldn't have been obvious at that point.
The Christian messages don't come in until the second half, and when they do, it's very overt. Coral tells her story about finding God, and it's very direct. I like direct, though, and I loved her story. It mentioned how it's not always easy being a Christian, and sometimes you have to do really difficult and brave things to live your life for God.
I just wish the Christian themes were more prevalent throughout the book, not just in the last third.
There were a lot of characters in this book. Early on, it was hard to feel like I really knew the characters, since all of their voices kind of sounded the same and it was hard to differentiate their personalities - they all felt a little bland. Yet, at the same time, they all had such compelling and emotional stories that I couldn't help but feel for them. Chuck and Lexa were the earliest ones I started to really feel for, and by the end I empathized with everyone's stories.
Even though there were five main characters, Jett and Lexa felt like the main main characters throughout. They were the characters that had the most POVs of and that there seemed to be the biggest focus on. It was all about them getting back together. That's not really a complaint or a praise, just something I noticed.
In the last few chapters and into the epilogue, everything started to wrap up, but it was almost too perfect with how it all ended. It seemed like it was leading up to not being so perfect - Lexa moving away, Jett and Lexa not getting back together, etc. - but then everything worked out so conveniently that it wasn't realistic. I love a good happy ending, but I also appreciate when a story has some realism to the way problems resolve. Although, there was some things that weren't so perfectly resolved. Not all of the characters became Christians and Chuck didn't get the restraining order removed.
The other thing with the ending I didn't like or understand was with the librarian character, Gilda. She was pretty mysterious throughout the whole book. The ending gave some explanation, but it was still very vague and it seemed like she was supposed to represent God or an angel. She was the one who orchestrated the whole thing. It just felt a bit too supernatural to me.
Content Warning:
There's no language except for the word "slutty", but no curse words. As far as romance goes, I was honestly surprised at how intense some of the romance content was for a Christian book. I get that the characters weren't Christian, but there was a bit too much description of kisses and passionate feelings for my liking. There's no active violence, but some past events like a fist fight and someone blowing up in rage in front of their family are described. There are a lot of deep, sad themes that might be hard for some readers.
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