Customer Reviews

She Makes It Look Easy: A Novel

5 star:		(23)
4 star:		(12)
3 star:		(9)
2 star:		(4)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

This is the first Christian novel I have read since high school and I'm 38! I absolutely love it! I admire the author for not stooping to a simple teen love story while talking about grown women. I'm married, with kids, and I work - I have seen more of life and I want a novel that respects that. I believe the author nailed the outer and inner dynamics of networking in church, vying for power in social circles, how the grass still needs to be cut on the other side, and all sorts of things in the middle. If you have ever been envious of someone, questioned your choices in life, and wanted to fit in I think you will relate very quickly to this book. I would not call it a romantic love story, it is really about two women moving through the hard parts of life and really, aren't we all just people doing that? Something about this book helped me remember that I am not the only one with feelings of wanting more, not being good enough, regret, people pleasing, etc. Some of the thoughts by the characters I could have written! The author really nails it to a "t!"

When I read The Mailbox, I raved about it for days. Loved the whole idea! Then I couldn't believe it when I found out Marybeth was coming out with a second book! How awesome is that I ask you!

She Makes It Look Easy is a bit more thought provoking and really hits home in a lot of areas. Especially for women I think. We all think each other has it so much easier or at least I think everyone else has it easier and does it so much better than I do. However, appearances aren't always what they seem. Someone might have it so put together on the outside but might be falling apart on the inside.

Ariel has just moved with her husband David and 3 rowdy boys to her dream neighborhood, Essex Falls. She wants everything to be perfect. When she meets Justine, the neighbor that lives behind them, she sees a potential friend. However, something always seems out of place. Ariel doesn't listen to this nagging feeling though, she tries her hardest to impress and befriend Justine.

Justine is up to no good though, an affair-in-the-making on the skirts and I don't think Justine knows the word friend as it really means to be a friend. It is all too true that even though people like Justine get up in front of ladies at church, and speak and seem to have it all, they really don't.

I loved Ariel, she had such a heart and even though things were hectic in her home, she knew the one person to go to, our Lord. Even better were Betsy's words at the end. We have to make sure we don't fall into that trap of wanting what other people have, being content with what WE have. What He has given us, indeed is what WE need.

I loved this book, it went by way too fast. What more can you ask for? Marybeth hit the nail on the head with this one! We all need a wake-up call sometimes to be careful what and who we idolize and follow.

Review by Shelly Burke, Editor and Publisher

"She Makes it Look Easy" is not a typical "everything-works-out-perfectly-in-the-end" Christian novel. The book delves into the lives of three families and the impacts of the choices husbands and wives make. You might find yourself shocked to find that some of the outwardly "perfect" Christian characters make very bad choices...and you might find yourself closely identifying with several of the characters as well.

I was immediately drawn into the lives of the characters in "She Makes it Look Easy." The story is told from the alternating views of the central characters, Justine and Ariel. Justine Miller makes it all look "easy" with her perfectly clean home, perfectly groomed children, and perfectly organized life. Under the "perfect," however, are dark motives and desires.

Ariel Baxter's family is "moving on up" when they move into Essex Falls, an upscale neighborhood. Justine quickly introduces herself to her new neighbor Ariel and offers to help Ariel organize her life. Soon, however, Ariel suspects that Justine has motives beyond helping a new friend. When she delves deeper into Justine's actions she discovers a secret that Justine has been keeping.

Justine and Ariel both face difficult choices, and you'll be wondering until the final chapter if they'll do the right thing.

She Makes it Look Easy reminded me of several things; first of all, when I find myself too eager to please someone who makes me feel bad about myself, that person is not a friend. Second, I was reminded not to judge people who seem to "have it all together;" they might be hiding a secret, or they might need a friend. And third, no matter how much I want to be a friend, there are times that doing the right thing is more important than a not-so-true friendship.

Even if you usually don't enjoy fiction, I encourage you to read "She Makes it Look Easy."

If you're avoid "Christian fiction" because you worry it'll be a sermon rather than an engrossing narrative, read "She Makes It Look Easy," which takes on the age-old theme of other people's grass being greener in a fresh and unflinching way. Justine and Ariel are two very different women whose lives intertwine when they become neighbors. Their accidental and uneven friendship illustrates the winding path that our choices can take--and how faith influences those choices in surprisingly subtle ways. Without spoiling the plot, I will say that the scene that gave "She Makes It Look Easy" its name illustrates what a gifted writer Whalen is; I never saw it coming. Highly recommended, including for non-Christian readers.

If you're into tv dramas like Desperate Housewives, you'll like this read! Suburbia stay at home moms, active in their church and community, but what's on the surface sometimes can be deceiving.

As a woman, wife, mom, I like the moral of the story...things aren't always what they seem. I don't want to give away to many details but if you have one of those women in your lives, that 'makes it look easy', don't pass this one up. ;)

It was a fast read that keeps you interested. I was always eager to pick it up again and finished it in just a few days.

When Ariel and her family move into a new neighborhood across town, she's hopeful that great friendships, new opportunities and a new life are just around the corner, but life with three boys and a husband who's constantly traveling has her more than frazzled. That's why she's so excited to be welcomed into the neighborhood and taken under the wing of the community's most "together" woman, Justine. Justine is not only a great mom and wife but she's super organized and creative, the woman that all the other women strive to be. Ariel finds Justine's tutelage to be just what she needs, and she begins to relish her new life and Justine's place in it. But something is niggling at Ariel, for Justine isn't always as open and friendly as she could be, and although she's chosen Ariel to be her protégée, it seems there's an underlying struggle for the women to really bridge the distance between them and become the close friends that Ariel wishes them to be. It turns out that Justine has a secret she's trying to keep from Ariel and the other neighbors, and this secret is destined to change the lives of all those around her. But Justine won't heed any warnings and determinedly rushes towards a fate that will shock everyone and destroy several lives. Will Ariel stay quiet and protect Justine and their faltering friendship, or will she have to do a very difficult thing and expose the woman who she so desires to emulate, a woman who makes it look so easy?

Last year at SIBA, when I had the awesome opportunity to meet Marybeth Whalen, one of the things we discussed was the book she was currently working on called She Makes It Look Easy. When I heard the premise and how the book came to be, I was really excited and added it to my mental list of books to watch for in the new year. Well, okay, that's not exactly true. This book was THE book that I was most excited to read in the coming year, and luckily for me, it was just as page-turning as I had hoped it would be. In its intricate plot and realistic female protagonists, this is a book that bent my mind around the delicate issues of female friendships and the secrets we keep hidden from those who we love, even when they destroy us.

Ariel is a woman like many others. Her life is one big to-do list that keeps stretching further and further into infinity. She's stressed in her attempts to raise three young boys and in her marriage with a husband who's mildly reproving that she can't get it all together. She's a lot like me and, I'm sure, a lot like many women out there today. Ariel is waiting for the day things become manageable, but it doesn't seem like that day will ever come. Enter Justine, the queen of the neighborhood. Justine is poised, elegant, and has every aspect of her life under control. She teaches a class on organization at the church, where women all over the neighborhood come to stare and admire. She irons her shorts. Need I say more? When Justine picks Ariel as her new project, Ariel is flattered and overcome with thoughts that she may have just found her new best friend. But Ariel has put Justine on a pedestal and doesn't see the real Justine behind the facade. In her struggles to conform to Justine's ideals, Ariel is unsure of herself and has some issues with her self-esteem. She feels grateful, but also somehow oddly detached from Justine. This is a situation that bothers her greatly, because wasn't her friendship with Justine supposed to be fulfilling and edifying?

Justine, on the other hand, is a woman who looks out for number one and only number one. Her friendship with Ariel is much like some of the other friendships she's had in the neighborhood, some of which have ended very badly. She has delusions of a greater life just waiting for her somewhere else, and her relationship with her husband is a nadir of hurt feelings and rejection. She has a definite feeling of superiority that she hides with a big smile and a patina of false concern for others. Justine is a walking contradiction. She cares what others think of her and her life, but underneath it all, she couldn't care less if she hurts an innocent person who gets caught up in her quest for fulfillment. She was scary at times and could be overwhelmingly cold and calculating. But under it all, I think Justine was confused and had really bought into the idea that she was the center of everything. She believed in her grandeur and believed that her desires were more important than others and their feelings. It was hard not to feel sorry for her because her life was a big masquerade that she constantly fooled herself into believing was all about her.

When Justine decides to take matters into her own hands, Ariel discovers the real reason Justine has been grooming her, and it breaks her heart. Where Whalen excels is in the tense and realistic push/pull between these two very different women. There is hurt and confusion on one side, balanced with manipulation and secrecy on the other. Whalen gets the complex chemistry of female relationships just right in this very tightly paced book. Themes of rejection and of subsuming oneself for another are just the beginning of the story in this complex and portentous relationship between Justine and Ariel. And though misinterpretation and misunderstandings abound, I could really feel the struggle in Ariel's heart for a woman whom she so admired and wanted to love. I could also feel the disillusionment and hopelessness that Justine was going through, and the combination of these two very different protagonists living within each other's worlds was accompanied by my breathless anticipation for how things would turn out for both of them. It was a complex balance of longed-for intimacy and shifted expectations, and turning the last page, I discovered that, like real life, these situations can be messy and at times painful.

I was totally enthralled with this book and had no trouble shirking other obligations so I could spend more time with it. The emotional complexity and the perfectly imagined friendship between the two women was something that I quite literally couldn't put down. Justine's decision to take her life into another direction, despite all warnings and the fact that she destroyed the lives of others, was also something I read with more than a little schadenfreude, and with the talent of Whalen's plotting and character creation, I was even able to sympathize with her at times. This was a great book that I hope gets lots of attention because it tells a story that's not only believable, but intense. A great read and highly recommended!

I devoured this book, though it haunted me. Whalen has an uncanny ability to capture the mind of a woman and reveal how thoughts can become devastating actions. Her characters are spot-on real, so much so I wanted to yell at them! I loved that this story moved in the direction it did, as it served as a beautiful cautionary tale. Excellent writing, page turning story.

This is a Christian novel (which is something I like to know before I buy a book and sometimes isn't clear in the description) about Ariel and her family who move from a humble neighborhood to a much more prestigious and pretentious one. Ariel's husband is gone with work a lot, leaving her to fend for herself with three rowdy boys and an unpacked house. Her nearest neigbor immediately befriends her, and Ariel is initially delighted to be friends with someone who appears to be so much more "together" than She is. Justine is blonde, beautiful, and perfectly dressed, with two beautiful daughters, a lovely neat home and a good-looking husband who adores her. But as is frequently the case, Justine is not as perfect as she would have everyone believe, and her life is not Eden.

I liked the premise of the book, but I didn't feel like I got to know any of the characters well enough. I had no idea what made her marriage work, or why she was so attracted to the idea moving to this particular neighborhood, or why she developed a friendship with Justine over the other women in the neighborhood. The writing at times seemed stiff and unnatural. At one point Ariel thinks to herself "Although Justine's reproach about the trampoline was fresh on my mind, I concluded I didn't share her concern."

I didn't really like the ending much. The prologue hinted at it and made the ending seem more dramatic than it turned out to be. It was a nice light novel, but I didn't think about the book or any of the characters much after I was done with it.

Skillful depictions brought these characters to life for me. The characters had genuine depth--no one was all good or all bad. A well-plotted, fast-paced, solid read for women to relate to and enjoy.

Great story about women's friendships and the parts of themselves they hide from each other. Many women will see themselves in the issues with raising children, maintaining appearances, struggles with marriage, and finding an authentic life. Good read for moms!