Being Known by Robin Jones Gunn {A Book Review}

**I received a complimentary copy of this book from the publisher via Netgalley for consideration. All thoughts are 100% my own. 

From the bestselling author of Becoming Us comes a novel that asks: What does it mean to be truly known? In a marriage, in a friendship, or by a loving God?
 
After her mom passed away, Jennalyn was in the midst of moving, adjusting to life with a new baby, and helping her husband, Joel, work toward his dream job. At the time, she thought she’d processed her mother’s death, but only now that Jennalyn has two small children, a lovely new home, and a husband who is always working does she feel the full impact of what she has lost.
 
Even among her sweet circle of friends, the Haven Makers, grief silently overwhelms Jennalyn, until an unexpected encounter allows her to express herself in ways she hasn’t fully been able to with her husband. Even though Christy, Sierra, Emily, and Tess provide a soft place to land in times of tension, Jennalyn remains guarded, especially when Tess reveals she is tangled emotionally in a relationship that was thorny from the start.
 
Will the two women open up and remain honest with the others in their Haven Makers group? Or will their hesitation to truly be known, faults and all, keep them from holding on to the friendships that have been the sweetest gift during this season of life?

Robin Jones Gunn has written over 100 books with sales of over 5.5 million copies sold worldwide. She and her husband have two grown children and live in Hawai'i.

Her best-selling Father Christmas novels have been made into 3 Hallmark Movies. Get a behind the scenes look in her book, "How My Book Became a Movie".

Robin's best-selling, award winning novels include the Christy Miller series for teens as well as the Sierra Jensen and Katie Weldon series. The characters in these series continue in Christy & Todd: The College Years, The Married Years, The Baby Years and in The Haven Makers series. More details at www.ChristyMiller.com

I love a good romance story--- the meet cute, the falling in love, the happily ever after. What's not to love? But for anyone who has been married for a number of years, we recognize that those romance novels so often end before things get interesting....before life happens and it gets to the hard part of marriage. Before we have to truly put that love to the test.  I always find stories that share those struggles to be even better than the initial falling in love tales, because it is in those stories that we see a lasting love. Being Known is just that type of story.

We catch up with Jennalyn as she's hit a bit of a rough spot in her marriage- with two young kids that take a lot of her time and energy and a husband who works a lot. Things get even more complicated when an ex unexpectedly comes back into her life. Now, I won't give too much away, but I will say that as a Christian novel, you can be rest assured that it does remind us the importance of marriage and working things out together... and about God's role in our relationships as well.

Aside from being a nice story about the trials of marriage, it is definitely a story of friendship as well. I loved this fantastic group of friends, and I think so many will walk away wanting their own group of Christian friends like that in the story... or finding themselves feeling really blessed that they too have that.

Being Known is the second book in the Haven Makers series. This group of friends were first introduced in that book, but it can certainly be read as a standalone as well without feeling lost. Overall, this was a really good read... and a fairly quick one as well. I look forward to reading more in this series.