Book Review: Pastors’ Wives by Lisa Takeuchi Cullen

I received a copy of Pastors’ Wives by Lisa Takeuchi Cullen in exchange for an honest review.
Summary:
What’s it like when the man you married is already married to God? asks Pastors’ Wives, an often surprising yet always emotionally true first novel set in a world most of us know only from the outside.

Lisa Takeuchi Cullen’s debut novel Pastors’ Wives follows three women whose lives converge and intertwine at a Southern evangelical megachurch. Ruthie follows her Wall Street husband from New York to Magnolia, a fictional suburb of Atlanta, when he hears a calling to serve at a megachurch called Greenleaf. Reeling from the death of her mother, Ruthie suffers a crisis of faith—in God, in her marriage, and in herself. Candace is Greenleaf’s “First Lady,” a force of nature who’ll stop at nothing to protect her church and her superstar husband. Ginger, married to Candace’s son, struggles to play dutiful wife and mother while burying her calamitous past. All their roads collide in one chaotic event that exposes their true selves. Inspired by Cullen’s reporting as a staff writer for Time magazine, Pastors’ Wives is a dramatic portrayal of the private lives of pastors’ wives, caught between the demands of faith, marriage, duty, and love.
Review:
Books revolving around religion can be tricky. Some to want to sway your opinions, bash other religions, and leave readers feeling negative once finished. I was glad I didn’t find Pastors’ Wives to be this way. Sure religion is talked about on every page and there is one religion that is in the forefront, but there is a lot more to this book than that. The three women that we follow are all on their own journey, and each story was interesting to read about. I felt myself connected with Ruthie the most, but all the women each had unique and intriguing traits that made this book easy to follow and hard to put down. I liked the realism that is brought between the pages, the emotional connection that I could make with the characters, and though I might know or follow religion, I found myself getting educated and enjoying the book throughout.
4 stars