Following a successful career in corporate America, Victoria Christopher Murray answered the call to write in 1997, and has been doing so ever since. With multiple bestselling novels to her name, she’s  received numerous awards, including the Golden Pen Award for Best Inspirational Fiction.  Since 2007, Murray has won six African-American Literary Awards for best novel, best Christian fiction and Author of the Year – Female.  With over one million books in print, Murray is one of the country’s top African-American contemporary authors. Never Say Never is her nineteenth novel.

About this book: When Miriam’s fireman husband, Chauncey, dies while rescuing students from a school fire, Miriam feels like her life is over. How is she going to raise her three children all by herself? How will she survive without the love of her life? Luckily, Miriam’s sister-friend Emily and Emily’s husband, Jamal, are there to comfort her. Jamal and Chauncey grew up together and were best friends; Jamal and Emily know they will do all they can to support Miriam through her grief. Jamal steps in and helps Miriam with the funeral arrangements and with her children, plus he gives her hope that she has a future. But all the time that they spend together—grieving, sharing, and reminiscing—brings the two closer in ways they never planned. . . .

Genre: Women’s Fiction/Inspirational

Judge this book by its cover? Is it a bit cheesy? Maybe so. But it does show clearly who the main characters are, and that’s nice.

Reminds me of… Waiting to Exhale.

Buy or borrow? Depends on who you are. I’d probably borrow, but Victoria Christopher Murray fans will surely want to buy.

Why did I read this book? For Touchstone for review.

Would I read another by this author? Never say never. 🙂 Though her style and this genre isn’t one I gravitate toward, I did enjoy the comfortable voice of this African-American novelist, who deftly crosses the race barrier in women’s fiction.

Rating: 4/5 stars

My take: This was a first for me–novel with a real Christian faith message paired with sexual content. Not explicit, but not discussed behind closed doors either. I personally found it refreshing to find an author with a worldview similar to mine who’s not afraid to explore a tricky subject. If this were a movie, I’d rate it PG-13.

I find it interesting that Murray based the premise of her story on a detail that emerged following the 9/11 attacks: many firefighters were leaving their wives for their best friends’ widows. United by grief, and all that. So Murray took this titillating little fact, and paired it with yet another emotionally charged subject–interracial marriages. Depending on where you live, this may be a more controversial topic than others, but Murray herself says that years ago she was “challenged” by interracial relationships. So this becomes a critical part of her story.

I think the fact that Murray writes about real issues that are close to her heart is what makes her novels so compelling to her huge fan base. (You really should take a look at her back list. It’s amazing.) I enjoyed the two-person narrative–the African-American widow and the Caucasian wife–and found that Murray writes from inside both these skin colors with equal ease. I also appreciated her forthright message of faith and forgiveness. And though I may not agree with every conclusion she draws, I did find her hopeful, realistic ending completely satisfying.

Thanks to Touchstone for providing me a free copy to review. All opinions are mine.

Visit Murray online at victoriachristophermurray.com.