Skip to main content

Review: I Know the Feeling - A Work in Progress #2

I Know the Feeling book cover on blue background

If you've read How Can It Be? and enjoyed its perspective from a worship pastor, I Know the Feeling by Kelli Galyean explores the perspective of a youth pastor, along with a behind-the-scenes look at a children's Christmas play. This is a great story going into the holiday season and will already have you humming along to some of the carols.

Many thanks to the author for providing a complimentary copy of this book for review consideration. All opinions are my own.

Content to be aware of: social drinking, infidelity (not the main characters)

Book Synopsis

They say timing is everything.

ER Nurse Maddie Reed is barely keeping her head above water at work. She certainly doesn’t have time to take over directing the children's Christmas play at church. But when the director is put on bedrest at the last minute, Maddie can’t say no. The children are counting on her!

Maddie agrees to step up, prepared for the worst. Turns out “the worst” is worse than she thought. Her new assistant director is Chris Calvert, the most obnoxious man on the planet. To say they have history is an understatement.

Maddie braces for a disastrous month of pranks and shenanigans, but something about Chris is different. Working with him wasn’t supposed to be good, much less great. And when Maddie’s painful past shows up, Chris’ friendship proves steady again and again.

Maddie wrote Chris off a long time ago, but now she wonders. Is it possible to leave behind the old and let something new grow?

Source: Amazon

Book Thoughts

I have to admit that this book made me do a complete 180 on Youth Guy Chris from the previous book in this series, How Can It Be? To say that Chris initially came across as obnoxious and desperately in need of much maturity is an understatement. Thankfully, Kelli Galyean not only peels back a layer on Chris’ behaviour to reveal what is happening in his life, but she also writes him in such a way as to make him endearing and leading man material by the end of the story. This is one of the best books I've read where we get to see someone undergo intense discipleship coupled with accountability, where spiritual fruit emerges and lasting change takes place.

I appreciate that Maddie herself is able to observe these transformations and realize just how committed Chris is to sanctification. It's not rushed, and God's timing becomes central to the entire story. Their romance is certainly worth the wait based on how carefully they listen to the Holy Spirit before proceeding with anything. Readers looking for a refreshing romance where reliance on God is paramount to their success as a couple will cheer on Maddie and Chris in this beautiful piece about how we are all works in progress, created for so much more than the habits we fall into.

Book Summary

  • Format of book: 📱
  • Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
  • Recommendation: 👍
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Reader Identity

The more I share my book thoughts and reviews, the more amazed I am at how many readers there are out there and just how many people enjoy talking about the books they're reading. Quite frankly, I'm blown away by the notion that there are people actively wanting to adopt the persona of being a reader, whereas I remember growing up, it was stigmatized as either boring or 'nerdy'. I used to cringe when I was in a position where I was asked to share about my hobbies as reading seemed to generate a sort of response where others would murmur about how they didn't know that people did that for fun. To be fair, this might have been some of the social circles or settings I've been a part of over the years, but I think reading has generally become more mainstream now. Thankfully, I can let people know that I spend almost all of my free time reading (amongst other things), and others don't seem to bat an eye anymore. While I have seen some content that discourages peo...
Post a Comment
Read more

Christian Book Review Programs

Over time, I've been on the hunt for Christian book review programs that readers can join. As a result, I've been able to compile the following list which may be of interest if you are seeking review copies of Christian books. This list mostly applies to print and ebooks, although some publishers offer audiobooks as well. If further information is available for any of the publishers below (or any missing publishers), please let me know as I am happy to update this list—thank you! Please note that you can also search for these publishers on NetGalley and other review sites in case there are no review programs available to you or you don't qualify for one 😊 List last updated: September 23, 2026 Christian Publishers 10ofThose Availability: U.S., Canadian, and U.K. residents Format: Only books published by 10ofThose qualify for review requests so as to avoid impeding with other Christian book review programs Genre: Christian non-fiction, children's books Email for availabi...
10 comments
Read more

The Rise and Fall

I've shared before that being on Threads has been an interesting experience. It's certainly helpful in better understanding book trends as a whole, but a lot of the controversies I read about about are—in a word—awful. Awful for readers and authors alike, which is somehow a unique shared experience. I suppose that with symbiosis, when one falters, it affects the other. I'm likely not alone in my observation that there appears to be a lot more authors who are caught in the crosshairs of being popular one day and then being cancelled the next day. It's an interesting phenomenon where, with shared accountability, there is an increased demand that authors get things right, which I can't fault or disagree with. However, the speed at which the tides turn amazes me where people will spend a lot of time and resources on a particular author, only to "dump" them as soon as there is a hint (or more, way more) of controversy. I'm not questioning whether it's l...
Post a Comment
Read more