“Becoming Us” by Robin Jones Gunn – Review

Five young women, including beloved Gunn characters Christy Miller and Sierra Jensen, gather for a simple Christmas party and soon become unlikely best friends. Told from the viewpoint of Emily, a timid young mom going through a difficult season of life, the regular gatherings provide the much needed community she’s longed for. As the women begin sharing their life stories in Becoming Us they are endeared to each other and find ways to challenge, encourage, and help each other become the nurturing mothers they wished they’d had when they were growing up. They see themselves as Haven Makers and unite to be remembered for what they do and not for what was done to them.

Robin Jones Gunn has penned another winner in Becoming Us. The first in the new Haven Maker series, this is a story that you’ll put in a prominent place on your bookshelf and return to read again and again.

There was a point in the story where Gunn seemed to be setting up a major catastrophe. I was holding my breath, turning the pages quickly, when she took the story in a whole new direction – and that totally worked. Rather than increase the tension and create drama, she brought the story back to the importance of relationships.

That’s what Gunn does best, and that’s why she’s one of my favorite authors. Her stories are exciting, yes, but she doesn’t do that with gunshots and mystery but with laughter and connection and people. She looks at humanity and creates relationships between people where they might not normally exist.

Isn’t that exactly what Jesus wants us to do?

Reading one of Gunn’s stories is like having a heart-to-heart with your very best friend whom you’ve known absolutely forever in your favorite coffee shop over lots of chocolate. They’re cozy and warm in a realistic and sentimental way.

Gunn’s cast of characters in this story is one I want to befriend.

Emily is my kind of mom. She’s trying hard to support her husband and his choices, but she’s dealing with emotions from her past that are holding her captive. She’s trying hard to be a good mom but is constantly surprised by her daughter, and she wants to have friends in her new home but is afraid of being hurt by the very people she’s meeting.

I can relate to all of that.

That’s what makes Gunn’s books so amazing. Her characters are so very realistic – even the model stories in this one come off as totally real – that you just want to call them up and invite them over.

As a mom, it’s hard to find friends. As kids get older, it’s even harder; you’re not automatically thrown together as classroom moms or in the car line as kids grow and gain independence, but maybe we need connections in this stage of parenting even more, or at least as much, as any other. For this homeschooling mom, who spends lots of time with kids but almost none with other women, it’s even harder.

Gunn seems to get that. Becoming Us is about a group of women who bond and open up to each other in ways that they haven’t to anyone else. They are there for each other even when life is hard, and that’s just something you don’t see every day.

Can I join the Haven Makers? Please?

I received a free copy of this book from Multnomah. All opinions are my own.