Joni and Ken : An Untold Love Story

                                                               

I was excited when I saw that I could review this book. I read her original book "Joni" when I was a kid, and saw the movie when it was in theaters. I was amazed at how she could trust God throughout her recovery from the accident, and the realization of how life changing this accident was. She was completely real and it was encouraging to me and many others.

In Joni and Ken: An Untold Love Story, we get an authentic look at their courtship and 30 year marriage. We see throughout the book that life isn't all easy or even enjoyable. Living with a quadriplegic person is hard even when you are in a committed relationship with them. We live through their struggles and accomplishments alongside them as we follow not only the present life, but the past 30 years. We find the reasons that this marriage works regardless of circumstances they face daily.

Although the majority of the book is from Joni's perspective, we learn alot about Ken also. We learn how open he is about his personal struggles he faced when realizing life with Joni is much more difficult than he imagined. He found he did allow some "fame feelings" to intrude in his feelings with how life would be. It's easy to glaze over some of the more difficult issues in a relationship when you can focus on the positive aspects, and when those aspects are known world wide, it's harder to ignore.

We follow the couple as they serve Christ through their travels, and ministries. Ken begins to feel he has taken a backseat in the relationship as Joni's personal and professional life takes over their day to day life.

Through the years, the marriage begins to feel more like  parallel living instead of the closeness that should accompany a marriage. They begin to feel overburdened, and Ken especially begins to find his patience stretched to the limits.

When Joni is diagnosed with cancer, and Ken finds himself delving into a deeper relationship with Christ, we find a new devotion and commitment to the marriage. They find themselves feeling closer than ever to Christ and each other. They make the marriage a priority daily. The little things Ken found himself overwhelmed with, now become more about serving and love.

I loved this book. It was a great story of true love, and how you can overcome any struggle with Christ in your life. It was obviously more directed to their personal struggle of quadriplegia, but I found the book a great help in ways that could encourage any marriage. I highly recommend everyone read this book!


Disclosure: I received an ebook copy of the book from book sneeze.com in exchange for my honest review. No other compensation was given. My opinions are my own and may differ from others.