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Joy takes readers through a moving family story that stretches from the Summer of Love to the isolation of the COVID-19 pandemic. At the center is Tawni Carter, the executive director of a powerful pro-life organization. Tawni has built her life around strong beliefs and public conviction, but those beliefs begin to crack when she is forced to face what she has done to her daughter, Charlotte, in the name of her cause.
The novel begins with a tense courtroom fight and slowly opens into something deeper. Tawni is not an easy character to like at first, but Joy does not leave her as a simple villain. Instead, he shows her as a woman shaped by pain, ambition, fear, and regret. As the story moves forward, readers see the cost of her choices and the long shadow they cast over her family. The author also brings depth to the past through Clover, Tawni's birth mother, whose story in 1960s Haight-Ashbury adds another emotional layer to the novel. These scenes give the book a strong sense of time and place while showing how family wounds can pass from one generation to the next.
Joy's writing is clear, thoughtful, and easy to follow. The dialogue feels natural, especially in the courtroom scenes, where conflict reveals character more than explanation ever could. What makes the book stand out is its compassion. It explores difficult subjects without turning them into easy arguments. Instead, it shows people trying, failing, and sometimes finding grace too late. This is a powerful and reflective novel about family, belief, forgiveness, and the painful work of seeing the truth.
RECOMMENDED by the US Review