My review of In Mysterious Ways by Venita Louise

About the book:

When well-known California Artist, Lang Garret, takes a trip to Phoenix, he has more than his gallery appearance in mind. His plans include a little surprise for his fiancee, Amanda, who is traveling with him. Unfortunately, a twist of fate, a chance meeting, and a chain of unforseen obstacles throw all of Lang's intentions out the window.

Lang and Amanda accept an invitation to join a group visit to one of Arizona's energy vortexes that mysteriously contains a newly formed crop circle. It seems innocent enough, but what begins as a curious adventure for a group of six turns an expected pleasure into a predicament of terror.

The unfathomable energy of the circle has a different repercussion for each individual who enters it. It seems impossible that the gyre could produce a horror, the power to kill, a marvel, the power to heal, and a blessing all at once, but the supernatural occurrences caused by the circle continue to alter their lives long after leaving Arizona. Now Lang and Amanda writhe under the struggle to keep their relationship intact and prevent the energy from annihilating their love.

My review:

This is one of the oddest books I've read in a long time, but I found it compulsively readable. I kept wanting to know what would happen next. I really liked the fact that a good portion of the story was set in Arizona and every scene mentioned a place that I'd been to including Metro Center, so that was cool. I won the book on the internet and because of the cover I thought it was an inspirational title (plus the publisher is Vinspire and that publisher does carry inspirational titles) but found out it was not Christian fairly early on. At the same time I told myself it was fiction, and hey, it was interesting, so I kept reading.

The story did inspire me in some ways. I liked the mysterious changes that happened to them after they went to the crop circle so it was a great way to show tension in a relationship resulting from those changes. There was a lot of stuff about AA in there. I thought it was funny that the sponsor's name was Bob. There must be a sponsor in every town named Bob. Anyway, this story contained stuff about crystals and it had a general Sedona-type weirdness when it came to spirituality. But I still enjoyed the story. At first I wasn't sure I'd like the ending, and my heart really ached for Lang. I felt like I understood him. The ending turned out to be one of the best parts of the book, so if you read this story, hang in there.

The author delves deep into the characters' emotions and she addresses issues of trust, friendship, and the cost of true love. If you like a deep read and don't mind a little weirdness when it comes to crystals and unexplained healings, you'll enjoy this one.

In Mysterious Ways was published by Vinspire and released in May 2012.