This week, the

Christian Fiction Blog Alliance

is introducing

Embrace Me

(Thomas Nelson March 4, 2008)

by

Lisa Samson

Lisa Samson is a Christy Award-winning author of 19 books, including the Women of the Faith Novel of the Year, Quaker Summer. Lisa has been hailed by Publishers Weekly as “a talented novelist who isn’t afraid to take risks.”

In Embrace Me, the latest novel by acclaimed author Lisa Samson, readers are privy to the realization that regardless of outward appearances…hideous, attractive, or even ordinary…persons are all looking for the same things: love, forgiveness, and redemption.

This story explores a world that is neither comfortable nor safe, a world that people like Valentine know all too well. Masterfully crafted by Samson and populated by her most compelling cast of characters yet. It is a tale of forgiveness that extends into all spheres of life: forgiving others, forgiving oneself, forgiving the past.

She lives in Lexington, Kentucky, with her husband and three kids.

Biting and gentle, hard-edged and hopeful…a beautiful fable of love and power, hiding and seeking, woundedness and redemption.

When a “lizard woman,” a self-mutilating preacher, a tattooed monk, and a sleazy lobbyist find themselves in the same North Carolina town one winter, their lives are edging precariously close to disaster…and improbably close to grace.

Valentine, due to her own drastic self-disfigurement, has very few friends in this world and, it appears as if she may be destined to spend the rest of her life practically alone. But life gives her one good friend, Lella, whose own handicap puts her in the same freakish category as Valentine. As part of Roland’s Wayfaring Marvel and Oddities Show, a traveling band of misfits, they seem to have found their niches in an often curiously cruel world.

Residing in a world where masks are mandatory, Valentine has a hard time removing hers, because of her disfigured face but more so because of her damaged soul. It is much easier for her to listen endlessly to different versions of a favorite song, Embraceable You, and escape reality. Yet, life has more in store for her when she meets Augustine, replete with the tattoos, dreadlocks, and his own secrets. With his arrival, Valentine’s soul takes a turn.

If you would like to read the first chapter, go HERE.

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Synopsis:

Snake and Lizard find out there is more to friendship than deciding whether to eat raw eggs or bugs for lunch. And when “LIZARD AND SNAKE–HELPER AND HELPER” go into business, they learn even more about friendship.

Caroline and I just finished reading this book tonight. We took turns reading to each other and we both really enjoyed it. It’s a short bookk at 62 pages and a relatively easy read for a nine year old.

The relationship between snake and lizard is very entertaining. Our favorite chapter was “Money.” In this chapter, Snake finds a dime in the dessert. Shortly after, Snake and Lizard decide to go into business together. They decide to set up a cactus juice stand and a corn cake stand. When no one comes to buy their goodies, they decide to buy from each other using the dime. Snake uses the dime to buy some cactus juice from Lizard. Not long after this, Lizard decides he’s hungry and uses the dime to buy some corn cakes from snake. The pair continue to “buy” from each other until all of their juice and cakes are gone. In the end, the only money they have to show for their work is the same dime they started with. Very funny!

We really enjoyed the book and would love to pass it along. If you’d like a chance to win our copy, leave a comment and I’ll draw a winner on January 30.

Recently, I received a book in the mail that I had won in a blog contest. Sadly, I do not remember who sent the book to me and can’t give them credit because of that. However, I would love to tell you about this book!

The Vase of Many Colors, by Rachel Theone, is a wonderful story geared toward younger children. We read about a young girl who likes to twirl and dance her way around her grandmother’s house. Here’s a description of the book from Amazon:

Twirl and laugh and sing and dance your way through the rooms of the very small house, on the very grand hill, in the very small town in this beautifully written and colorfully illustrated family classic. Walk into the world of the very bouncy girl and her old, crooked grandmother. A world where rainbows appear on the walls and simple flower-gathering is a nightly ritual. A world where broken things are mended with the gentle breath of love…and they become a beautiful masterpiece for all generations to enjoy.

We decided to read the book after lunch one day. With both my daughters (ages 13 and almost 9) gathered around the kitchen table, I read the book aloud to them. Although the book lends itself more to younger children, my oldest daughter and I enjoyed the story. The illustrations were beautiful and only added to our enjoyment of the book. It is a short book, only having about 48 pages and many of those are the illustrations. The granddaughter in the book reminded me of my own younger daughter. She too is bouncy and twirly and often dances her way around our home. She liked the story so much that she read it to her daddy when he came in from work.

Because we enjoyed the book so much, we’d like to pass it along to someone who might enjoy it just as much. If you’d like to have the book, leave a comment and I’ll pick a winner on January 1, 2008.

This week, the Christian Fiction Blog Alliance is introducing

Distant Heart

(Avon Inspire January 2, 2008)

by

Tracey Bateman

Tracey Bateman is the award-winning author of more than twenty-five books, including Defiant Heart, the First in the Westeard Hearts series. She is a member of American Christian Fiction Writers (ACFW) and recently served on the board as President. She loves in Lebanon, Montana, with her husband and their four children.

About The Book:

In the second book in the Westward Hearts trilogy, will the promise of a new life out west heal the scars of Toni’s past?

This series tells the stories of three strong women as they struggle to survive on the rough wagon train and lose their hearts to unlikely heroes along the way/ Thin Little House on the Prairie meets Francine river’s Redeeming Love and you begin to get a sense of the riveting historical series that Tracey Bateman has created.

In this second installment, we follow Toni Rodden, a former prostitute who sought to escape her past and build a new life, and a new reputation, when she joined the wagon train. Despite much resentment and distrust from the other women, Toni has finally earned a place on the wagon train and found a surrogate family in Fannie Caldwell and her two siblings. For the first time in her life, Toni actually feels free.

But while Toni once harbored dreams that her new life might include a husband and family, she soon realizes the stigma that comes with her past is difficult to see beyond and that she’ll never be truly loved or seen as worthy. As the trip out west begins to teach her to survive on her own, she resolves to make her own living as a seamstress when the train finally reaches Oregon.

But despite Toni’s conviction that no man will be able to see beyond her marred past, Sam Two-feathers, the wagon scout and acting preacher for the train seems to know of a love that forgives sins and values much more than outward appearances. Will Sam have the confidence to declare his love? Will Toni be able to trust in a God that can forgive even the darkest past? Faith, love, and courage will be put to the test in Distant Heart.

Synopsis:

Katie Wilkinson’s boyfriend Matt dumps her; not a total cad, he leaves her a gift, a diary kept by Suzanne, his first wife, for their son Nicholas. Though it’s not exactly the diamond ring Katie was hoping for, she’s unable to make herself destroy the diary–against her better judgment, Katie begins to read.

Drawn against her will into the other woman’s world, Katie learns of physician Suzanne’s heart attack at age 35 and her decision to slow down, accomplished by a move to Martha’s Vineyard and a new job as a simple country doctor. When love comes knocking, in the form of house painter-cum-poet Matt Harrison, Suzanne is ready to listen to her newly repaired heart. Though painful for Katie, she begins to know and like Suzanne and her infant son Nicholas. Suzanne’s devotion to Matt and their son shines through, as well as her plainspoken wisdom. While the journal helps Katie understand Matt, whether they can write a future together remains in question.

My Thoughts:

I just finished reading Suzanne’s Diary for Nicholas by James Patterson and at just under 300 pages, it was a quick read. This is the first book I’ve ever read by James Patterson and I decided to read it because I had seen the made-for-tv movie in the video store. I decided before I rented it, I should read the book. I also wanted to read an author I had never read before. I had heard good reviews of this book and when I started reading it, I was hooked. That was short lived though and overall, I wasn’t deeply touched by the book. My recent reads included Animal Farm by George Orwell and Screwtape Letters by C.S. Lewis, which I am still currently reading. Having said that, Patterson’s book had stiff competition for my attention.

The Things I Liked:

I loved the diary entries written by Suzanne to her infant son, Nicholas. She wrote of things he was doing at various stages in his life and of her feelings for him. As any mother knows, your children make you feel so many emotions that sometimes they become overwhelming. I could feel Suzanne’s love for her son through her entries. She was completely taken with him. She was also completely in love with her husband (and he with her) and I enjoyed having a window seat into their relationship. These relationships made the book for me.

Things I Didn’t Care For:

I was not impressed with the modern day romance of Katie and Matt. Their relationship did nothing for me. I really get tired of this portrayal of romance. You know, boy meets girl, they get pregnant, and then they think about making a commitment to each other. It’s just messed up logic that I don’t care for. I would prefer to read of a more wholesome courtship and progression of a relationship (like some I’ve read in Francine Rivers novels). I think there is way too much emphasis on the "casual" relationship today. I think we read it so much in novels today that it becomes acceptable. Since I am trying to teach my daughters the biblical model of love relationships, I prefer to read examples of such.

Also, Patterson’s writing style is a little lacking. As I said, this is the first book I’ve read by him so I would read at least one more to see if he could redeem himself. The book was not as descriptive as I like. The characters were a little bland. I do not recall any language in the book and there were only a few descriptive elements that were inappropriate for teenage readers. However, I see no value in a teenage girl reading this book. She would be much better off reading Pride & Prejudice.

Overall: SPOILERS INCLUDED

This book was just OK. I definitely think there is better fiction out there. I’d give it 3 out of 5 stars simply for the diary entries and husband/wife relationship. I would not let my teenage daughter read it for reasons listed above. It was not horrible but it was not a page turner for me. The story is very compelling. A man looses his wife and infant son, then finds love again. It would have been a great story, had the relationship between Matt and Katie been written a little different.

That’s my two cents. I’m ready to pass this book along to someone else so if you’d like to read it, leave a comment and I’ll draw a name on Wednesday to choose a winner.