"Embrace Me" Book Review and Giveaway!

This week, the
Christian Fiction Blog Alliance
is introducing
Embrace Me
(Thomas Nelson March 4, 2008)
by
Lisa Samson

ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

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.

ABOUT THE BOOK

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

MY REVIEW:
I have absolutely loved Lisa Samson's Hollywood Nobody series and have read her book The Church Ladies and thought it was good, so I was looking forward to delving into the world Lisa was creating in Embrace Me. Lisa did not disappoint. I do need to point out though that this book is odd in more ways than just the characters in it. Lisa makes a comment in the back of the book that refers to this as an exploration of Christ's body, His Church. I was glad I read that because it helped me see where she was going with this book as I was reading it. I definitely got drawn into the characters and what was going on, yet Lisa was going back and forth between 2 characters points of view and their time periods. It wasn't hard to follow though and then eventually we see them converge together and all these puzzle pieces start falling into place. Lisa brings it all together in some "A-HA!" moments and leaves you feeling satisfied, but thinking about where you fit in with the Body of Christ.

I found it to be a very interesting reading experience and will be giving away my copy of "Embrace Me" to a lucky reader. So leave a comment and tell me what part of the Body of Christ you think you are (there are no wrong answers...) and be sure to leave a way to contact you in case you win (email address is preferable)! Good luck!