Monday, March 9, 2009

"The Passion of Mary-Margaret" Book Review


This week, the

Christian Fiction Blog Alliance

is introducing

The Passion of Mary Margaret

Thomas Nelson (March 10, 2009)

by

Lisa Samson

MY REVIEW:

I love Lisa Samson's YA series (Hollywood Nobody) and have really wanted to like her adult books, but nothing has grabbed me like the Hollywood Nobody series. When I started The Passion of Mary-Margaret I thought I had found another book that just didn't draw me in... though the writing style is unconventional, part way in I was hooked. You must understand that the format of the book is a 80 year old that is writing her memoirs so she rambles back and forth between the past and the present and sometimes between different time periods in the past. As long as you can keep straight what she is talking about you can follow her through her life. It actually becomes very engrossing and though you figure out early on that she does marry Jude when God tells her to, it is a process getting to how that happens. There are many twists and turns along the way and Lisa makes a story that is difficult to hear, very enjoyable. I warn you that the content is uncomfortable and pushes the envelope in many places, but the overwhelming demonstration of God's grace to cover all is amazing. It is hard to call this a beautiful story, but in a way it is, and as tough as it is sometimes the story telling is the most amazing part. I think this may be Lisa's best women's fiction book yet.

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."

Her novel Embrace Me has been named as one of Library Journal's books of the year.

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

She stays busy by writing, volunteering at Kentucky Refugee Ministries, raising children and trying to be supportive of a husband in seminary. (Trying...some days she's downright awful. It's a good thing he's such a fabulous cook!) She can tell you one thing, it's never dull around there.

ABOUT THE BOOK

Mary-Margaret accepts a calling that surpasses her wildest dreams . . . and challenges her deep faith.

When Mary-Margaret Danaher met Jude Keller, the lightkeeper's son, she was studying at convent school on a small island in the Chesapeake Bay. Destined for a life as a religious sister, she nevertheless felt a pull toward Jude-rough and tumble, promiscuous Jude.

After sojourning as a medical missions sister in Swaziland, Mary-Margaret returns to the island to prepare for her final vows. Jude, too, returns to the island, dissolute and hardened. Mary-Margaret can hardly believe it when the Spirit tells her she must marry the troubled boy who befriended her all those years ago, forsaking the only life she ever wanted for a man she knows she'll never love.

If you would like to read the first chapter of The Passion of Mary Margaret , go HERE

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