Embrace Me by Lisa Samson

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 Lexinton, 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, ahs 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

Deadfall by Robert Liparulo

I've featured all of Liparulo's books here, Comes A Horseman, Germ, and now Deadfall.

There's a contest for you!

First, Bob is giving away 5 copies of Deadfall. Enter by signing up for his newsletter. He promises you won't be inundated with email from him and I'm pretty sure he's a man of his word.

You can also enter by sending him an email with "CFBA Giveaway" as the subject title.

In addition Bob's having a contest on his website separate from the CFBA contest.



**one winner a week till the end of the year for a signed Deadfall

**one winner a week till the end of the year for an unabridged audio MP3-CD of Deadfall

***and on Dec. 31, an iPod Nano, pre-loaded with an unabridged audio recording of Deadfall

I Didn't Read This One

This week's Christian Fiction Blog Alliance Feature:


In High Places by Tom Morrisey

I've read a couple blog posts by Morrisey and I do like his style. I decided I'd try one of his books and this one came in the mail, however, I haven't got to it yet. I decided to post anyway because I think it might be good for some of my family members to pick it up since Uncle Ed's suicide is still so fresh in our grieving hearts.

For Patrick Nolan, every climb tells a story. And now maybe it's his own …. He's right at the rim, staring over the cliff's knife edge and wondering how things went wrong so quickly.

It all started after arriving home from a weekend climbing trip with his father, Kevin. That's when word reached them. In a silent moment, they'd lost the person most important to them—her death raising unanswerable questions and dangerous doubts.

Launching a new life in a new town to escape their pain, son and father find themselves in danger of being torn apart forever. As his father seeks a route to solace on the dangerous high face of the rock, Patrick finds a path to hope with the unlikeliest of allies—a pastor's daughter. Together they must discover the one answer that can bring Patrick and Kevin back from the brink of the precipice.

Watchers

This week's CFBA is Watchers by Mark Andrew Olsen.

This Week's Book

Wedgewood Grey by John Aubrey Anderson


Wedgewood Grey is the second book in the Black and White Chronicles, Abiding Darkness is the first.

I haven't started Wedgewood Grey yet, but I plan on it. I'm really enjoying Abiding Darkness as we speak. The characters attached themselves to me in the first chapter, you know I love that!

You can read more about Wedgewood Grey here: Christian Fiction Blog Alliance

This week, the Christian Fiction Blog Alliance is posting about Arms of Deliverance (Moody Publishers, 2006) by Tricia Goyer (fellow CFBA member, blogger, writer, and homeschooling mom!)


ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

Tricia Goyer is one the members of the Christian Fiction Blog Alliance (Tricia's Blog, "It's Real Life" Tricia's Parenting Blog, "Generation NeXt") and we are pleased to be able to review her exciting historical fiction book, Arms of Deliverance. She was named Mount Hermon Christian Writers Conference "Writer of the Year" in 2003. Tricia was also a finalist for the Gold Medallion Book Award and won ACFW's "Book of the Year" for Long Historial Romance in 2005 AND in 2006. She has written hundreds of articles, Bible Study notes, and both fiction (three other WWII novels, From Dust to Ashes, Night Song and Dawn of a Thousand Nights. Night Song, the second title in Tricia’s World War II series, won ACFW's Book of the Year for Best Long Historical Romance.) She's and non-fiction books. married to John, and they have three great kids whom she homeschools: Cory (17), Leslie (14), and Nathan (12). They make their home in Northwest Montana with their dog, Lilly.

ABOUT THE BOOK:

The fourth and final novel in this exhilarating series capturing the tales of men and women swept into World War II.

EUROPE, 1944

Katrine, a Czech Jew, is so successful in her attempt to pass as an Aryan that she finds herself dating a Nazi officer. Having convinced him of her genetic purity, the officer sends her to stay at a Lebensborn home--a Nazi breeding program in which children are raised and indoctrinated by the state.

Meanwhile, two friends, Mary and Lee, one a socialite, the other a working class girl, land similar reporting jobs at the New York Tribune on the eve of the war’s outbreak. Now rivals with assignments on the frontlines of war-torn Europe, Lee joins troops sailing for Normandy, while Mary's destiny lies in the cramped quarters of a B-17 bearing down on Berlin. Before the presses roll, their lives will be indelibly marked by a caring American navigator, brave French resistors, and a maniacal Nazi officer. Arms of Deliverance is a story of unexpected redemption.

Read Chapter One on Tricia's Blog.



The link for the book: http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0802415563

Tricia's blog: http://triciagoyer.blogspot.com/

Early this week!

I started to read this one and this week has snuck up on me (as have the other weeks!) Where does the time go? I'm going to copy and paste from the CFBA's site (as I have the last few weeks.) Ugh! I have got to get my schedule under control!!

This week, the Christian Fiction Blog Alliance is posting about Calm, Cool, and Adjusted by Kristin Billerbeck




ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

Kristin Billerbeck was born in Redwood City, California. She went to San Jose State University and majored in Advertising, then worked at the Fairmont Hotel in PR, a small ad agency as an account exec, and then, she was thrust into the exciting world of shopping mall marketing. She got married, had four kids, and started writing romance novels until she found her passion: Chick Lit.

ABOUT THE BOOK:

Calm, Cool, and Adjusted is the third book in the Spa Girls Novels.

Billerbeck did a great job with the characterization of Poppy, a quirky Christian chiropractor who is a health nut. I'm talking real NUT. She is so obsessed with health that she forgets about living. When she finally realizes that she is over the edge obsessed, she doesn't know how to stop herself.

Best friends since Johnny Depp wore scissors for hands, "The Spa Girls" live very separate lives, but stay in touch with routine visits to California's Spa Del Mar.
The third novel in the Spa Girls Series focuses on Silicon Valley chiropractor Poppy Clayton, who is as calm, cool and adjusted as they come. Or is she? Known for her bad fashion sense, a love for all things natural and the inability to get a second date, Poppy is beginning to wonder if she might be misaligned herself. Her route to self discovery will be an unnatural one - a plastic surgeon, a dilapidated house in Santa Cruz, a flirtatious client, and a blind date from the dark side.

It's all enough to send a girl - and her gal pals - running for the comfort zone of their spa

Christian Fiction Blog Alliance--Dark Hour by Ginger Garrett

Dark Hour


Ginger Garrett's website

Violet Dawn by Brandilyn Collins

I've blogged about Violet Dawn before. Of course I have! I'm one-third of Jake Tremaine, retired logger who hangs out at the Java Joint on Main in Kanner Lake.

So as I sit here with my autographed copy of Violet Dawn, sipping coffee in my Kanner Lake coffee mug, I'm wondering what more I can say about this great book. I could tell you that at the ACFW conference this past weekend, Brandilyn told me a little about the next book in the series. But I don't know if it was a secret and Brandilyn's manaical mind would have me killed off in a hundred and one different ways. And I say that in the most loving way. So I won't talk about Coral Moon this time. The back cover says that one of Kanner Lake's beloved citizen's is murdered so I'm wondering if it is one of the beloved SBG's (or Scenes & Beans Bloggers) and I hope I get to read it before March of 2007.

This is Violet Dawn's official time slot for the Christian Fiction Blog Alliance so maybe I should stay on topic. I think the plot of the book has slipped to the back burner as I have become so attached to Jake. Because so many of my friends have parts in the character blog, I'm attached to their characters as well. (Don't forget if you'd like to write a character blog post, Brandilyn will give you the opportunity soon!) I've been so in tune with the characters that I've forgot that poor Paige found a dead body in her hot tub! I forgot that the whole town is searching for the killer in their midst. Kanner Lake is being turned upside down and somewhere out there, a murderer is lurking.

Violet Dawn was only the second book by Brandilyn Collins that I've read and it was because of the Chrisitan Fiction Blog Alliance that I was introduced to her. I am truly thankful for the opportunities this group of fellow Christians has offered. (There was a third, Web of Lies, by Brandilyn that I could have read, but Phil suggested that I not pick it up. It had spiders in it-from what he told me. See my previous post and you'll understand.)

Brandilyn writes some scary stuff and I LOVE her for that! She's got a great sense of humor and shows it often on her blog. She's discussed bee cemeteries, getting rid of pesky deer that eat your flowers, and killing the air conditioner man. He even called her back to give her more information. You'll just have to read the blog. I'm not telling any more!

Visit us regulars of the Java Joint on Main and read about Wilbur's scar, Leslie's reporting, my retirement, and so much more!


Just in time! Brandilyn posted this picture of the SBGers on her site this morning! I'm stealing it! Kneeling, left to right: Chawna Schroeder (writing as Bev Trexel) and Michael Snyder (Leslie Brymes).

Standing, left to right: Me, Beth Goddard (Bev Trexel), Dineen Miller (Baialey Truitt), Jennifer Tiszai (Leslie Brymes), Marjorie Vawter (Sarah Wray), Pamela James (Bailey Truitt), Stuart Stockton (Ted Dawson, aka S-Man), Michelle Pendergrass (Jake Tremaine), and Kjersten Nickleby (Wilbur Hucks).






Purchase your copy of Violet Dawn here.