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
It's in my TBR pile, when I've read it, I'll review it! Meanwhile, other books I've read and raved about from Lisa Samson are Hollywood Nobody (below), Finding Hollywood Nobody (click here to see my review).
My Thoughts on Hollywood Nobody: Hollywood Nobody was a great and fairly fast read and I cannot wait to read the next few in the series. The story of Scotty is told through many different ways with using just plain first person narrative, her diary, and her blog entries. Scotty is a diverse 15 year old that only wants what anyone at any age wants, to not be lonely. Lisa Samson did a great job of really sharing Scotty's life through this book. I can relate to Scotty and see where she gets her emotions and her strengths from. Not only do you get to read about a little Hollywood, but you also get a little romance, some family love, some suspense and extreme plot twists, but there is also this little mention of Christ's love. It is just enough that I do not think this book would scare anyone away, but perhaps interest them in just the slightest to be curious for a little more information. Which in my experience tends to be the best way to be an evangelical.
For me this book also slightly depressed me, but that's because I'm a lonely person and seeing how lonely Scotty was at times made me think of my own lonely-ness. Also, as ridiculous as it might be, it also made my slightly jealous of her. I write a blog too, but I cannot say that my rants and ravings give anything near the amount of people and comments as she. Sometimes, well most times, I feel like I write and nobody is listening nor cares. But either way, that just shows one of my weaknesses that I shall work on in the future of my own lonely attitude.
-MJ
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