It is time for a FIRST Wild Card Tour book review! If you wish to join the FIRST blog alliance, just click the button. We are a group of reviewers who tour Christian books. A Wild Card post includes a brief bio of the author and a full chapter from each book toured. The reason it is called a FIRST Wild Card Tour is that you never know if the book will be fiction, non~fiction, for young, or for old...or for somewhere in between! Enjoy your free peek into the book!You never know when I might play a wild card on you!
Today's Wild Card author is:
and the book:
Center Street (January 6, 2009)
ABOUT THE AUTHOR:
New York Times bestselling author Karen Kingsbury is America's #1 inspirational novelist. She's written more than thirty novels, ten of which have hit #1 on bestseller lists, and her Center Street novel Just Beyond the Clouds hit #13 on the New York Times bestseller list. There are nearly seven million copies of her award-winning books in print, including more than two million copies sold last year alone. She lives in Washington state with her husband, Don, and their six children, three of whom are adopted from Haiti. Visit the author's website.
Product Details:
List Price: $14.99
Paperback: 352 pages
Publisher: Center Street (January 6, 2009)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 1599956780
ISBN-13: 978-1599956787
AND NOW...THE FIRST CHAPTER:
Here is my review of this incredible novel from an incredible author:
First of all, I would like to extend a heartfelt “Thank you” to (the author) and her publisher for sending me a copy of (the book) to review for them. I have always been grateful for this generosity, but haven’t been very consistent in taking the time to thank them in a public forum. I really appreciate your time, effort and expense in making a reviewer copy available to me.
Karen Kingsbury displays her absolute best storytelling in “This Side of Heaven.” The tale of a young man who’s made some mistakes and had some misfortune, this novel grabbed this reader’s heart so quickly that 70 pages flew by before I knew it and I was waking up at 3 AM just so I could read a bit before I got up to get ready for work!
Investing oneself in Karen’s cast of characters is very easy. The unemployed and ever in pain Josh is easy to fall for as he renews his commitment to Jesus and tries to clean his life up so he can pick up the pieces of what he’s become and move onto a more promising future. His hopeful sister, Lindsay, adds the cheer-for-the-underdog element. Josh’s disappointed mother is a bit less lovable, but Karen Kingsbury introduces her characters so well that you like them before you engage their flaws. This is part of the mastery of her storytelling ability and why her characters are so believable – they are NOT PERFECT. They have depth and dimension and are very real as you get to know them in the pages of her books. And I must highly recommend this one! And a box of tissues...
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