Lisa SamsonReviews

I got this one as a freebie on Kindle and read it in one sitting this weekend while doing laundry. A totally breezy, mindless, read that was just perfect for me at the time.

It's from a Christian publisher and while I'm not bothered by the message, per se, in this particular book it seemed completely out of left field and thrown into the book just because it HAD to be there to qualify for publication or something. It would have been better without those small sections but they didn't detract much from the overall story.

Our main charcater Scotty is a fun teenager and I look forward to her future adventures. They set up lots of intrigue in this book that I'm sure will play out in future stories.

That said, I'm glad it was free. I think I'd be a little bugged by how fluffy it is had I paid good money for this title.

The book was dry, dry, dry. Trust me, the movie was much better. I fell in love with the very last song at the end of the movie, "Meet Me By The Water", by Rachael Yamahata.

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What an interesting story. I wasn't sure I was going to enjoy it, but I did.

I believe this is a new author for me. I found the book at a library book sale.

Despite it being categorized as Christian General Fiction, I didn't find that much religious about it. There is a theme of forgiving others and forgiving yourself. There's also a theme of giving a second chance. But these themes are not very prominent throughout the plot. I was glad to see some of the characters grow and change. It was sad that one character could not or did not--however, there's nothing to say that at some point in the future that character won't.

Fiona was born into a family of actors and was expected to take up the mantle herself--which she did for a time. In her teens, she "divorced" her parents for grounds of money mismanagement, moved, and thought she'd start up a career as an artist. Instead, she's become somewhat of a hoarder.

All Mary-Margaret ever wanted to do was to follow the calling she had received from God devote her life to him in Religious service. But then Jesus showed up in her life and had other ideas. Ideas that involved getting involved with Jude Keller, the lighthouse keepers son, and a wayward one at that. Despite the attraction Mary-Margaret feels for him, she resists the idea of getting involved and continues with her plans to join a religious order. But Jesus keeps showing up and telling her how Jude needs her and how He needs her to help him.
This book is not for the person in the mood for a light hearted inspirational book. Mary-Margaret walks through some dark places in her own life and with Jude before getting to the other side where all can be redeemed. However, those looking for thoughtful and moving fiction that does not ignore the harsh realities of life this book is definitely worth recommending.

First, it was the elms, ravaged by Dutch Elm disease their magnificent frames that had punctuated the British countryside, vanished. Now it is the turn of another of our trees that hols a special place if our woodlands; the Ash. These trees are being ravaged by Chalara fraxinea or ash dieback.

The disease was first seen in Poland in the early 1990s and moved across the continent before being spotted in the UK in 2012 in a nursery and a year later was spotted in the wild in the UK. The spores travel easily in the wind and it has spread across the countryside, killing small trees completely and affecting larger trees significantly. It is thought that it will affect all ash trees in the end. There are a few glimmers of hope though, some trees are less affected than others and these are being used to breed resistant specimens.

Way back in 1978, Gerald Wilkinson wrote Epitaph for the Elm, a eulogy to the tree and his niece thought that with what was happening to the ash, she would write a book with a similar premise and that is why we have this book. Her journey around the UK will take her from the aptly named, Ashwellthorpe, the first place the disease was found to ancient forests in Scotland, a visit to Hardy’s Ash and Wenlock Edge to see the ash trees there before the spores blow over. As well as the visits to the notable copse’s of ash, there are cultural and folklore elements to the book too.

Part of the way through writing this book, Samson is diagnosed with a brain tumour. When it was diagnosed, she realised that it explained a lot of the symptoms that she had been suffering from. She came very close to death and even had to stop writing for a long period of time before she was well enough to begin travelling and writing again. Part of this book is about her battle with her tumour but does not take over the narrative, rather it adds a small, but no less significant parallel story, as she fights her own personal battle as the trees succumb to the disease.

Her illness knocked her for six and on the later trips, she is much less mobile and is often accompanied by her husband. I really liked her gentle style of writing, it has a certain amount of anger at the loss of these trees to a disease that could have kept out of the country. The ash coppices are there to comfort her and she uses them for healing and to bring her peace. I can also recommend, The Ash Tree by Oliver Rackham and The Man Who Made Things out of Trees by Robert Penn is a book to read to see the number of different objects that can be produced by a single tree if you’re wanting to find out more about these trees.

This book has all the characters and situations that in different hands would have been a great farce. The author instead took these elements and made a story that while sporadically amusing was more a moving story that felt like it was populated with real people. Even if you have been burned by bad Christian fiction before, try this one.

This book is just not written in my style. It jumps around too much and is very fragmented and it seemed hard for me to figure out all her women friends from the school or neighborhood or acquaintances. It does have a good meaning and I agree with Heather trying to find her way and the Lord's will for her life. I didn't like that she seemed so disconnected from her husband but it all turned out well.

rabck from sweetsangria; one of my oldest abc tbrs. Lark has fought for 20 years to not go home after the breakup of her marriage & birth of her daughter. But when her house burns down, there's nothing to do but head back to live with her widowed socialite mother and the housekeeper who practically raised her, with her college daughter. Chapters are told in the 4 voices of the women, as the months flow forward and the relationships change. And with the changes, growth occurs among the women, with Flannery, the college gal, leading the way.

Being in vocational ministry, I felt a connection with the character Charmaine. There are expectations you place on yourself that are unrealistic, and others place expectations on you that are unrealistic. It is sometimes hard to know when you are to be content, and when you need to speak up. The scene where she thinks they are moving into a house, but it turns out to just be a bigger motorhome is classic. She is so disappointed, yet she doesn't want to complain. Things after all, reasons Charmaine, could be worse!

And some things do get worse for Charmaine. Some of her worst fears come to pass. Yet each time there is a way out of the darkness through her faith and the love of those around her. Even her husband who preached against modern psychology eventually comes to accept her need to take medication to combat her ongoing struggle with depression. He becomes like Christ to her when he brings her homemade chicken soup and her prescriptions during her darkest hours. I found her husband's transformation in the story to be especially touching. He's not perfect, but he is willing to change and is always supportive of Charmaine.

Heather is suburban mom who looks like she's got everything you'd want. She has a lakeside dream home, and enough money from her surgeon-husband's salary to finance private Christian school for her son, make continual upgrades to their home, and go on regular compulsive buying fits. Her husband adores her even though she sees her extra weight as a turn-off. She's also caught up in the loop of keeping appearances with the other moms at school. Her teenaged son, Will, has problems with being teased at school over his own awkwardness, which causes Heather to reflect on her past as a bully in elementary school. all these things, along with her other bad driving habits, put her on a path to radical change. This book isn't meant to make you feel guilt-tripped into making changes, but will probably resonate with you on one level or another. What suburban Christian mom hasn't wondered if they were missing God's call? Is the Christian life really about acquiring the finest household items, raising our children in a protected environment, and settling into a local church with the best programs for our families? Or is there something else out there? How do we deal with our broken dreams and guilt over the past? How do we move forward from where we are now and how do we listen to God when we sense our paradigms shifting beneath us? I think this book gives you permission to begin looking at these issues in our own lives without thinking we are going crazy in the process.

If you are from a fundamentalist Christian background, you probably will be uncomfortable with the ecumenicalism and somewhat feminist perspective. Heather has a friend who holds a pastoral degree, and she asks her to conduct the service of a newly formed house church. The main character also volunteers at a Catholic inner-city mission. Yet I think you will still appreciate Heather's desire to live a more Christlike life in seeking and extending forgiveness, as well as giving up comfort for the sake of the Gospel.

How can one live after surviving tragedy and horror? Where is God in the midst of pain and will our scars ever fade? Lisa Samson takes a hard look at these questions that are hard to even ask and gives satisfying answers.

Some reviewers felt like the story dragged, yet isn't that the point? Eight years later we still find May unable to leave the farm with her old baggy clothes and hair in a braid down her back. She doesn't "snap out of it" by having a good cry or when she finally tells her story to the journalist. Yet the redemption of May unfolds like her harshly cut-back roses after an especially long winter.

I kept thinking what a great movie this book would make. Some parts made think of a Merchant-Ivory film. So Lisa Samson, if you or your agent is reading this....please consider pursuing a screenplay of Resurrection in May! Or perhaps it would work as a miniseries. I'll be waiting....

I liked how the author took two characters I really didn't care for in the beginning of this series, and turned them around through their salvation experience and they became people I truly cared for by the time I finished this third and final book. (Note: all 3 stories are like one big book so I strongly recommend reading them in the order they were written)

David Youngblood has just gotten out of the penal colony after about 7 years. He is a much changed man than when he was originally sent there. He owes his release to the beautiful Camille, who has loved David despite the terrible things he has done in his past to her and to others. They will both now enter the London society as man and wife and will try to redeem themselves from their terrible past. But David has a promise to keep to a friend he made while on Devil's Island, and Camille and him will set out to clear a man's name.

I loved the love these two characters had for each other and how they each helped the other deal with harsh situations they were having to go through. This story had many trials in it, but also many triumphs. It is a story of faith, grace and forgiveness. This was a series I am very glad to have taken the time to read.

Amazon's review of this story very concisely states, "Fields of Gold takes us on a journey with Miranda Wallace, a young woman with a heart for God, a mind for truth, and a yearning to be adored by a man who will love her completely, inside and out." Couldn't have said it better.

This story picks up right where book one ('Indigo Waters') leaves off, so you should really read these stories in the order they were written to truly catch up and understand the books better. This was another good story set in Europe in the mid-1800's. It was well done and once again took me where I wasn't expecting the story to go.

David Youngblood (all these characters you will already be very familiar with if you read book one first) is missing and presumed dead. His daughter, Elspeth is grieving his loss, but has Miranda Wallace, her governess at Castle Greywalls, there to help her get over her grief. Both Elspeth and Miranda have some physical deformities that help them to relate and bond to one another.

Enter Tobin Youngblood, the new heir to the estate. He is a gifted composer whose life "has been spent in the pursuit of beauty". As the back cover states, "Indignation flares within the spirited Miranda - and yet, her soul is moved by Tobin's music". Tobin struggles to find the beauty in both Elspeth and Miranda because of their deformities. What makes the story even more intriguing is the fact that the real heir, David Youngblood is not dead. He must redeem himself in the eyes of many and sets out to right the wrongs he has done. His life was truly transformed through the power of the Gospel, even though many will have a hard time believing it.

This story was filled with people learning to love people for who they are and not for what they look like or what they have done in the past. It was a great love story, but had so many other aspects to it and kept me reading far into the night. Now I am off to finish the series with book 3, "Crimson Skies".

This was a story that took me a little while to get into, but the more I read, the more I liked and by the end of the story I had a hard time putting it down until I finished. There were twists and turns to this book, and it kept me guessing at times, about what would happen next. And I like surprises in a story, but there was one in this one that I was totally not expecting. You will journey from France to England and then to Scotland in the mid 1800;s and will experience adventure, suspense, romance and an enduring faith in the Lord in some of the characters. Love and loyalty, murder and betrayal; this story has it all.

Sylvie is a 19 year old lady growing up in France and laboring in her father's vineyards. There is no love there between her father and herself and her mother relies on her a little two much. But she has her brother, who she adores, even though they have been apart for some time. Sylvie will soon find herself betrothed to one young man, wanted by another and admired greatly by still another. All 3 will have a huge impact in her life as she struggles to hold on when her life seems to be crashing down all around her. I closed the pages of this book, looking forward to reading the next book in this series, "Fields of God".

A slow-starting book, and Quakers don't appear (unnamed) until page 129. Many opportunities for self-reflection in the central character's musings.

Language alert: If you're offended by God, Bible or Jesus talk, reading this book might help you get past all that!

I really liked this story, but I'm pretty surprised that, with all the talk of Quasimodo being able to change his story, the book ended without saying anything about him and whether or not it actually happened. It didn't have much closure.

I had a little trouble getting into this at first. It was hard to get used to flipping from past to present. After I adjusted to that, I really enjoyed it. It was a very touching read.

The climax of the novel was rushed and the ending came too abruptly. However, it was an unusual story line and gave me reasons to think.

I bought this book at a library sale for a quarter. It sat in my "unread" pile for a long time. Based on the picture alone, I picked it up yesterday as I was looking for something "light" to read.

Oh my. I wish I could say I was brilliant enough to have written this book.

It has quirky characters that draw lots of response from me. Most I like deeply; there is one I dislike deeply -- which is exactly what the author intended. There are interesting, out-of-the ordinary events that kept my attention. I finished the book in a day; I would not have been able to sleep had I tried to leave it unfinished overnight.

One of the things I liked the very best was the way Scripture and a relationship with Christ was woven into the story as a natural extension of some of the characters. It was not preachy. It was not sermonizing. When a character thought of Scriptures or spoke them, it was clear that they did so because it was a normal part of their lives. Some people find it natural to swear excessively. Some people find it natural to quote Scripture. I am one of the second; so were most of the characters in the book, though they had different interpretations of the meaning of those Scriptures.Being that this was a normal part of the characters' lives, this does not come across as an overtly religious book, rather a great book with people in it who happen to have Christianity as the basis of their lives.

Another thing I liked very much was that the characters in the book who clearly love Christ are not cut from one mold. Some of them grew up outside of the church. One is gay. One is a tender, tough former military man. Another is a former playboy who becomes a blind priest. All have found their way to a relationship with Jesus.

There are several marriages that play out in this book. They are a study of what makes a good marriage -- friendship, respect of self and the other, willingness to give. Another marriage is abusive, and we see the struggle of the wife to stay both married and right with Christ.

This book haunted my dreams -- in a good way. I will be thinking about it for some time.

This is the first of Lisa Samson's books that I have read. I will be looking for more.

I struggled to engage with this book and become enthused, largely due to the writing style, which I initially felt was relayed as a lot of babble. I had seen the film (black & white) on TV as a youngster and remember vividly the image of Quasimodo (the hunchback) up in the bell tower crying out ‘Sanctuary’. It was knowing that this character and his story was the main theme of this book that kept me reading and reconnect with the text as best as I could.
The previous reviews rate this book as 3.8 – 4 / 5 so I kept thinking what is it that I am not seeing in this book to rate it higher than a 2.
What I found hard was that you are reading a fantasy story that makes references to the classic story of Quasimodo the hunchback of Notre Dame, written in 1831 by Victor Hugo (also wrote Les Miserables). I found that I would rather be reading the Hunchback of Notre Dame rather than the attempt of a story around it.
This story is of Quasimodo entering the real world (today’s world, 21st century) from the book world of which he was created. He enters the real world through a magic circle which is in an old attic. Twins Ophelia & Linus find him when they are clearing out the old attic of their Aunt & Uncle’s house, to whom they have been sent to live with.
The house belonged to a Cato Grubbs (he mysteriously disappeared years ago) who had all sorts of potions and magic books hidden up in the attic. After Grubbs disappearance the house was left to wreck & ruin until the aunt & uncle purchased it and turned it in a bookstore.
It turns out that Grubbs through his experimenting had in fact sent himself through the portal to the Book World.
Ophelia instantly realises who the hunchback is, as she is currently reading the story and can sympathise with him from what she has read within the story. The twins also find the potions and books and realise what has happened, that Quasimodo has travelled through a portal and will remain in the real world until 62 hours later at 11.11 am when he will need to be returned by the same magic circle.
Ophelia must also complete the book by this time so that Quasimodo can travel back safely and the story will be ended.
If this book leads the reader to read or search for information on the original story of Quasimodo - The Hunchback of Notre Dame then it is worth reading. The original story lien is truly a classic worth reading or viewing.