TOUCHED BY A VAMPIRE, by Beth Felker Jones

This isn't what I expected. To be absolutely truthful I've been on the lookout for a really good novel that is deals with vampires in such a way as to teach the truth of the Gospel. Without going into all of that, however, let me get into this review. As I stated, this isn't what I expected. I expected a novel, not an expose of the works by Stephanie Meyer. Yet, since I had committed myself to writing a review I read the book so I could at least give the author a fair shot. Receiving a book and not doing a review in my opinion is stealing. So here I was with this piece of non-fiction and an obligation to both read and write a review. Not a good place to start. Beth caught me right from the start, however, with her clear, precise and humble take on the Twilight saga. Her writing was crisp, for the most part, and gentle. Not once did she say these works were "of the devil", which would have scored low with me. I went through that with the Christian rock bands of the 70s. People have to stop being religious and start being Christian, and that is exactly the way Beth Felker Jones handled this work, as a Christian. Without a desire to put down another author she felt the need to toss up several red flags and caution people, parents in particular, about the many errors found in Ms. Meyer's saga.

Lessons to be learned. I have never read any of the Twilight saga, but feel that TOUCHED BY A VAMPIRE was fair in its treatment non-the-less. While it is all too familiar for a girl, or any high schooler, to feel ordinary, and therefore less than ordinary, we must see ourselves as God sees us, His creation. Would God have become a man and died for you if you were not special to Him? Of course not, and this is one of the key points in the book. We forget about the way God sees us, especially if we are Christians, and look to others for acceptance. That usually ends up blowing up in our face. For Bella it meant "falling in love" with a vampire to the extent that she gave up everything, including her soul, to become a vampire and live forever with her beloved Edward. Now, aside from the fact that Edward is not going to live forever, but must one day face judgment by the very God who now offers mercy, should give us pause. Although Meyer's vampires, as most vampires in novels, live to be centuries old, this does not mean they live forever. They do have an end. Their life is marked along a time line of past/present/future, just as yours and mine are. God, on the other hand, is eternal. He has no beginning, no end. He is not confined to a timeline, but in fact created the timeline for us. So if we trade God's love for the love of anyone else, even a vampire with extraordinary powers and long life, we are condemning ourselves to a fate that was reserved for the devil and his angels.

That is the overview. Beth Felker Jones goes further to show how such a love actually damages a person's day to day life. Probably my favorite section is where she lists symptoms of an abusive relationship and shows us how both Bella and Edward fit that profile. Moms, Dads, is this what you want for your little girl? Do you want her to grow up making wrong choices and ending up in abusive relationships? Spousal abuse is on the rise and Jones tells us why, we have no understanding of what real love is. We are told what love is supposed to be by movies, music, comercials, TV shows, and so on, but those people acting and writing those things haven't a clue as to what love is either, and yet they go on teaching others about how romantic love is an end in itself. I was reading her book and thought of something comediane Chanda Pierce said. "Here's this pretty young woman, doing all the cooking, cleaning and everything else for these seven dwarves, and she's singing. That's sick." She's right. That is sick. Find me a woman who joyfully picks up her husband's dirty laundry and cleans it, while simultaneously cooking meals, vaccuming the floor and changing diapers, and you've either found an extremely wonderful woman, or she's plain demented. Love is not about feelings. Oh sure we like the feelings that many times come with love, especially those first few years. True love is a commitment to someone other than themselves. Jesus spread out His arms and died on the cross because He loves you and He loves me. Why? There's absolutely no reason for Him to love us. Yet He chose to love us. That's the miracle. That's what true love is. That's what we should be teaching our children.

I give TOUCHED BY AN ANGEL, by Beth Felker Jones 4.75 stars, and that's only because it's a work of non-fiction. Had this been a work of fiction I would easily give it 5 stars. I have already given this book to 2 other people, one of them my pastor, because I felt it was just that good. So get your copy today. This is especially true if you have a young person in your home who has been intrigued by the Twilight saga. Use this book and Twilight to get them into the truth of God's Word and find His love. For that romance is never ending. Teach your children to become the bride the King of kings is coming for at the end of the age (which may be sooner than you think).

Although I was unable to find a website for Beth Felker Jones you can find her book on sale at the following websites.

Links:

Waterbrook/Multnomah

ChristianBook.com
Amazon
Random House

Disclaimer
This site receives books, free from the author, for review and tour. This in no way takes away from the excellence found in these works. There are times when this site will promote a book even though the site owner has not read it. In this case there will be no review, nor will we have received a copy for a review. If we receive a copy from the author/publisher we will write and post our review.

TALKING TO THE DEAD, by Bonnie Grove

This month the Christian Fiction Review Blog tours TALKING TO THE DEAD, by Bonnie Grove. I have to say this has been one of the most difficult books to review, but not because it is bad and certainly not because it is poorly written. TALKING TO THE DEAD is both interesting and written well. It's just that, well, how do you write a review about a book that has so much going on, so many changes throughout the book and not give away the story? Here's the blurb she has on her site about TALKING TO THE DEAD:

Twenty-something Kate Davis can’t seem to get this grieving widow thing right. She’s supposed to put on a brave face and get on with her life, right? Instead she’s camped out on her living room floor, unwashed, unkempt, and unable to sleep—because her husband Kevin keeps talking to her.

Is she losing her mind?

Kate’s attempts to find the source of the voice she hears are both humorous and humiliating, as she turns first to an “eclectically spiritual” counselor, then a shrink with a bad toupee, a mean-spirited exorcist, and finally group therapy. There she meets Jack, the warmhearted, unconventional pastor of a ramshackle church, and at last the voice subsides. But when she stumbles upon a secret Kevin was keeping, Kate’s fragile hold on the present threatens to implode under the weight of the past … and Kevin begins to shout.

Will the voice ever stop? Kate must confront her grief to find the grace to go on, in this tender, quirky story about second chances.

That's what Bonnie writes about her book, so I guess if I stay within these parameters I'll be safe.

The book starts out with Kate Davis overseeing a funeral held in her home, wondering why all these people bothered to show up, and bother her like this. Her mom holds her tongue, understanding that newly widowed women don't need or want the chit-chat of others. When everyone leaves she can't bring herself to go up the stairs to where she shared her bed with her late husband, Kevin. To make matters worse Kevin starts prattling on about things that she's doing, when she least expects him to. Well, who would expect a dead person to be speaking in the first place? Yet on top of all her grief now she has to put up with a voice she loves, and yet can't deal with. I mean he's dead. Since when do dead people start talking to others? Weeks pass and she's still living on the sofa in the living room. She rarely goes upstairs for anything anymore. This dead husband of hers is driving her nuts. So she seeks out help. It's really weird where people will look for help when they are hurting. Either it's in a place that doesn't care about her, not really, or in a place that cares about her, at least superficially, and offers the most ridiculous advice. It's like while she can hear Kevin speaking to her, all these people who say they can help her don't really hear her.

The last straw is group therapy, where everyone seems to have their own agenda that has little to do with getting down to the problem. She shrinks into the background as much as possible, actually made more possible by the leader of the group with her seemingly arrogant need to show everyone how well she's been constructed. Kate's sure she'll never go back, that is until she runs into Jack, after the therapy session, in the gym down the hall from where the group meets. He's kind and suggests she join them for some basketball. She promises to do so another time, and realizes that this guy, Jack, is a pastor of a church. This gets her thinking in different directions.

As Kevin's voice becomes more intolerable, and at one point he starts yelling at her, Kate is plunged into a world of depression that goes beyond just the sorrow of losing a loved one. A secret from Kevin's past unravels her life, stripping her of almost every good memory she's had, and practically everyone she's known...except for Jack. He won't go away, and she doesn't have the strength to tell him to, but she's basically spent her time burning bridges. Past friends aren't allowed in her life any more. But Jack won't quit. In him she finds the one answer that has eluded her all this time. It isn't Jack himself, but something that he has, that she wishes to have that pulls her from the abyss.

If you can read this book and truthfully say it isn't well-written and that this plot doesn't make you wonder what's around the next bend then you are one special person. I am not a big fan of romances myself. I'm a mystery writer. As such I know you have to keep the reader on their toes. With mysteries you more or less expect the twists and turns. With romances you more or less expect a guy and a girl to find each other and by the end find "eternal bliss", all of which makes me want to vomit. Bonnie Grove, on the other hand, handles her romance like I would a mystery. You never know what's around the next bend. You're never really sure how things are going to work out (although you get several huge hints). I think of all the people I identified with in this book it would have to be Blair. Keep your eye on him. Although not really central to the story there are things about him that make the grief all that much more real, and radiating from Kate to others.

The Bible teaches us to "Mourn with those who mourn, weep with those who weep, and to rejoice with those who rejoice." Unfortunately I think most of us skip over the first part of that verse and go right to the last part. We want to rejoice with others who rejoice, but we don't want to be around those who are hurting, because it makes us hurt too. This is the challenge, as I see it, of Bonnie's work, to go to those who are hurting, to let yourself be hurt along with them so that together you can help each other heal. In his process lies some wonderful truths that lie about like forgotten gemstones. Unless we are willing to travel that path of mourning with those we love who are hurting, we will never find those gemstones, simply because they can only be found on a path that leads through a dark valley, and they can only be found when that path is walked by others of their own accord to help people who are in that valley already. All in all TALKING TO THE DEAD, by Bonnie Grove is more than just another novel, it's a challenge to live life the way God intends us to live it.









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IMPORTANT

This site receives books, free from the author, for review and tour. This in no way takes away from the excellence found in these works. There are times when this site will promote a book even though the site owner has not read it. In this case there will be no review, nor will we have received a copy for a review. If we receive a copy from the author/publisher we will write and post our review.