Review/Giveaway: Songs of Deliverance

A WINNING READINGS GIVEAWAY!

Title: Songs of Deliverance
Author: Marilynn Griffith
Genre: Christian fiction
How to enter: Leave a comment on THIS post right here! If you're a subscriber or a follower, leave a second comment for a second entry.
Entry deadline: February 25, 2010
Restrictions: Open internationally!

That's right, enter right here for this giveaway. This is my review copy, so it has been gently read.

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Songs of Deliverence, by Marilynn Griffith, is published by Revell. This 336-page paperback has a list price of $13.99.

Here's how the publisher describes the book:

They say time heals all wounds--but sometimes that's just not enough.

Fifteen years ago, Zeely Wilkins and Ron Jenkins were students that most people had stopped believing in. Lucky for them, their teacher recognized they were the cream of the crop and just needed the right soil.

Though they went their separate ways, the past has called them back to the school and the teacher who wouldn't give up on them. Now they'll have to decide what love really means--and whether they're willing to dance to a new tune to get it. But can they rediscover the songs of deliverance that once brought them together? Or will their secrets keep them apart?

In this soul-searching and suspenseful story, Marilynn Griffith invites you to believe in the power of truth, love, and redemption.

And the author:

Marilynn Griffith is a freelance writer and conference speaker whose online columns and blogs reach thousands of women each year. She is the author of the Shades of Style series. Marilynn lives in Tallahassee, Florida, with her husband and their seven children.

The first chapter of this book grabbed me, and I intensely wanted to read more. Then I got lost with all the relationships in the second chapter, and it took me a while to figure things out. Each chapter is in first-person, usually by one of the four main characters, and I had a bit of a hard time transitioning between characters, especially since I tend to be a skim-reader and had to keep checking the header to remember which point of view I was reading.

It wasn't until after I'd read the book that I realized it's a follow-up to another book, Rhythms of Grace. I would definitely recommend reading the Rhythms book before reading this one.

The author tackles a ton of difficult issues in this book. Interracial relationships, stereotyping, abortion, rape, judgmentalism, forgiveness, family relationships, church relationships, relationships of all kinds, really.

There's some ugly stuff here. Yet, more so than much Christian fiction I read, God is interwoven throughout the book. He is in the midst of the story, not just tacked on at the end as an afterthought to fit this book into the Christian market. He provides the power to forgive, to transform, and in the end, to love.

Thanks to Baker Publishing Group for the review copy of this book.

Available January 2010 at your favorite bookseller from Revell, a division of Baker Publishing Group.