Review/Giveaway: No Greater Love/More than Conquerors

A WINNING READINGS GIVEAWAY!

Title: No Greater Love
Author: Kathi Macias
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: May 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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This week, the


Christian Fiction Blog Alliance


is introducing


The Extreme Devotion series

No Greater Love

More Than ConquerorsNew Hope Publishers (April 5, 2010)


by


Kathi Macias

ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

Kathi Macias is an award-winning author of more than twenty fiction and nonfiction books. She has also ghostwritten and collaborated on books for a number of well-known individuals. She is a staff member for The Christian Communicator Manuscript Critique Service and a member of The Christian Proofreaders and Editors Network, Christian Authors Network, American Christian Fiction Writers, Christian Writers Fellowship International, Advanced Writers/Speakers Association, for who she serves as membership chair, and orange County Christian Writers Fellowship. She is the 2008 winner of AWSA’s Golden Scroll Award.

A Former newspaper columnist and string reporter, Macias is a credentialed minister and served as an associate pastor at a large church in Southern California, where she did biblical counseling, trained small group leaders, and oversaw support/recovery ministries. She is a popular speaker at churches, women’s clubs and retreats, and writers’ conferences, and has appeared on several radio and TV programs.

ABOUT THE BOOKS

...(set in South Africa in 1989, during the violence and turmoil just prior to Nelson Mandela’s release from prison and the overthrow of Apartheid.

Forbidden romance, an unlikely martyr and an even more unlikely hero. Orphaned four years earlier when their parents, active in the African National Congress ANC movement against apartheid, were murdered16-year-old Chioma and her 15-year-old brother Masozi now live and work on an Afrikaner familys farm. When Chioma and Andrew, the farm owners son, find themselves attracted to one another, tragedy revisits their lives. Chioma escapes to join an ANC rebel band in her effort to survive and gain revenge for her family and culture. When cultures clash in life-or-death struggles, Chioma must choose between violence and revengeor forgiveness and selfless love. Loosely based on historical events and set near Pretoria, South Africa, in the violent upheaval prior to ANC leader Nelson Mandelas release from prison in 1990 and his ascendance to the presidency of South Africa, this story of forbidden romance produces an unlikely martyr who is replaced by one even more unlikely.

If you would like to read the Prologue and first Chapter of No Greater Love, go HERE.

Watch the video trailer:

...(set in Tijuana, Mexico, and also in San Juan Chamula, Mexico, which is deep in the heart of Mayan country)

True love ignites their passionate pursuit of His call With violent crime on the rise and the political climate changing throughout certain parts of Mexico, the opportunity for open Christian witness, particularly in some areas of Chiapas State, is rapidly decreasing. Hector Rodriguez pastors a small church in the tourist-popular border town of Tijuana. He also routinely carries Bibles deeper into the hostile areas of Mexico, where he ministers despite increasing difficulty and persecution. Hectors mother accompanied him on one of those trips and felt God called her to stay in the little village of San Juan Chamula, where she uses the Scriptures to teach reading to the families who are open to it. In retaliation for Hectors bringing the Bibles into areas hostile to Christians and in an effort to dissuade him from continuing to expand his ministry there, Hectors mother is murdered. Hector must decide if he will continue his work despite his worries about protecting his wife and children.

If you would like to read the Prologue and first Chapter of More Than Conquerors, go HERE.

Watch the book video:


What I Liked:  I've enjoyed Kathi Macias in the past, and these books are up to her usual standard - well-written and attention-grabbing from the beginning to the end.

I always enjoy books with an international flavor, especially when the author creates characters that you can identify with and relate too, even in a different setting.

And of course, I love the Christian aspect of the storyline.  God is the true hero in these books, and the main characters grow and learn and are able to handle unbelievable tragedy through His grace.

What I Didn't Like:  No Greater Love is the book that grabbed my attention with this review opportunity.  It's set in South Africa, and I'm married to my own Afrikaaner, so I was very interested in the topic.  It turns out that the main character, Chioma, was exactly my age - and the story takes place around the same year I spent at college in South Africa.

So at first glance, both the storyline and the details bothered me, since they seemed SO FAR removed from the experience I had in South Africa.  I attended a multi-racial college, and apartheid was on its way out the door.  South Africa was the gem of Africa - beautiful infrastructure, high-quality medical care, food in abundance, and the hot destination spot of Africans from other countries throughout southern Africa.  (It's on a drastic downhill trend at the moment, which is a whole nother topic.)  And it seemed that the book was just another slam on white South Africans.

And I'd still maintain that this book is a very Americanized view of South Africa.  For example, you don't realize in this book that Coloureds are a distinct cultural group of their own.

But I will say the book drew me in, and redeemed itself to some degree, as you see how the Afrikaaner farmer loves his land, and get a true picture of some of the ANC activities.  Apartheid is a tragedy, but the circumstances surrounding it are not so black and white as many people portray it.  And the clash between English and Afrikaans; between Xhosa and Zulu - these have played as much a role in South Africa as the segregation between blacks and whites.

From a Christian fiction perspective, I highly recommend this book.  If you're looking for background on South African background, and culture, however, check out books such James Michener's The Covenant and The Power of One by Bryce Courtenay.

Posted by Jane at Mozi Esmé