Dancing On Glass by Pamela Ewen

Excellent!

My last book by Pamela Ewen was my first, and that review can be found here.

Dancing On Glass was even better, and much closer to things I have been around or had friends go through in my own life. Amalise Catoir is attending collage to become one of the first few female lawyers when she becomes entranced by an artist named Philip Sharp. While Amalise is trying to stay focused on her rise in a rather good law firm, and steer clear of men, Philip is determined to keep "Ama" as his own. Able to charm even the most resolute, Amalise is unaware of his deep seeded underlying problems. She soon finds herself making small compromise after compromise and all the while asking God to lead her and help her, but unable to guide Philip towards God or figure out what is happening. Like so many women she is sure it will all work out, and be o.k. soon.

Philip's smooth manipulations and control of Ama only increases when she finally figures she is doing the "right thing" by marrying him. Soon parts of her life are spinning out of control, and only her family and her best friend from childhood forward, Jude, are aware that anything is less than perfect and they don't know very much at all! As Amalise's career rises, her relationship with her husband worsens as she starts to see more and more of the little things that start to add up to the bigger picture.

The problem is the figuring it all out is slow in coming. Once Amalise sees more of Philp's problems, and what lies underneath them, she is now in danger. She is cut off from all her friends, her family, church, anything that makes Philip sad or uncomfortable has slowly changed over to his way of thinking. Now that lives are on the line Amalise's life and the lives of others are on the line. She is reaching out to God with all that is in her for help and answers.

This book has a dramatic ending, and it is super well written, as well as extremely truthful. Relationships, as well as New Orleans are shown clearly and cleverly. Dancing On Glass is God centered, but yet as real as day to day life is. A recommended read to anyone dealing with controllers in their lives as I think this book could be a help to lots of women.

Carol

This week, the Christian Fiction Blog Alliance is introducing Dancing on Glass B&H Books (August 1, 2011) by Pamela Ewen

ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

Until recently retiring to write full time, Pamela Binnings Ewen was a partner in the Houston office of the international law firm of BakerBotts, L.L.P., specializing in corporate finance. She now lives just outside New Orleans, Louisiana, with her husband, James Lott.

She has served on the Board of Directors of Inprint, Inc., a non-profit organization supporting the literary arts in Houston, Texas, as well as the Advisory Board for The New Orleans Pirate’s Alley Faulkner Society, and currently serves on the Board of Directors of The Tennessee Williams Festival in New Orleans; Pamela is a co-founder of the Northshore Literary Society in the Greater New Orleans area. She is also a member of the National League of American Pen Women.

Pamela’s first novel, Walk Back The Cat (Broadman & Holman. May, 2006) is the story of an embittered and powerful clergyman who learns an ancient secret, confronting him with truth and a choice that may destroy him.

She is also the best-selling author of the acclaimed non-fiction book Faith On Trial, published by Broadman & Holman in 1999, currently in its third printing. Although it was written for non-lawyers, Faith On Trial was also chosen as a text for a course on law and religion at Yale Law School in the Spring of 2000, along with The Case For Christ by Lee Stroble. Continuing the apologetics begun in Faith On Trial, Pamela also appears with Gary Habermas, Josh McDowell, Darrell Bock, Lee Stroble, and others in the film Jesus: Fact or Fiction, a Campus Crusade for Christ production.

Pamela is the latest writer to emerge from a Louisiana family recognized for its statistically improbable number of successful authors. A cousin, James Lee Burke, who won the Edgar Award, wrote about the common ancestral grandfathers in his Civil War novel White Dove At Morning.

Among other writers in the family are Andre Dubus (Best Picture Oscar nomination for The Bedroom; his son, Andre Dubus III, author of The House of Sand and Fog, a Best Picture Oscar nomination and an Oprah pick; Elizabeth Nell Dubus (the Cajun trilogy); and Alafair Burke, just starting out with the well received Samantha Kincaid mystery series.

ABOUT THE BOOK

In the steamy city of New Orleans in 1974, Amalise Catoir sees Phillip Sharp as a charming, magnetic artist, unlike any man she has known. A young lawyer herself, raised in a small town and on the brink of a career with a large firm, she is strong and successful, yet sometimes too trusting and whimsical. Ama's rash decision to marry Phillip proves to be a mistake as he becomes overly possessive, drawing his wife away from family, friends, and her faith. His insidious, dangerous behavior becomes her dark, inescapable secret.

In this lawyer's unraveling world, can grace survive Ama's fatal choice? What would you do when prayers seem to go unanswered, faith has slipped away, evil stalks, and you feel yourself forever dancing on shattered glass?

If you would like to read the first chapter of Dancing on Glass, go HERE.

The book link is: http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0805464301 

Watch the book trailer: