May
07
a great read
I LOVE to read. Always have. The hubs does too, and it seems as if our kiddos have picked up the trait as well.
Bella is currently loving this sweet series: Just Grace (The Just Grace Series)
and Canaan is making his way through The Chronicles of Narnia
I’m a sucker for books. It’s rare that I can leave any kind of garage sale without purchasing some kind of book, which leaves our bookshelves overflowing.
With it being spring time, and with summer break quickly approaching, I’m always looking for a great read to throw in my beach bag, or read by the pool, or take with me while traveling. My problem is, when I start a great book, I can’t put it down, and end up reading it in a matter of days, and then finding myself needing another good one!
Enter in Charles Martin. I’ve talked about this author before. He’s absolutely one of my faves…has been for a couple of years. He has 9 published novels out to date, and I fly through them. His newest one is no different. I was priviledged, seriously, to receive an advanced copy of his latest, Unwritten, being released today! And because I feel like I know each of you, my group of blog reading friends, and because I think you’ll love it too, I have to tell you about it!
First of all, I’m kind of a critic. I don’t like all books. My main criteria for a great book is that I have to fall in love with the characters right off the bat. I have been known to start many a book, only to stop reading after a few chapters because it just isn’t quite worth my time. If the characters are not people who I either want to be friends with, or who I feel massively sad for and need to know their stories, then I can’t keep reading. I know that’s why I love Charles’ books. His character development is about the best I’ve ever read. He has a way of making you fall instantly in love with the characters, and/or NEED to keep reading to find out their stories. Its true of every book of his I’ve read. And it happens within the first few pages.
I also love a book that is unpredictable…where things happen that I couldn’t see coming, twists and turns that make you wonder just how someone could be so creative, so inventive. Charles is amazingly talented and creative at doing just that….story lines that will leave you saying, “oh my gosh! I had no clue that was gonna happen!” In fact, I’ve been known to say that exact phrase out loud when reading his books (and often times through tears), prompting the husband to wonder, and causing him to be so intrigued that he ends up wanting to read it for himself.
To give you an idea of what the story line of Unwritten is about:
A very famous, well known, beautiful actress is trying to escape her present day, pressure filled life, and in doing so, finds herself being rescued by a man, who’s own mysterious past has left him hidden from society for years. He offers her a plan, a way to leave her old life forever and start a new one, by faking her death. As the mystery of both of their stories are revealed, they realize that maybe there is a point to each of their brokenness.
I think one of the things I love most about his newest book, Unwritten, is the depth that is hidden within the pages. If you know me as a blogger, then you know that story is a big deal to me. I think everyone’s story is super significant…how our stories affect who we are, where we go, what we do, how we view life. What I love most about people’s stories is that there are always surprises, mystery, depth, brokenness, redemption, and that each other’s stories can play a significant role in our own.
I think that’s one of the reasons I loved this book so much…its all about story. Listen to these quotes from the book,
“And standing there, face to face, my bag of me over my shoulder, and your bag of you over your shoulder, we figure out that maybe my pieces are the very pieces needed to mend you and your pieces are the very pieces needed to mend me but until we’ve been broken we don’t have the pieces to mend each other. Maybe in the offering we discover the meaning, and value, of being broken….Maybe love, the real kind, the kind only wished for in whispers and the kind our hearts are hardwired to want, is opening up your bag of you and risking the most painful statement ever uttered between the stretched edges of the universe, ‘This was once me.’ Maybe that in and of itself is the story.”
Isn’t that beautiful? Isn’t that what our hearts deep down long for?
Charles Martin has a way of doing just that…bringing things to the surface through storytelling that put into words what our hearts long for. I like to think that if you are reading this blog, then maybe you are reading for that purpose, cause its what I set out to do too. And that’s why I think you’d love this book.
After having been asked why he writes stories the way he does, his response was this:
“At the end of the day, I hope my stories circumnavigate the hard places and touch what is still tender. Cause someone to feel something they haven’t felt, love in a way they had forgotten or hope for something that pain had caused them to scratch off their list. If I can do this, then I will have done what I set out to do. And if I’m really honest, I do this as much to reawaken the numb places in me as in other people.”
I love that. That’s exactly what his stories do. That’s exactly what Unwritten does. It goes beyond just a novel and becomes a story with depth, with purpose, with intrigue, romance, mystery, adventure, and hope, one that touches those broken places within ourselves and causes us to wonder if our brokenness just might have purpose too.
Unwritten is being released today, and today also starts the beginning of Charles’ book tour. You can read more about Unwritten, as well as watch a trailer about the book, here. You can see Charles’ schedule of events here, to see if he’s going to be in your area anytime soon. You can purchase the book here: Unwritten: A Novel
I’ll note too that his previous two books have made my top 10 favorite books list as well. The Mountain Between Us…is…absolutely…amazing. For so many reasons. It was actually bought by 20th Century Fox and is in the works to be made into a movie. No doubt in my mind that it could be a blockbuster, and that my backside will be in a movie theater seat the day its released.
His last book released before Unwritten, titled Thunder and Rain
The hubs is reading Unwritten now. He’s stayed up the past few nights to do so, if that gives you any indication that I’m not the only one who can’t put it down 
So if you are looking for a great read, one that has depth but is a great, catching story, with twists and turns and love and suspense, with characters that are loveable and mysterious, a story of hope when all else seems lost, then try out Unwritten. And then work your way backwards through Charles’ novels. You will not be disappointed! And then stop back by and tell me what you thought, cause I’m kinda one of his biggest fans, and I want y’all to be too.
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