Title: Walking on Broken Glass
Author: Christa Allan
Publisher: Abingdon Press
Publication Date: February 1,2010
Paperback: 342 pages
ISBN: 978-1426702273
Genre: Fiction

About the Book:

Leah Thornton’s life, like her Southern Living home, has great curb appeal. But a paralyzing encounter with a can of frozen apple juice in the supermarket shatters the façade, forcing her to admit that all is not as it appears. When her best friend gets in Leah’s face about her reliance on alcohol to avoid dealing with her life, Leah must make an agonizing choice. Seek help against her husband’s wishes? Or—put herself first for once? Joy and sadness converge and unwelcome insights intrude, testing Leah’s commitment to sobriety, her marriage, her motherhood, and her faith.

My Review:

Walking On Broken Glass is Christa Allan’s Debut novel and an excellent debut it is. The reader is immediately drawn to Leah Thornton, a 27-year-old alcoholic. Leah is witty, warm, charming, and broken and the reader cannot help but care deeply for this wounded woman. Leah’s friend Molly, a lovely woman who loves unconditionally, confronts Leah about her drinking and Leah decides to check herself into a detoxification program. Unfortunately, Leah’s husband Carl does not see his wife as having a problem and resists, rather than supporting Leah. The story chronicles Leah’s days as she goes through the detox programme and through her journal entries, the reader begins to have insight into her life with Carl, the loss of their baby, Alyssa, and how Leah leaned more and more on alcohol to ease the pain. Walking On Broken Glass deals with extremely intense issues; alcoholism, death, marriage counseling, infertility with a deep and reverent respect as well as with well-placed wit to lighten what could have been a heavy story. Allan’s characters are endearing and her descriptive prose brings the reader into the various settings. Walking On Broken Glass is an endearing story of addiction, redemption, love, loss, friendship and finally, finding oneself through grace.

About the Author:

A true Southern woman who knows that any cook worth her gumbo always starts with a roux and who never wears white after Labor Day, Christa weaves serious stories with threads of hope, humor, and heart. She contributes to Writer…Interrupted and Afictionado, the e-zine of American Christian Fiction Writers. Her essays have been published in Chicken Soup for the Coffee Lover’s Soul and Chicken Soup for the Divorced Soul. Christa is the mother of five adult children, a grandmother of three, and a teacher of high school English. She and her husband Ken live in Abita Springs, Louisiana, where they and their three cats enjoy their time between dodging hurricanes.
For more information, please visit Christa’s website.

Christa Allan’s WALKING ON BROKEN GLASS VIRTUAL BLOG TOUR ‘10 officially began on March 1 and will end on March 26, 2010. You can visit Christa’s blog stops at www.virtualbooktours.wordpress.com during the month of March to find out more about this great book and talented author!

I received a complimentary copy of Walking on Broken Glass by Christa Allan from Pump Up Your Book Promotion as part of the tour. Receiving a copy in no way reflected my review of aforementioned novel.