Christa Allan's Walking on Broken Glass~ Reviewed

Walking on Broken Glass
By Christa Allan
Published by Abingdon Press
ISBN 978-1-426-70227-3

Description:

Facing sobriety with Southern charm. Leah Thornton's like, like her Southern Living home, has great curb appeal. But a paralyzing encounter with a can of frozen orange 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 refusal to deal with her life, Leah is forced to make an agonizing decision.

Can she sacrifice what she wants to get what she needs? Joy, sadness, and pain converge, testing Leah's commitment to her marriage, motherhood and her faith.

To read chapter one -- click HERE.


Review:

Whether tragedy, angst, or a breakdown, Southern women know how to survive with panache. Christa Allan infuses that Southern charisma into her writing, giving us a captivating read. Alcoholism is a dark subject, yet Allan brings it right up to the very edge, and then pulls us back into the light with Leah's own brand of humor. Never depressing, Walking on Broken Glass is definitely a page-turner with all the emotions an alcoholic experiences. Novel Reviews and I give it a high recommendation.

Ane Mulligan
Editor, Novel Journey


BONUS REVIEW:

“You drink too much.” Molly said to Leah.

“Who are you Molly? AA’s new spokes woman? Yesterday was an office party. People drank. I drank, so what!”

Molly retorts, “You don’t remember do you? You were out of control. You drove yourself home! You could have killed someone; yourself…This has to stop. I’m losing my best friend. I don’t see her anymore!”

Who was Leah kidding? Her life was a mess and now everyone knew it. Molly had suggested she voluntarily check into a rehab center for 30 days. Maybe she should go to rehab—the truth was she was disappearing—even she didn’t know who she was anymore.

Christa Allen does a great job of depicting a woman who seems to have the perfect, charmed life - living in a beautiful house, driving an expensive car, etc. Life from the outside looking in is great, but life on the inside, the places no one could see, hurt. Leah’s heart and mind were dripping with pain. The only socially acceptable way to cope, in her mind, was to drink until the pain stopped. This book is not for the faint of heart. Christa tells it like it is; no sugar coating here. I liked that. Why does a person have to wait until they get a DUI, or even worse, kill someone before getting help? Leah finds out real quick that people aren’t applauding the fact she’s decided to go to rehab.

Carl, Leah’s husband, thinks she’s being a bit dramatic. He’s not convinced she has a problem. He tells her that getting drunk every now and then isn’t that big a deal. Go to rehab he tells her, but thinks it’s ridiculous and so does her father. They will be there to get her over this crisis—drama. Life for them was manageable—nothing needed to change.

That’s how Leah’s journey to wellness begins, after a few days in rehab she starts to think maybe her husband and Dad might be right. Did she really have a problem?

Her counselor tells her something that starts to chip away at her hard heart, “Addiction tricks us into thinking we can pick and choose what we feel. We can’t, real life means feeling…”

Leah’s exasperated and says, “I hate all this. Am I supposed to spend the rest of my life feeling every little thing that happens? How do people live like that?”

Christa writes the story in current time with Leah having flash backs of events that help you understand her pain and how life had become unmanageable.

Leah realizes she can do this one day at a time and takes the first step.

1. She realizes she is powerless over her addiction-life has become unmanageable. Then the next step becomes clear,

2. She came to believe that a power greater than herself could restore her to sanity. (She could only hope!)

She learns the Serenity prayer. “God Grant me the serenity to accept the things I can not change, the courage to change the things I can and the wisdom to know the difference!”

I love this prayer. I’m so thankful to have received a review copy of this book.

Reviewed by: Nora St.Laurent -- ACFW Book Club Coordinator