Lisa Samson

Dear Readers,

Lisa Samson writes books that everyone should be reading.  There is nothing about them that makes them completely inspirational, but they are uplifting.  Her characters are usually quirky and struggling with some sort of issue in their lives.  They often are trying to do it on their own and have sort of withdrawn from society in some form or another.

In A Thing of Beauty you meet Fiona Hume.  She is a former child star who not only was talented, but made quite a reputation for herself when she divorced her parents when she found out they were mismanaging her money.  Now there is more to the story than what meets the eye, but that is the reason she always gives.   She walked away from Hollywood and everything that had to do with it when she got out of drug rehab.  Fiona had plans for her life, she was going to take her money and become an artist.  One who up-cycled other people's junk and made beauty out of it. 

Jump forward 10 years and all Fiona has is a house full of junk and no art pieces to speak of.   It is all coming to a head because her mother is going to be releasing a tell all book about the divorce and what happened.  Fiona decides to strike first and go on a national show to give her side of the story.  She needs to have a makeover for that and for the makeover she needs money.  So she decides to rent out a room in her large sprawling house.  That is where things start to change. 

No matter how unique Lisa writes her character, I find myself relating in some way or another with them.  I have no idea what it is like to live as a child star or what it is like to have parents like Fiona’s, but just the same I found my heart aching for the little girl that just wanted her parents to love her and not worry about themselves.  Fiona goes to great lengths to guard her heart from any more hurt.  She doesn’t make friends, though she does force herself to go out to a quaint little coffee shop so she isn’t a complete hermit. 

I can never put my finger on the exact thing that makes me love Lisa’s books so much, but I think part of it is I can so easily insert myself into her stories.  Her characters are rich and very three dimensional.  They are people that I find myself wishing I lived next door to and could count as my friends.  But I also think part of it is they make me want to be a better person who would be worthy of their friendship.  Whatever it is, I hope she continues to write and I promise to continue to read them all.

Happy Reading,

P.S. For those church librarians out there, know that there is a bit of swearing in the book.  Not the “F” word, but the use of a few words that might offend some readers.