Book Review: "Immanuel's Veins" by Ted Dekker and T Shirt Giveaway

This story is for everyone--but not everyone is for this story.

It is a dangerous tale of times past. A torrid love story full of deep seduction. A story of terrible longing and bold sacrifice.

Then as now, evil begins its courtship cloaked in light. And the heart embraces what it should flee. Forgetting it once had a truer lover.

With a kiss, evil will ravage body, soul, and mind. Yet there remains hope, because the heart knows no bounds.

Love will prove greater than lust. Sacrifice will overcome seduction. And blood will flow.

Because the battle for the heart is always violently opposed. For those desperate to drink deep from this fountain of life, enter.

But remember, not everyone is for this story.

I'm really not quite sure what to say about this book. I liked it. I liked it a lot. It was a very interesting and engrossing read. It was what I expected from Dekker. I just am not quite sure how to fully convey my feelings about the story. Well let's put it this way, if you are into faith based stories AND vampires, this is the perfect story for you.

The story is set in the late 1700s and deals with two servants to the Catherine the Great, the Russian Empress who are assigned to look over the two daughters of the Cantemir family and their mother. The daughters are very beautiful and Toma and Alek find themselves falling in love with them. However something becomes amiss as the women are falling prey to someone or something else. This is where the vampires comes in. There's a lot of blood drinking in this book. It's quite interesting actually as there's a lot of sensuality involve in these scenes. Overall this book is a love story and the ending of the book displays what many consider to be the greatest love of all.

I didn't realize until after I started reading that this book is part of the Books of History Chronicles. If you are a fan of Dekker's other books such as The Circle series or other books involving the Books of History, you will be thrilled to see cameos from past characters and questions being answered from previous storyline. I myself kept going "Ahhhh, so that's how that happened" several times in the story. If this is your first Dekker novel or you haven't read the Books of History Chronicles, don't worry. The book reads completely as a stand alone so you won't get lost at all.

While the story is quite good, in my opinion it's not Dekker's best work. There were some slow parts that dragged a little and at times I got a little lost with the change in point of view. There are several endorsements in the front of the book that state how much the story had changed them. One of them was from a woman who claims she read the book 7 times in three weeks. To each his own, but again as I said the book is not THAT good. This book isn't one of his thrillers so while there's all the blood drinking, there aren't the spine tingles you get from the suspense thrillers.

An interesting tidbit about this book: Dekker said on his Facebook page that this book was banned Holland by the Christian publisher there for being too sensual for Christians in Holland. Honestly, I have no idea why in the world it would be. Sure this book isn't a safe Christian read and it's definitely not Amish fiction but neither is it showing graphic or gratuitous sex. As I am against any type of book banning, it really bothers me when Christians do this sort of thing. So they are banning a Christian book that they feel is too sensual to protect the Christians in the country, but books like Twilight will be able to be read by everyone including those same Christians? It's an interesting thought and this book will definitely provoke the thinking of everyone who reads it.

Immanuel's Veins by Ted Dekker is published by Thomas Nelson (2010)

This review copy was provided for a blog tour with the Christian Fiction Blog Alliance

Thanks to the publisher, I'm able to give away this awesome T-shirt based on the book.

To enter, you must fill out the form and have a US address. The winner will be picked Wednesday, September 22.

PLEASE use the form only to enter the contest. For any comments about the book, review, etc. please use the comments link at the bottom of the post. All information must be filled out correctly or else your entry will not count. (ie. you must use FULL name and list your mailing address). Your info will only be used for this contest and will be deleted after the contest is over.