Book Review: "Facelift" by Leanna Ellis

Single mom Kaye Redmond is a can-do woman who runs her own business. But her ready smile hides a reservoir of pain. When her ex-mother-in-law, who broke up her marriage, begs to stay with her after a botched face-lift, Kaye relents---and discovers that true healing goes deeper than tacking on a happy face.

You don't read a lot about plastic surgery in Christian Fiction. I guess unless it's absolutely necessary, it appears to be a taboo subject or either it happens to someone who doesn't have a lot of faith. In this book, while having the procedure done is a central part of the story, it is both the person who does gets the work done AND a person who didn't who both become affected by this act.

To be honest, I got annoyed A LOT at Kaye during this book. I can understand that there may have been a part of her that still loved her ex husband and was hoping that he would come back. However there were some scenes that had me wanting to scream at her. I could not understand exactly why though she wanted Cliff back in her life. Every scene that he was in just screamed of obnoxious and uncaring. I mean he dumps his own mother on his ex-wife and then has the gall to get annoyed with her for dating someone else even though he had cheated on her! Marla, the mother in law, is a whole other story. The part about her and Kaye that I did not like, is that Marla insults Kaye and apparently has been doing this for years. Kaye seems to be a doormat and just takes it even though she's 1) not her daughter in law anymore and b) she's taking care of her when no one else would!

The character that I did like best was Kaye's daughter, Izzie. She's very frank with her feelings about her father and while she has to have a relationship with him, neither does she try to excuse what he has done. She's the same about her grandmother as well. While she does have one drama moment involving her hair, for the most part I wish that Kaye would take lessons from her daughter. The swim-athon was a wonderful and touching idea and even more so that the idea came from teenagers.

Overall, except for Kaye, I did enjoy this book. I've heard good things about Ellis' writing so I was excited to read it. I was happy that this was a Christian fiction book that did not condemn a person who was divorced from remarrying or making them wait until their ex-spouse had died. The romance that is presented here is sweet and I did enjoy seeing Kaye's and Jack's relationship spark and grow. Maybe I'm not the target audience for this book so that might be why this one did not hit the mark, but it won't turn me away from reading more of Ellis' books.

Facelift by Leanna Ellis is published by B and H Publishing (2010)

This ARC was provided by the publisher