Vines of Entanglement, by Lisa Carter

For a Christian Themed Novel I was very impressed with the writing and the storyline as well as the Character Development. Many "Christian" based novels are either a bit to shallow, the plot line stinks, or the characters are a bit to syrupy to be believable, or they are "Bible Thumpers" who come across as sanctimonious.

Lisa Carter though gives us a "Christian" novel that has characters that are true to human nature. They have problems. They have hurts. They have doubts about God. They struggle to live a good Christian life. Some of them have major self-esteem issues. But the nice part is that when or if they turn to God they do so in a very natural human way that most of us can relate to. They turn to God in prayer when things are going poorly and they don't necessarily believe that God will answer, or that if He does answer it won't be for their good, and He might not even be listening because their sins are to deep and dark for God to overlook or forgive.

That makes this novel good. The other thing that makes it good is that as a Christian Themed novel it does a good job of applying scripture and Biblical themes to the issues at hand without it coming off as preachy. They are presented in believable ways that make you want to keep reading. Thank you Lisa Carter for writing the novel so well.

The general plot of the novel is that Laura Mabry stumbles across a murder scene and almost becomes a part of it. When the police respond the lead detective turns out to be a long lost love of hers from ten years before that she really never wanted to see again because he reminds her of the sin in her life and her deepest darkest secrets.

Detective Jon Locklear can't believe  that he has been brought into contact with Laura again. His heart does a flip flop when he sees her. His old feelings are there but she does her best to drive him away.

The case will be one that has major issues for both of the main characters. There is a murder to be solved and a question of whether Laura may have done the murder or whether she is now in danger.

Underlying all of this is the long dashed love interests of both Laura and Jon. The tension is built well and frankly the themes of anger and bitterness that are developed are so real and thick you can feel it in your bones that this is how you would feel and react even though it isn't very Christian.

The story moves well, the characters are developed really well, the depth of plot and the turns that it takes are natural and well written. All in all this is a great detective novel, a great romance novel and above all a great Christian themed novel.

Enjoy!