Walking on Broken Glass [Paperback]

Christa Allan (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: February 1, 2010

Leah Thornton’s life, like her Southern Living home, has great curb appeal. But a paralyzing encounter with a can of frozen apple 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, her motherhood, and her faith.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

When a narrator opens her tale by declaring, I lost my sanity buying frozen apple juice, the reader knows she's in for a witty ride. The narrator is Leah Thornton, a 27-year-old Southerner, English teacher, and middle-stage alcoholic. She's got her reasons: her only child died of SIDS and her sexual relationship with her husband, Carl, is so troubled their marriage is devolving into a standoff between hostility and frigidity. Leah is steered into rehab by her BFF Molly, which kicks off transformation through growing honesty, self-awareness, and large doses of wry humor. Allan draws many strong, quirky minor characters: Leah's rehab roomie, Theresa, one of a rehab unit's worth of addicts of all manner of substances; Leah's wry obstetrician, Dr. Nolan. A few supporting characters—Carl's wealthy parents—feel more caricatured than characterized, and the largely unsympathetic portrait of Carl makes the reader wonder why the marriage is worth saving at all. A few major developments toward the book's end cry out for greater resolution. But Leah is fascinating, complicated, and above all funny. This nonformulaic look at the spiritual redemption of a life is a bright start; debut novelist Allan is one to watch. (Feb.)
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About the Author

A born and bred Louisiana girl, Christa Allan is an award- winning,multi-published author of stories of redemption for the broken. Her novel, The Edge of Grace, won the 2012 SELAH for Contemporary Fiction. Threads of Hope is her fourth novel. By day, she is a National Board Certified teacher who has been teaching high school English for more than twenty-four years. The mother of five adult children and the totally smitten Grammy of two granddaughters, Christa and her veterinarian husband, Ken live in New Orleans where they await retirement, play golf, and continue to dodge hurricanes.

Product Details

• Paperback: 352 pages
• Publisher: Abingdon Press (February 1, 2010)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1426702272
• ISBN-13: 978-1426702273
• Product Dimensions: 5.5 x 1.1 x 8.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 13.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (135 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #847,145 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

A true Southern woman who knows any cook worth her gumbo always starts with a roux and who never wears white after Labor Day, Christa Allan writes women's fiction with hope, humor, and heart.

Christa is the mother of five, and grandmother of three. She recently retired after twenty-five years of teaching high school English, so she doesn't scare easily. She and her husband Ken and their three neurotic cats live in New Orleans in a 170-year-old home where the fans and the lights turn on and off without them. But, they love it because it's in the quirky, artsy Bywater where they're one of the few residents who don't have purple hair and/or tattoos.

Threads of Hope released from Abingdon Press in March of 2013. Walking on Broken Glass (2010) and The Edge of Grace (2011) were also published by Abingdon. Love Finds You in New Orleans (Summerside Press) released in 2012.

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

82 of 83 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Great debut! March 13, 2010

By Michelle Sutton

Format:Paperback

Walking on Broken Glass was incredible. I haven't reviewed such an honest and insightful novel in years. Having worked in several rehabs in the past I can attest to the fact that this author has done her research. She has masterfully captured the heart of someone who has had so much pain in her life that she did whatever was necessary to deaden the pain. Without the Lord, however, that usually ends up manifested in self-destructive behavior, such as addiction. I loved how the author showed clearly how families directly influence behavior. If a parent was withdrawn, people often marry a person who is equally withdrawn or passive. It's not what they want, but it's all they know.

I loved that this book gave Leah a voice and she was able to discover who she was underneath her various roles and her stuffed pain. The reader discovers her heart right along with her. And the responses she feels to those revelations is so genuine. There is no fluffy Christian-sounding denial here. While Jesus heals, this story shows that we must work at recovery (of any sort) and that faith is there to gives us legs to stand on, but we must still take each step. I loved that about this book. I also loved the issues between her and her husband. I've met so many women who have just submitted to "get it over with" and then they wonder why they despise their spouse when the layer of numbing addiction is removed.

This novel impressed me so much that it is making my best of 2010 fiction list. More Christian fiction should be this real. The faith journey was perfectly done and the ending made sense. I'd love to see a sequel to this story, but if there isn't one, I'm still satisfied. I am definitely paying attention when this author has new releases and I'm going to review each title as they come out. Walking on Broken Glass is highly recommended, especially for readers who know people who are struggling with addiction and want to understand them better.

46 of 48 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars I see me February 25, 2010

By Lynn McMonigal

Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase

Have you ever read a book that felt like it had been written just for you? How about one that seemed as if it had been written about you? Until recently, I hadn't. After reading Walking on Broken Glass, the debut novel by Christa Allan, I can't say that anymore.
On the surface, the story is nothing like my life. Leah Thornton has spent her life turning to alcohol, rather than facing the problems in her life. The death of her infant daughter leads her to depend more and more on beer, wine, and liquor to get through a day. Her best friend Molly and an interesting encounter with frozen apple juice force Leah to face that alcohol isn't covering up her problems, it is intensifying them. It has become her problem.
As Leah enters rehab and travels toward a life of sobriety, she learns more about herself. She's not perfect, with or without a drink in hand, and life is not perfect. Along the way, she realizes that she needs a relationship with God in order to be whole. Even with Him, her life still isn't going to be perfect, but for the first time in a very long time Leah has hope.
Leah's struggles made me face something inside of me. My daughter died before having a chance to live. I handled her death a lot like Leah and the others she met during rehab handled the tough times in their lives. I didn't drown out the pain of my miscarriage with alcohol or cocaine or pot. My drug of choice was food. I didn't really realize that until I read this--that food has become a bit of an addiction for me. Ten days ago we "celebrated" the fifth anniversary of Rylee's passing. I didn't curl up in a ball and cry all day as I had often done in the past. I didn't even have to sit and cuddle with the Care Bear we bought as a reminder. I thought that meant I was doing a good job of moving on with my life. Who knows? Maybe I am. But the fact that every thought of her makes me want to stuff something into my mouth makes me wonder.
And it makes me not want to see my life and my marriage become as out of control as Leah's.
Through this book, Allan gives a deep, realistic look into addictions. Her descriptions of Brookforest are vivid. I've never been in rehab myself, but I could see this place in my mind, could smell the stale cigarette smoke in the air, could feel the vinyl of the chairs. More than once, the situations her characters describe brought me to tears.
To me, the measure of a good book is that it makes the reader feel. Walking on Broken Glass is definitely a good book.

27 of 28 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Redemption we can all relate to August 18, 2010

By S. Thomas

Format:Paperback

I just finished "Walking on Broken Glass" and enjoyed it immensely. It took me a little while to get into the book, because the main character, Leah, is an alcoholic who has decided to admit herself to rehab. I wasn't sure I could relate. But pretty quickly I began to relate to Leah in terms of her struggle to build balanced relationships with friends and family; her questioning of God and why He let's bad things happen; and the ongoing process of learning who she is.

I don't want to spoil anything, but I also really liked the way this book ends. It's a good ending, it just doesn't tie everything up in a neat package. You know, like life!