Tuesday, June 11, 2013

Spiritually Supernatural ~ An Open Heart by Harry Kraus ~ Review

Go into the heart of Africa and travel into the mind of a tormented hero who just wants to do good in this latest novel, “An Open Heart.”
          
  Much emotionally is taking place within this novel. Everything from medical trauma to physical harm to mystery and intrigue to corruptness. This book runs the gamut of human emotions.
          
  Conflict is always present upon the page. It doesn’t necessarily make the hair on your arms curl, but it moves the reader on the conviction that something has to go right for our main character. The spiritual elements are powerful and can in no way be overlooked. They drive the story and give it a supernatural overtone that you don’t see written really well very often in the CBA.
          
  Jace is a tormented character. I wasn’t sure at times how much I liked him, but I think that in being so tormented, you come to see the man he wants to become and yet is fighting to reconcile with. His relationship with his wife-or lack thereof-is difficult at times to watch unfold, because I so wanted them to talk and figure it out!

            I thought the ending came a bit abruptly for the length of the book. It felt as though…that was it and I personally wanted a stronger sense of closure. Emotionally powerful with a faith message that is as deep as it is wide, a good new addition to the field of medical fiction.

            This review is my honest opinion. Thanks to the publishers through the CFBA for my copy to review.

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More about the novel and author...
This week, the
Christian Fiction Blog Alliance
is introducing
An Open Heart
David C. Cook (June 1, 2013)
by
Harry Kraus


ABOUT THE AUTHOR:


A Word from Harry:

I started writing my first novel during my last year of surgery training at UK. I was a chief resident, and started writing Stainless Steal Hearts in a call room at the Veteran's Administration Hospital in Lexington. It was a crazy time to write! I had a very demanding schedule, often spending days and nights in the hospital. I had two sons at that time, and I recognized the wisdom in my wife's urging: "Now doesn't seem the right time for this dream."

My experience as a writer is far from typical. Having received my formal training in biology and chemistry and medicine, my only preparation for a writing career was a love for reading. The longest thing I'd written before my first novel was a term paper in undergraduate school. My first novel was accepted by Crossway Books and published in 1994, and it wasn't until after I had FOUR published novels that I even opened a book of instruction about the craft of writing fiction. This is not what I recommend to others! Yes, I was successful, but I was bending the "rules" without knowing it. I had a natural talent for plotting, but I realize my initial success may have stunted my growth as a writer. I'd have made faster progress if I'd have gone to the fiction teachers sooner.

I have three sons: Joel, Evan, and Samuel. Look closely in all of my books and you'll see them there. My lovely wife, Kris, provides the basic composition for all those beautiful, athletic, dedicated women in my novels.

ABOUT THE BOOK


Their Messages—From Beyond the Grave—Might Destroy Him ...

They hover between life and death, their hearts stopped on the surgery table. And the messages Dr. Jace Rawlings’ open-heart surgery patients bring back from beyond the grave cannot be ignored. For they predict the deaths of people around him, and point a finger of suspicion straight at him.

It thrusts Jace into a firestorm of controversy and danger. A maeltsrom blown by the darker winds of political intrigue and spiritual warfare. And the forces working against him will do anything to stop him from uncovering a truth they will kill to hide. He’d come to Kenya to establish a heart-surgery program for the poor. But what he will find in that place where he grew up will put everything at risk–his marriage, his career . . . his life.

If you would like to read the first chapter of An Open Heart, go HERE.

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