Reviewed by: Ceil Carey, long time book discussion leader

Church: Community Christian Church of Yorkville

Introduction

Title: A Broken Kind of Beautiful

Author: Katie Ganshert

Publisher: Waterbrook

Publication Date: April 2014

Format: Print Book

Length: 320 Pages

OVERVIEW

Ivy Clark is a fashion model, beautiful and poised in front of the camera. If only her beauty was more than skin deep. Ivy feels her brokenness and impurity so deeply but when it comes to her line of work, only the outward appearance counts. No one really cares about what is going on inside her mind and heart.

Desperately, she agrees to be the new face of her stepmother’s line of bridal gowns, pretty ironic for a girl who is far from pure herself. But her current job is evaporating and she wants to continue in the fashion business, even though working for her stepmother and coming back to SC is a very bitter pill to swallow for a big city girl who thought she had it made on her own.

Her future seems to be partly in the hands of the photographer, Davis Knight. He is an enigma, having given up the kind of fame and notoriety that Ivy has always desired. What is his motivation? What makes him do what he does and act as he acts? She is not used to being treated the way that Davis does nor can she understand a man who works in maintenance at his local church, a man whose goals are God-centered yet who is flawed himself.

Almost the entire cast of characters in A Broken Kind of Beautiful seem to challenge everything that Ivy has believed about herself and about the world in general. She has pictured herself as broken and cast aside. Could God view her differently, could he care for her and have a plan for her life?

Readers who are looking for a more unusual setting for a Christian read, might find this setting of super models and the fashion industry an interesting change.

ASSESSMENT

Rating (1 to 5)

4 out of 5 stars

Suggested Audience

Adults, particularly women or high school students, again particularly girls

Christian Impact

The theme to this book is God seeing us as we are in Him, loved despite our brokenness.

If you love libraries, you will find them and their “work” everywhere. That being said, Ceil Carey has worked in an elementary school library, a middle school one and is retired from a public library. She has been on the board of her hometown library for many years, leads a book discussion and attends another. She is on the board of ECLA and am currently attempting to start a library in her church.

This review used by permission of Christian Library Journal.

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