A look at beauty

Leslie Rhoads is on top of the world. After landing her photo on the cover of a popular magazine, she seems to be on the brink of breaking into the forefront of modeling.
When she is given the opportunity to be the face of a controversial perfume campaign, Leslie heads home to think over the pros and cons. Before she can make her choice though, she is the victim of a terrible attack that leaves her with a horribly scarred face, taking away everything she ever knew. After a lifetime of letting her looks define who she is and how she makes her livelihood, Leslie must decide what she is made of and if there is more to her than just her once pretty face. Can God work such a horrible tragedy into a thing of beauty?
Part mystery, part suspense with, this story appeals in so many different ways. I like that there is a depth to Leslie's journey to finding out who she really is. I also like that the hero of the story is actually a hero, one who has morals and shows his love through actions.
This novel gave me a lot to think of, especially coupled with blog posts going around the internet like this one:
which brings up just what a beauty driven world we live in.
What is beauty? How do you define it? This book made me think a lot about the emphasis that our world puts on a beautiful face, and how it is so different from God's view on what makes us lovely. As a child of God, my focus needs to be firstly on my heart (which I know I need to work on), and then on outward beauty. That the fact that I am a child of God is what makes me beautiful in the long run.