Redeeming Love Review and a slight tangent on historical fiction

Redeeming Love

by Francine Rivers

 

California's gold country, 1850. A time when men sold their souls for a bag of gold and women sold their bodies for a place to sleep.

Angel expects nothing from men but betrayal. Sold into prostitution as a child she survives by keeping her hatred alive. And what she hates most are the men who use her, leaving her empty and dead inside.

Then she meets Michael Hosea. A man who seeks his Father's heart in everything, Michael obeys God's call to marry Angel and to love her unconditionally. Slowly, day by day, he defies Angel's every bitter expectation, until despite her resistance, her frozen heart begins to thaw.

But with her unexpected softening come overwhelming feelings of unworthiness and fear. And so Angel runs. Back to the darkness, away from her husband's pursuing love, terrified of the truth she no longer can deny: Her final healing must come from the One who loves her even more than Michael does ... the One who will never let her go.


My Review:  10/10

nothing at all like i was expecting. Painful to read, but also one of, if not THE most powerful book I've ever read.  

I don't understand why more Christian books aren't written like this. It's kind of driving me crazy. It seems that people think that for it to be a Christian romance there has to be an element of self-denial (which supples the sexual tension that the whole book feeds off of until the very end when they marry). I hardly ever come across one that goes into life after marriage, unless it's part of a series, and even then the focus is off the first couple; they're married now, so their story is over.

This attitude is not only boring, it's damaging. Being a Christian does not mean that you're perfect and chaste. I generally appreciate less scandal and vulgarity, but these books take it to the extreme.

And why are all the heroines progress, feisty women? Is there not more than one persona that was appealing several hundred years ago? It seems they are all (poorly) modeled after Jane Austin's Eliza Bennet. But even Jane Austin only did it that one time. Her other characters, and even other lovable characters in Pride and Prejudice, were vastly different. Some were arrogant and self centered, some were meek and shy, some had a servant attitude, some were immature. All of them vastly different. Why are all the women in these historical fiction novels so one dimensional?

How wonderful it would be if more love stories were modeled after ones in the Bible. We could really learn a thing or two about how real love really works, about patience, kindness, too. About how love and healing can find any person, no matter how deep they're standing in sin, and how God can make anyone clean.

Redeeming Love was the most beautiful love story I've ever read. While I'm so thankful that I got to experience it, I'm also a little sad because I don't think I'll come across anything quite like it again. Read this and savor every moment of it.