PUBLISHERS WEEKLY BESTSELLER • ECPABESTSELLER • A Story of Love That Won't Let Go—No Matter What!
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 comes 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.
A powerful retelling of the story of Gomer and Hosea, Redeeming Love is a life-changing story of God’s unconditional, redemptive, all-consuming love.
I really did not like this book at all at first. None of the characters were likable at all which made it hard to even want to get into the story. But having read [a:Francine Rivers|6492|Francine Rivers|http://photo.goodreads.com/authors/1225995933p2/6492.jpg] before I knew that transformation was coming, eventually. And I had it on good authority that this was a good book.
And it mostly is. Rivers is kind of locked into the basic plot since she's novelizing a Bible story. But she does it with some creativity and works it into the time period well. The characters are well developed, but one dimensional. Michael is always good. Even when he gets angry it's a righteous anger. Sarah, who is the only character that has a reason for being one dimensional, is always resistant, always making bad decisions, always full of self-pity - until of course she reaches her transformation and then he's completely good. Paul is the only other character that goes through any sort of change and, again, is completely full of bitterness and hate until he's full of compassion.
The strength of her writing is the way she immerses you in her characters, their emotions resonate in the reader so whatever they are, you understand them well. And when their praying or quoting Scripture or listening to God faith a living thing which is always good to read.
