Redeeming Love by Francine Rivers

Description:

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 Opinion:

I loved the idea of the story and that it was a retelling from the bible, however I very much disliked the way the book was written. I cannot stand third-person omniscient, and the switching between characters without a break to represent the change in person. I kept getting lost, not knowing who said what, so I did a LOT of rereading segments. Which, after a while, gets really tiring.

I also have a hard time believing that people can be as emotional as these characters. Some of the things they said to each other were sweet, but totally and completely ludicrous. Nobody talks like these people! They also were all like mind-readers! They all somehow knew what each other were thinking, and it drew me kind of crazy. The character didn't have to do anything or have any tell for the other character to know something was up. I literally think  that almost everything happened out of convenience.

Another thing I didn't like was how sexual Angel was. Yes, I understand she was a prostitute, but what even? She didn't seem like she wanted out of the business that much to me throughout most of the book. I know that she was supposed to feel inadequate and unworthy of Micheal's affection, so she continued to run away, but what was with all these scenes of her stripping down to nothing for no reason to 'please' Micheal one last time before she left? I felt like the author was trying to force in as many sexual scenes into the book as she could even though they were completely unnecessary. I like romance novels, but the romance has to be for a reason and make sense in the story.

Sorry to say that this book was a bit of a struggle to get through, there were things I liked about the book, but they were little and far between. I just don't feel like their was much depth to the story.

Stars: 2 1/2