Hello fellow readers! I seriously missed writing about books you guys, and so here I am, giving you four new posts to wrap up the year!

We’ll start with Redeeming Love by Francine Rivers, which our book club read a few months ago, then get into Octavia’s Brood and Children of Virtue and Vengeance before wrapping up the year.

So let’s get to it….

If you’re a Bible reader, you may be familiar with the story of the Prophet Hosea and his wife Gomer. God told Hosea to marry Gomer even though she was “whore”. Gomer kept leaving Hosea to return to her old life, but he kept bringing her back because God told him to.

Redeeming Love is a modern retelling of that story. It is fully emotional and much better than I’d anticipated it to be.

Michael Hosea and Sarah are the two main characters. Sarah has many names throughout the book, some given to her by Michael himself as nicknames since he doesn’t want to use her “street” name. Sarah’s life starts out a little sad but quickly turns tragic. Her mother’s desperation for the married man who fathered Sarah prevents her from fully committing to the love and care for her child which sends Sarah on a journey she almost does not make it back from.

As you know, I don’t like giving you too much so as not to ruin the story. However, just like Gomer, Sarah leaves and is brought back “home” by Michael several times throughout the book. At one point Michael even tells Sarah the story of Hosea and Gomer so that she recognizes what she’s doing to him. The book did make me cry towards the end, which says a lot because despite my inability to hold back tears when I’m watching a show or movie, I don’t cry easily when reading. To date the book that has made me cry the most was The Fault in Our Stars.

I encourage you to pick Redeeming Love up (The Fault in Our Stars too if you haven’t read it yet). Redeeming Love is Christian-friendly, but it does contain adult themes, so not really appropriate for the kiddos. I’m definitely inclined to look into other work by Francine Rivers, and I suggest you do as well.

Happy reading!

Christne