book review: redeeming love by francine rivers

reviewing books actually makes me nervous. 

i know what i enjoy and don't enjoy. 

i just don't exactly know how to verbalize it yet. 

because reading to me is an "experience" more than an explanation.

 so please bear with me as i figure this reviewing business out.

on that note, 

i figured i'd start with a book so good it basically sells itself!

"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."

The Plot

angel was sold into prostitution as a child.

she's bitter and gorgeous and surviving by clinging to her hate of men.

michael is the opposite of all the men angel has ever known.

he's good and honest and kind. 

michael follows God's calling and decides to marry and love angel, unconditionally.

angel has other ideas.

what follows is basically the most beautiful love story ever.

What I Think

honestly, this is my favorite book i've ever read.

and i've read it more times than i can count and just keep coming back to it. 

it's honest and brutal and so frustrating at times you just want to shake some sense into angel! 

but the love micheal shows her, 

unconditionally, 

goes beyond all of that.

i don't think you can read this book without crying at some point, 

from sadness or from happiness.

but what makes this book so great, and why i keep rereading it, 

is how it parallels what i believe is God's relationship with mankind. 

more specifically what i have personally experienced in my own relationship with God. 

i think everyone can connect to this story in one way or another.

it's a love story.

it's a story of sin. and redemption. and forgiveness.

it will break your heart.

and it will leave you completely satisfied.

the writing is simple and beautiful. 

the story gets inside your skin in the best way possible. 

and i don't think i've ever recommended this book to someone who didn't love it!

it's a must read.