Redeeming Love by Francine Rivers ~ review

Okay, I've been gone on vacation for awhile and will be back to my normal self ( at home) very soon. Too soon in fact. But I've been reading some awesome books while away and thought that I should post a review. But first my brother has begged me to tell ya'll about the excitement we had this morning. You see, Leo, my brother went out to the barn to get the bridles for the horses (we're visiting my cousins who live on a ranch), and to his shock he found a rattlesnake hissing and rattling at him. To make a long story short he ran back to the camper and called my brave uncle, who came and shot it. Now my brother is begging for a gun...Enough said.

As for what I've been up to the last few days, I've been helping to move out straggler steers out of multiple pastures and put them in the right one. The next few days I'll be working with my mentioned-above-uncle gathering up steers and heifers so the buyers can pick them up. Fun!

I promise I'll be back on Labor Day :) And here's my review.

My Review: Francine Rivers re-tells the Biblical story of Hosea, relocating it to California, 1850, in the middle of a gold rush.

Angel lives her life in a diamond prison, selling her body and soul, buying into a lie. But that all changes when Michael Hosea walks through the door. Angel expects him to treat her like the dozens of men before him, but he proves her wrong at every turn. Slowly her walls start coming down, leaving her with an inescapable sense of shame and feelings of unworthiness. Even Michael, with his tender love cannot save her, it isn't enough. Will Angel turn to the One who has been seeking her all along?

Redeeming Love is a story of love and forgiveness, an allegory of God's love for us and our sorry, sinful state. Amazingly this is the first book I've read by Francine Rivers, and boy, have I been missing out!

The Storytelling was rich and the emotions raw (in a good way). I finished this book in two days, and was utterly captivated. I even stayed up really late on a night I had to get up at 5 a.m.! I just had to keep reading! This book is a masterpiece, there is no other way to put it. Simply, a masterpiece.

I do have to warn you though, that Angel had a very hard life, and some of the elements of her life are mentioned, in a way that gets to the point, but not too graphically. Ms. Rivers only went into as much detail as was necessary to tell the story.

I would highly recommend this book, but to nobody younger than me (I'm a junior in high school). I say that this book is well on it's way to becoming a classic. Gripping, heart-rending, yet filled with hope, Redeeming Love is not a book to be missed.

I own this book and reviewed it because I liked it :)