Redeeming Love: A Novel

This book touched my heart in so many ways. It held up a mirror to my soul and helped me to look at my own life. A self righteous sinner wanting love and understanding while making snap judgements, being irritated by others failings and judging them while thinking I am better than them while covered in filth and still God loves me and washes me clean with such pure love. I am lost and found at the same time. God forgive me and thank you for loving me no matter my many failings. I am Angel and Paul. God bless you all. May this book lead you back to God and I pray that it touches you as it has me. Please listen to that small still voice. He loves you so much. Deserving doesn't even come into it. Amen.

My favorite book of all time! I bought this back in 2017, my first ever Christian romance novel to read. My bank teller was reading it every time I would go in and wrote down the title for me, which I carried around in my wallet for months before finally buying it. OMG! I have never read a book to this day that grabbed me like this one. I not only cried, but sobbed at the end of it! There is nothing like God’s redeeming grace and love He has for us. If you have not read this book, don’t hesitate one second to buy it, you will not regret it, then consider buying the movie. Francine Rivers’ other books are all good too, but this one is just special.

O...M...G! The book Redeeming Love is...indescribable. It's on a shelf all by itself. I never thought I would read a christian love story and say it was one of the best books I ever read, I need smut and alphas mixed with a little emotional angst and then more smut and that is a good book or even a great book to me. RL had zero smut although definitely adult themes such as rape, prostitution, adultery. The hero Michael was godlike with a gentle forgiving heart, no rake-like qualities in sight. There definitely was lots of emotional heartbreaks, by page 40 my chest ached from the huge lump in my throat, I had no idea how I was going to get through the next 430 pages, but the story is so incredible and inspirational that it will stick with me for a long, long time. It was thought provoking, heart wrenching, and deeply moving. The heroine, Angel, went by many names throughout the story depending on her reactions to her life events and trials. Angel has a life that is worse than hell, her father wishes she was aborted, her mother dies at a young age causing Angel to be sold into prostitution at the age of 8. She is so degraded, she rejects God, feels she is an empty shell and wants to die by the age of 18. Enter Michael, a human angel, sent to her by God to give Angel his unconditional love, marry her and show her the way back home. He was so perfect that every time Angel made a stupid decision you wished you could shake some sense into her because Michael loved her so passionately and didn't deserve all the pain Angel caused him. Though it is a religious story and there are a lot of references to the bible I did not feel it was preachy, just tender and beautiful. The last 50 pages did get a little deeper in the religious undertones, but I was okay with it because the moral of the story was so great and uplifting. I can't recommend this book enough, don't let the christian theme turn you off, and this is coming from a person who loves erotica and bodice rippers.

I am a huge fan of romance books. As we all know, most romance books are not necessarily the most appropriate reading material for a Christian. However, I tried reading some Christian romance books before but they had no “grit” to them - there wasn’t much in the way of struggle or conflict, either personally or with others. While they were good books, the “life” in them was too easy, which makes it harder to relate to. This book, wow!! The struggles that many of characters go through are struggles that face us every day. To watch (yes, I said watch as a good book isn’t about reading but is about a story you can see and feel) the story unfold and see God at work and feel the magnitude of his love in those toughest of times and the worst of situations is magnificent. This book is a great reminder that we are not alone (others are going through worse things (we’re all in this together) AND God is always there), we are never too dirty or removed from God that he can’t reach us, God will put us through seasons that we can’t understand and may not like but He has a plan that is better than ours, and not to judge because what you see isn’t always accurate - love each other through Christ. I was crying by the time this book was finished because, as a hopeless romantic, the pure, true love of all parties came shining through; God’s love most of all. Thank you, Francine Rivers, for the wonderful, reminding, story of love, hope, forgiveness, and restoration.

My favourite book for sure. I have in it physically in Portuguese and on my kindle in English

Francine Rivers' intention was to write a REAL love STORY. In other words, not what we want love to be, not what we believe it to be but as God has intended it to be, love as God has shown us in so many ways. And she was inspired by the book of Hosea. I'm usually not fond of love stories because of their falseness. This one though has entered the realm of my favorite books! I couldn't put it down and ended up wanting more so I ordered "A lineage of Grâce". Also a must read! 🥰 What is awesome with these books, is that it revives the desire to read the Bible even more than usual. 🙌🏻🤍

It was a hard book, as I felt all that Angel was going through. But I persevered and so glad I did!!! Amazing book.

Good book! It's a bit dark and too focused on the negative parts and sexual content, but I did like reading Sarah's story and how she came to God!

It took me 10 days to read this book. I had to read it in segments due to some difficult subject matter and the heartbreak endured by both mcs. There's child exploitation, paedophilia, rape and cheating. Massive triggers for most people, especially me. This was not a romance in the typical sense but a love story based on Christian faith, suffering, redemption and the unconditional love, forgiveness and devotion of a truly wonderful man, Michael Hosea....ugh. I felt all your love, excruciating pain, joy, fear and the sacrifice for a woman who didn't know her own worth. Sarah's story is one of the most tragic you'll ever read and my heart broke for her whilst simultaneously wanting to shake some sense into her. She was betrayed by every single person in her life and so broken. I cried quite a bit for her. This book has many spiritual quotes and moments which could be a turn off but I felt moved by them. Sometimes life and the books you read subliminally fuse together and send you messages, this book did that for me. 5 stars, mainly because Michael Hosea.