Month of February 2022: Christian Fiction

My daughter has been on me to read this for a while, and here we are in February. “Redeeming Love” comes out in the movie theaters this month, and we girls are planning a girl’s night out. So, while I’m at it, this month I’ll knock out some of my other Christian fiction books that have been sitting on my shelf for a while now.

This novel is “loosely” based on the story of Hosea (in the Book of Hosea in the Old Testament) who was told by God to go marry a promiscuous woman and have children with her. He chose Gomer. I say “loosely” because this is, afterall, a novel and there are many differences. What is the same, though, is Hosea’s and Michael Hosea’s (from the novel) obedience to God’s words.

Sorry to say, but I found the story, in general, a bit amateurish and literally exhausting! For 3/4’s of the book, you are going back and forth through the minds of the two main characters, Michael Hosea, the strong God-believing farmer (which I wished the author would have developed better) and Angel, the prostitute. Michael is the “perfect” human being throughout the novel, always praying and pleading with God to show him how to love Angel. And Angel, is CONSTANTLY questioning how there’s no way Michael could truly love her because of her past...and on and on, and over and over again, through her head we go. She kept running away from him, for her sake, for his sake, for her new friend’s sake. He kept going after her and bringing her back (if only there were such a man with that kind of perfect love, right?). There was no logic in her constantly running away from such a great man who treated her better than any man before. Once she began to feel comfortable and began trusting him, the next morning she would be gone. Just up and ran away. The story didn’t flow.

The other thing I could not wrap my head around was a biblical type character, such as Michael Hosea, in 1850’s California gold rush days. For me, the two did not mesh well at all. I didn’t feel the characters or time era development was thorough enough.

.The only scene I found half exciting was in Chapter 23: the John Wayne kiss. Angel had run away again and ended up in Sacramento, working at Michael’s friend’s store. She’s miserable every second she was away. Joseph had sent word that Angel was safe and sound. One day she turned around and, of course, there’s big glorious Michael, standing there in the doorway. He shuts the door and turns the door sign to “Closed” and slowly walks up to her and grabs her in his arm and gives her the John Wayne kiss...just what she needed to remember how much she loved him. That was cute.

INTERESTING TIDBIT ON NATURE

P. 310: Michael explains to Angel about God’s creatures. They planted corn and she was mad, driving off the birds for eating the corn. But, he planted plenty for themselves and the birds and explained to her, “They’re the guardians of the land…The swallows, swifts, and hawks guard the air, filling themselves on insects that would otherwise overload it. The woodpeckers, creepers, and chickadees feed on the grubs and beetles that would destroy our trees. The warblers and fly catchers feed on insects that attack the leaves. Grouse and prairie hens eat the grasshopper‘s that would devour our crops.”

I can’t wait for next month’s genre reads: NATURE!

BOOK-TO-MOVIE

“Redeeming Love” (2022), starring Abigail Cowen as Angel, Tom Lewis as Michael Hosea. ( )

Material for compelling screenplay. ( )

Sara is young girl with her mother is dismissed by her lover, Sara's father. Sara's mother becomes a prostitute in order to provide a very meager living for them. When her mother dies when Sara is 8 years old, she is sold to Duke, owner of a brothel by the current boyfriend of Sara's mother. The book follows Sara's path as a child in bondage and prostitute. She is very beautiful. She runs from Duke by ship to California, where she continues as a prostitute in order to support herself. Enter Michael Hosea, a farmer. When he sees her taking her afternoon walk with her bodyguard, God tells him she is the woman for him so he tries to convince her to marry him. That does not happen until she is beaten almost to death by the bodyguard. Michael rescues her, marries her, and nurses her back to health. Michael is a devote Christian who tries to instill a love of God into Amanda (Sara, Angel). His brother-in-law, Paul, knows what Amanda is and tries to get Michael to send her away. Michael refuses. Another family comes into the valley with a daughter named Miriam who becomes a friend of Michael and is in love with Paul, a widower. The book is the story of Michael's efforts and Sara's efforts to come to terms with who she was through no fault of her own, and many people's automatic judgement of prostitutes and former prostitutes (a fallen dove). ( )

Taking place during the gold rush in California, this story follows the lives of a prostitute named Angel and Michael, a farmer, who falls in love with her. He marries her, but she doesn't feel worthy and carries a lot of baggage difficult to let go of. Read to find out their struggles and triumphs. ( )

2.5 stars if rating from my POV.
3.5 stars rated based on author's intent and because women I know IRL who've been through abuse found this healing.

Oh boy. This book gets really glowing reviews and nearly everyone I know who has read it (my book club included) LOVED It.

Right upfront, let me say this: if you come to this book believing you are unworthy or incapable of being loved or you have relationship trauma and abuse in your past:

a) I am sorry; b) you are 100% deserving of love and being loved in a healthy way; and c) if this book helps you work through that even in a small way, that's everything.

I'm coming from a Christian POV, I understand this book is a retelling of Hosea and Gomer, but still - this book irritated me to a high level. At times, I wanted to throw it across the room or quit it. BUT, I stuck it out and about the last 15% of the book redeemed itself when she finally understands what she's capable of and her self-worth. (The romance didn't do it for me--I never bought it.)

For anyone who's interested in the negative, here's what triggered me:

1) I felt that the book conflated sexual sin with sexual trauma and abuse. The Bible / Christians does (or at least should) not do that.

2) I felt like the book placed far too much emphasis on the main character's physical beauty. I get that it's supposed to create contrast between her outer appearance and how she sees herself, but her looks are irrelevant and there's potential for this to 'read' in a way the author doesn't intend and lead to the wrong impression.

3) The 'redeemer' is initially attracted to the main character solely of her appearance and beauty. It would have been interesting if she hadn't been physically attractive.

4) The 'redeemer' character places himself in the position of 'savior' and gets upset when the main character doesn't respond to him in the way he thinks she should (or he deserves). No. No, no, no.

Would recommend, but only with extreme caution and discretion. ( )