Redeeming Love Book Review

With the movie version of Redeeming Love coming out this week, I thought it would be a good time to review the book. 

I got this story for Christmas a couple years back from a dear friend, and it took me an insane amount of time to get around to reading it, but once I started, I couldn’t put it down. 

Here’s the blurb: 

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. 

Angel expects nothing from men but betrayal. Sold into prostitution as a child, she survives by keeping her hatred alive. And what she hates most are the men who use her, leaving her empty and dead inside. 

Then she meets Michael Hosea. A man who seeks his Father’s heart in everything, Michael Hosea obeys God’s call to marry Angel and to love her unconditionally. Slowly, day by day, he defies Angel’s every bitter expectation until, despite her resistance her frozen heart begins to thaw. 

But with her unexpected softening come overwhelming feelings of unworthiness and fear. And so Angel runs. Back to the darkness, away from her husband’s pursuing love, terrified of the truth she can no longer deny: Her final healing must come from the One who loves her even more than Michael Hosea does…the One who will never let her go. 

A life-changing story of God’s unconditional, redemptive, all-consuming love.

My thoughts: 

I guess I’ll start the review off with a big old trigger warning—this book is dark. Don’t get me wrong, it’s done in a wonderful way, and even with the very explicit subject matter the author did a fantastic job of not making anything graphic for graphics sake. The book is not trashy at all. But it is dark. I had to back off a few times just because Angel’s bitterness and turmoil were so realistic it was hard to read. 

I don’t read a lot of adult fiction, or Christian fiction for that matter, so when I got hooked on the story it was a nice surprise. Angel is one of the most realistic characters I’ve ever seen in Christian fiction (small as my experience is). I loved that she was written angry and vengeful and petty and all the things, because it felt so real. So often books make the mistake of bringing the redemption arc full circle too soon, and that was not the case with Redeeming Love. I felt like the roller coaster of softening and then building her walls back up fit perfectly. 

I did struggle with Michael a bit. Ok, a lot. I wanted to throw something at his head through most of the book, because for all of his good intentions I felt like he was expecting way too much of Angel and not understanding why this would be so hard for her. But even that was good writing, because again, unlike most men in Christian fiction, he was not perfect. 

So the whole story is both of them working together and against each other to deal with the struggles in their lives, and it just worked really well. 

I did have a hard time with God talking directly to Michael, and maybe that’s just a personal pet peeve of mine, and I probably shouldn’t have expected anything different since this story is a literal retelling of the prophet Hosea’s story, but I just would have preferred there wasn’t direct back and forth communication going on, because it didn’t really fit the 1800s gold mining setting, in my opinion. 

But that’s a very small complaint, and like I said, just personal preference. 

So if all the movie hype has you curious about the book, I’d say it’s well worth the read, and I’m hoping to be able to see the movie soon too. Do you plan to? 

 

On These Black Sands- Book Review

The world needs more pirate books guys. I’m telling ya. I could read a good pirate book all day long…emphasis on good. That’s where this book comes in. 

The Blurb:

An awkward stowaway. A troubled pirate captain. 

Is she the key to his quest or will she be his ruin?

Aoife wants nothing more than to fulfill her duty and serve on the Council. But a spilled secret reveals a deadly truth she never suspected. Plagued by guilt and wanting no part in the Council’s methods, she panics and runs, stowing away on a pirate ship.

Declan doesn’t have time to deal with an irritating stowaway, and this job is already dangerous enough without having her underfoot. With less than a month to bring the enchanted dagger to the rebels, he needs to find a way past the bloodthirsty creatures guarding it.

In a world of secrets and legends, a lost dagger may be the key to saving a nation. But it will take far more than wit and a cutlass to retrieve it. Can an heir and a pirate work together--or will their secrets drown all hope?

My Thoughts: 

Pirates are a fiction topic that can either go really good or really bad, fast. Too much gore and smut is super annoying. None at all is unrealistic. On These Black Sands strikes a really good balance of making the characters rough and lawless, but gives them enough redeemable qualities that we can root for them to win. 

Everyone needs a Declan in their life. And Tommy? Perfection.

I really enjoyed the slow burn, enemies to lovers romance in this. The snark was amazing, as were the secondary characters. And the one bed trope. THE ONE BED TROPE. The world building was fantastic, with some really cool twists I’ve never seen done before, and that cliff hanger ending has me dying for book two. 

Back in Black

*cue Mushu, rising up from the smoke*

I am, in fact, alive.

For the record, I did not mean to go on that hiatus. But. It was 2021. We all know a lot of crazy crap happened. Lots of surprises and curveballs, and things generally not going as planned. That’s my excuse anyway. 

But. I’m hoping you’ll all forgive me and let bygones be bygones. 

This year *knock on wood* I have a strategy, I have content, I have ideas, that will hopefully keep me afloat through the blogging sphere. 

But just in case this is one of those moments where the hero tells the villain “you can’t be good no matter how hard you try. Eventually you’ll go back to your old sinister ways” I’ll let you know right now that Instagram is where I’m active, at @maddiemorrowwrites

You can find all the book gushing, incessant ramblings, and morally gray memes and gif usage there. 

Now, for a brief recap to get everyone up to speed on where I have been for the last year. 

We had a baby! Again. 

Henry, Loraina, and Ellie, looking spiffy for Christmas. 

 Since last I blogged I have scrapped and started a few different stories. A sequel to Red as Blood now has twenty thousand words and a killer aesthetic, if nothing else. 

The Queens Three (formerly known as Mad Hatter) has been roaming the countryside, in and out of agents and publishing houses inboxes. Due to a career change, my agent and I had to part company, but the experience was amazing and very much worth it. I got a lot of encouragement and compliments from the publishers we submitted to, and that was a huge boost to my confidence while preparing to go back into the query trenches. It’s been rather quiet on that front, but that’s actually alright. 

Because I wrote a pirate book. 

A pirate book, might I add, that is first in a duology. Whispers of Smoke and Sea is currently drafted and I’m working like heck to get the revisions done so I can pitch it in this year’s Twitter parties. 

I’ve got book two outlined and ready to start on the first draft as soon as I feel my ducks are in a row with book one. Obviously I’m excited about every book I write and finish, but truly, I’m super excited about this one and feel like it’s my best work thus far. You’ll be hearing a lot more about it in the future, I assure you. 

And last, but not least, the blog and my other social media graphics got a face lift and ventured over to the dark side. I loved my old graphic, and honestly, still do. But my style has just shifted so that the old one would look really lovely with all the mint blue and flowers in my kitchen decor, but really doesn’t mesh at all with the grittier snark filled stories I tend to write. So, a change was due. Do you like it? Does it fit? 

I’d love to hear your thoughts, and what you’ve been up to since I disappeared last!