Alex bent down to Sarah. “I want you to go outside and play,” he said quietly. “I want to talk to your mother alone.” He smiled and patted her cheek. He [God] will rescue the poor when they cry to him; he will help the oppressed, who have no one to defend them. He feels pity for the weak and the needy, and he will rescue them. He will save them from oppression and from violence, for their lives are precious to him.”

When Angel experienced rejection and betrayal, was God calling her? What good was He working in her life? Michael takes Angel with him on a trip into Sacramento for supplies and fabric for new clothes. On their return to the valley, they meet the Altman family, who have a broken wheel and are stranded on the side of the road. Michael helps fix their wagon and invites them to stay at their cabin. Angel reveals to Mrs. Altman and her 16 year-old daughter Miriam that she met Michael in a brothel, and is amazed to find that they have only compassion for her instead of contempt. They become close, and Angel takes a liking to Miriam, who begins to fancy Paul, who is living at the other end of the valley. The Altman's move into their own cabin in the valley. How was Sarah/Angel rejected and betrayed? What were her earliest experiences with God and/or the church?Sarah’s smile fell in confusion. They spoke so coldly to one another. Neither looked at her. Had they forgotten she was there? What was wrong? Mama was distraught. Why was Papa so angry about Cleo not being home? Chewing her lip, Sarah looked between them. Stepping closer, she tugged on her father’s coat. “Papa…” Am I a total sap if I admit it reminds me of the song Moonlight? Noooo, not the Barry Manilow version… more like the Jason Castro rendition. :) So for me to quote a sappy love song, you know I was moved by this book! Gah!!! *head desk*

As an adult, you do have to reconcile with the past, both your own and your partner's. You have to recognize that the past shaped the person you're with today, and that's the person you love, so for better or worse things have sort of worked out.In the long list of my problems with this book was also the part where Angel said the purpose of a woman's life is to bear children. Okay, having children if you want them is all great, but are we really implying that women who can't have children, or perhaps end up with men who can't, have meaningless lives? The author doesn't understand men at all. If you think the ideal man is an empty vessel waiting to be filled, then buy a blowup doll and whisper your prayers into it every night until he's full. Then wish for him to be a real boy and see how far that gets you. Angel/Sarah and Michael’s love story was beautiful and I was on the edge of my seat through most of this story. I didn’t know how things would turn out, but by the end I was so happy. This is a clean/inspirational romance and it gave me so many feels and had such an amazing hero and I adored it so much.

Sarah's story is a powerful one. I felt that it often went too far into the descriptions of what she was feeling...thus, instead of giving the facts, it presented images and drew out emotions where bare facts would have been much less sensual. We didn't have to go down into the depths to feel how revolting her life was. We didn't have to spend two chapters on her being sold at the age of eight and raped by a monster, over and over again, over the next number of years. Alex Stafford was just like Mama said. He was tall and dark, and Sarah had never seen anyone so beautiful. Even dressed in dusty riding clothes, his hair damp with perspiration, he was like the princes in the stories Mama read. Sarah’s heart beat with wild joy and pride. None of the other fathers she saw at Mass compared to him.She blinked, frightened and confused by his manner. He was her papa. Mama said so. He even brought her presents every time he came. Mama gave them to her. Maybe he was angry that she had never thanked him. “I want to thank you for the presents you—”

Sarah looked up, distressed. Had she done something wrong? “Can’t I stay? I’ll be very quiet.” Mama couldn’t seem to say more. Her eyes were moist and she looked at Papa. Most important of all, continue to show deep love for each other, for love covers a multitude of sins. Michael and Angel/Sarah were wonderful characters and their love was epic but somewhere around 78 percent the story went pretty preachy for my tastes. Nonetheless the writing was strong and it is a nice story of redemption and spiritual rebirth.

Subscribe to Francine’s Newsletter

The truth that ran through that book [ Redeeming Love], absolutely brought me to my knees. I was a changed person after reading that book.” There is somethig about this Michael character that we are supposed to see as very strong, but to me comes off as the worst kind of weak. His entire purpose in the book, the entire scope of his life, is putting up with a woman who takes a very long time to actually love him. He apparently has nothing in his life and is a simple, empty vessel waiting for the right woman to come along and not only make him complete, but be his Wizard of Oz and give him brains and a heart and whatever the hell else those other losers got. I loved reading about Michael & Angel's love story. There were so many things I wanted to highlight throughout this book. And as she grew up, her beliefs were reinforced time and time again. She lost any hope she had of love and happiness in her life. She’d had to trade those frivolous needs for mere survival. And she knew deep down to the bottom of her soul that those things were not meant for her. Anyway, I thought I would have more to say about Angel, but she's just as empty as Michael. She's empty in a different way in that she seems like a self-contained unit piloting her way through the novel, going whichever way she is steered by the various characters. At least she had a career of sorts so she wasn't totally empty. And I didn't mean that as a hooker pun, but once you start denying hooker puns you've already kind of lost the battle.