Focusing on one of the most discussed topic of all times - 'Love', the motivational romance novel, 'Redeeming Love', captures the essence and efficacy of unconditional love, exuding its potency to heal wounds and restore dashed expectations.
Sarah has nothing but hate for men. At eight, she learns that she is the product of Stafford's adulterous affair with her mother, Mae. From the start, Sarah's father did not want her; she had even overheard him say that he wished she was aborted. “She should never have been born”, she heard him say. Sarah's mother fights poverty and finally resorts to prostitution to support herself and her girl. She dies and the girl ends up sold into prostitution by her mother's boyfriend. Duke, Sarah's new “owner,” does horrible things to her. No wonder Sarah grows up hating men, herself, and the world.
She was eventually given the name, Angel, and, after having man after man propose to her and profess their undying love to her, only to acquire her services as a prostitute, she has finally learned the truth about men that they don't care about her, just want to use her. Through the hard experience, Sarah learns to mask her emotions and replace them instead with a hard exterior.
Into her life steps Michael Hosea, an upright man offering her marriage and happiness. This is strange and she wonders what kind of man this is. In fact, he must be crazy. Michael comes to the brothel at Pair-a-Dice to see Angel, gives her money but never sleeps with her. Through a series of calamities, not the least of which is Angel's own shame, he succeeds in taking her out of the brothel and out of a lifestyle she detests so much but couldn't change all the while. Angel learns to love and to hope again but is soon overwhelmed by fear, returning to her old life only to be rescued again by the patient and loving Michael. He remains true to Angel throughout the story. Even when his friend does nothing but remind him that Angel is nothing but a whore, Michael thinks otherwise.
One theme that is prominent throughout the book is the difference between genuine love, the sex that goes with it, and sex arising from lust. Angel has been exposed to sex for her whole life, far longer than healthy. By the age of 18, she knows everything there is to know about men. The advice she had been given by Duke, the man who stole her innocence and her ability to trust a man, was "'Love is a trap, Angel. Stick to pleasure. It doesn't require any great commitment”.
The story raises questions on love, patience and endurance. Is it worth the wait? Does it payoff at the end? Michael demonstrates what real love is all about by loving an unlikely woman, marrying her and waiting for her heart and not just sex. It is a story about unconditional love, the kind of love that everyone is looking for; a story of how love can fix everything and remain faithful to the end.
Rivers shines in her ability to weave together spiritual themes and sexual tension in a well-told story, a talent that has propelled her into the spotlight as one of the most popular novelists in the genre of Christian fiction. Alluding to the biblical story of prophet Hosea and Gomer, the prostitute, 'Redeeming Love' is a powerful testimony of how we need to forgive everyone, love the unlovable, and be ambassadors of grace. The book is a reminder that God can heal and restore, and that no matter what ugliness or pain has been in our past, we can find happiness and love once again.

Title: Redeeming Love
Author: Francine Rivers
Publisher: Multnomah Books
Pagination: 480.

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