kayathebookworm's reviews
212 reviews

Broke my heart and changed my life forever ❤️

I love seeing the relationship that Hadassah has with God. Fear ruled her her whole life, but in the moment where she should have been most fearful, she was the most free because she was doing God’s will. How Hadassah prays continually (as 1 Thessalonians 5:17 tells us to do) is very inspiring. She is constantly seeking the Lord and His will for her life. She also frequently reminds people with doubt that God works all things for the good of this who love him (Romans 8:28). Her gentleness truly is evident to all (Philippians 4:5) and it is not her outer beauty that people love, because she is described as plain and “homely”, but her inner beauty and the light of Christ within her that attracts many to her. I also loved how the author showed that, though Hadassah sometimes seems as though she is perfect, she struggles with many things: fear, anger, and a physical attraction to Marcus that could lead her to sin. Speaking of Marcus, I think that Francine Rivers designed his character amazingly. He perfectly represents the inner longing that all humans have for more. More of money, fame, alcohol, and sensual desires. Like many of us, he longs for God but doesn’t know it so he tries to fill the God-sized whole inside him with everything the world says might fill it. Then, he falls in love with Hadassah because of her godliness. She is gentle, kind, freely forgives, and tries with everything in her to love unconditionally as Christ has loved us. Marcus sees this love in her and craves it desperately though he doesn’t know that it can’t be found in loving her and is not of her but is Christ alone.
Overall, this is a beautifully written story that can be sad, thrilling, romantic, and many other things. It will send you all over the place emotionally and leave you on the edge of your seat. I am rating it 4.25 stars.

God bless.

My original review as shown below was quite the raving one. I absolutely loved this book. Looking back now, though, I can definitely see some issues with it. I’m going to update my rating to 4 stars for now but I’m hoping to reread this one sometime soon to see how my opinion has changed :).
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Redeeming Love by Francine Rivers has taught me many things.
Here is a brief list. The book showed me:

- how much God truly loves us
- how to love difficult people well
- how to be the hands and feet of Jesus
- how to understand that sometimes people hurt others because they themselves have been deeply wounded
- how the evil one works in our minds

... and so much more.

My only warning is to be careful if you are an emotional person like myself; I felt that I could not properly function while reading this book.

I pray that God would bless you and allow you to comprehend how He loves you more than you can imagine; if you want to know more about that love... read this book :).

I am giving this book 3.5 stars because at this time in my life, I know who Jesus is and I want MORE of Him. For those of you who also feel this way, I recommend Anne’s book, My Heart’s Cry, which applies more to people who have a personal relationship with Jesus and are longing for more of Him.

3.75 stars

Yes, I know I am VERY late to reading these books. This first book in the TATBILB series was good but just not great. I just wasn’t really feeling it, ya’know? Until the end, I felt like it was missing some sort of spark. The only things that pushed me through was how easy it was to read — the writing flows really well — and how much I love Noah Centineo as Peter in the movies (I haven’t actually seen them but I’ve watched lots of clips). I even contemplated not finishing the series at all but once I got to the ending I knew I’d have to…

3.5 stars


Spice: none (but mentions of other people doing it)
Language: 2.5/5 (frequent uses of sh** and some f-bombs)