Reviews tagging 'Death'

Redeeming Love by Francine Rivers

23 reviews

charitywitt's review against another edition

adventurous challenging emotional hopeful inspiring sad tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

This book was very repetitive I didn't feel it needed to be so long. All in all tho it was a pretty good book.

---

Content Warnings

Moderate: Death, Infertility, Physical abuse, Rape, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Violence, Trafficking, Death of parent, Gaslighting, and Toxic friendship

sav_and_books's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional hopeful inspiring lighthearted reflective sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? N/A
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Emotional abuse, Pedophilia, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Grief, and Sexual harassment

Moderate: Adult/minor relationship, Incest, Infertility, Abortion, and Death of parent

beklovesbooks's review against another edition

Terrible book. Hard to like characters. Soft porn for people deceiving themselves that they’re reading something Biblical.

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Alcoholism, Child abuse, Confinement, Death, Emotional abuse, Fatphobia, Gore, Infidelity, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Sexual assault, Suicidal thoughts, Torture, Violence, Blood, Trafficking, Grief, Death of parent, Murder, Gaslighting, Alcohol, Sexual harassment, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Bullying, Chronic illness, Gore, Rape, Terminal illness, Toxic relationship, Vomit, Medical content, Grief, Religious bigotry, Abortion, Suicide attempt, Pregnancy, Toxic friendship, and Abandonment

sarah_zaffiro's review against another edition

dark emotional slow-paced

• Strong character development? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? No

I know some of the church ladies in these reviews are clutching their pearls over the sexual content - which honestly isn’t even graphic - but I think the only truly offensive thing about this book is the casual racism that (unfortunately) tends to come along with historical Christian novels. The multiple references to the “heathen Indians” is just super problematic and SHOULD be out of place in a story that is otherwise about love & acceptance. I understand we’re reading a story about white people, but Native Americans were literally being slaughtered for land that was rightfully theirs at this time & that’s all the author could say about them. not very Christian, if you ask me. 

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Trafficking, Murder, and Abandonment

Moderate: Adult/minor relationship, Child abuse, Infertility, Pedophilia, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual content, and Sexual violence

Minor: Addiction, Alcoholism, Child death, Death, Incest, Racism, Suicidal thoughts, Abortion, Death of parent, and Fire/Fire injury

mr_d8a's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional funny hopeful inspiring reflective sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

It is a very dark book, but by the end there is hope. 

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Adult/minor relationship, Bullying, Child abuse, Death, Infertility, Infidelity, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, Terminal illness, Torture, Violence, Vomit, Grief, Religious bigotry, Murder, Gaslighting, and Alcohol

Moderate: Confinement, Kidnapping, Medical trauma, Abortion, Suicide attempt, Death of parent, Pregnancy, Toxic friendship, Alcohol, and Classism

Well worth the read, if you can stand the first two-thirds of tense life story.

passionatereader78's review against another edition

adventurous emotional inspiring sad slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

This book covers some tough topics,  but is beautifully written. Get your tissues  ready.

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Death, Infertility, Infidelity, Physical abuse, Rape, Death of parent, and Murder

Moderate: Infidelity, Pedophilia, Kidnapping, Grief, Murder, and Pregnancy

mrs_faith_owens's review against another edition

dark emotional inspiring medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.25

Redeeming Love is a beautiful story mirroring the story of Hosea from the Bible. While it is very dark and deals with several sexual themes, it is less explicit than most romance written today. Two of the themes that I think were handled very well in this book are religious bigotry and the idea that one’s Savior must be God and not another person. Instead of siding with the judgmental churchgoers, this book focuses on the redemptive power of God. When Angel begins to see Michael as her savior, God pulls her away to find Him. All that being said, this is a fantastic book, but take the content warnings seriously. 

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Slavery, and Murder

Moderate: Death, Domestic abuse, Incest, Infertility, Pedophilia, Rape, Sexual content, Suicide, Abortion, Death of parent, and Alcohol

Minor: Infidelity, Pedophilia, Rape, Sexual content, Suicidal thoughts, Religious bigotry, Abortion, and Fire/Fire injury

Also contains: Prostitution: minor and moderate Childbirth: minor and moderate

amhall11's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional hopeful inspiring reflective sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

---

Content Warnings

Moderate: Adult/minor relationship, Child abuse, Emotional abuse, Infertility, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Violence, Trafficking, Abortion, and Suicide attempt

Minor: Alcoholism, Death, Domestic abuse, Miscarriage, Medical trauma, Death of parent, and Murder

kierasreadingjournal's review against another edition

challenging emotional medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.75

“She destroyed his dreams, and he made her wind chimes.”

I’m going to be completely honest here; I have no idea what to think of this book. I always claim I learn something with every book I read… I look between the lines and see the personal lessons that apply to me as a reader. And while I definitely did learn things with this book, I can’t help but think it could have been so much better executed.

I finished this book in six days. It’s almost 500 pages long.

And while this sounds like it would be a positive, I think the majority of that time was spent searching for and trying to understand the deeper meaning that the author obviously intended.

This story is inspired by the story of Hosea – a story where a God-fearing prophet is told to marry a prostitute who continuously attempts to return to her old ways. It’s designed as an allegory of the relationship between God and His people. (I actually binge-read the whole story last night in an attempt to find any similarities I missed). As such, Hosea is intended to be a representation of God and His love in the story as, I initially assumed, Michal Hosea was to be in Redeeming Love.

And while many people, according to reviews, were able to see God’s love shining out through Michael’s character, I couldn’t see much more than a walking red flag until almost halfway through the book.

And while that may have just been my own fault – my own expectations crumbling around me – that caused that section of the book to be unrelatable and frustrating (and not a few times to think that if I wasn’t already a Christian reading this book, I would want nothing to do with Christianity altogether if it was represented as it was in this story), it still stands to reason that others, knowing the inspiration behind this story, would have gone in with those same expectations.

Surprisingly, even after all that’s said and done, this was the book I was needing at the time.

It came at a perfect season in my life, and while yes, it is full of some less-than-agreeable content and ideology, it still made a positive impact on me and my personal journey.

If only for the quote above and the first time she said his name… 

“Michael.”

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism, Child abuse, Confinement, Death, Infidelity, Pedophilia, Sexual violence, Slavery, Suicidal thoughts, Toxic relationship, Violence, Trafficking, Kidnapping, Suicide attempt, Death of parent, Murder, and Sexual harassment

Moderate: Adult/minor relationship, Emotional abuse, Incest, Trafficking, Abortion, and Fire/Fire injury

While most of it isn’t in-detail, I will admit I was SHOCKED at some of the content that was in it — especially for a Christian novel.

readsbynaia's review against another edition

dark emotional inspiring reflective slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

---

Content Warnings

Moderate: Adult/minor relationship, Child abuse, Death, Emotional abuse, Incest, Infertility, Rape, Grief, and Abortion