Anna's Reviews > Redeeming Love

New England 1835
Seven year old Sarah was living in a beautiful cottage in the countryside with her loving mother.
She was a happy child and the only thing that made her heartsick was the absence of her father in her life.
Her mother told her that she was not old enough to meet her father yet.
Every time he would visit, her mother would have the servant take Sarah away from the cottage.

That particular day her mother told her it was time to meet her father. Sarah was ecstatic but her father did not seem happy to meet her.
She was sent outside and Sarah eve dropping through the open window learned that her mama was actually her wealthy, married father's mistress.
Her father wished Sarah had never been born, he did not care about her and was angry that mama had tricked her father into seeing Sarah that day.

Sarah's father did not come back after that day and her mama grew thin, wan and depressed.
When he did show up it was to tell mama that he wanted them out of the cottage.
Mother and daughter ended up in the slams of New York's docks and her mother had to prostitute herself to survive.
That winter mama became ill and died.
Eight year old Sarah was sold into prostitution.

At the age of 18 we find Sarah working in a brothel in a Gold mining town in California.
She was damaged inside. She was bitter, cold and cynical.
She lived for the day having no dreams and hopes and wishing she was dead but having no courage to end her life.
The last ten years were tremendously abominable.
She did not know how to do anything other than prostitution.

Michael Hosea was a farmer and a man of God.
He was lonely and asked God to give him the right woman to love and marry.
One day while in the Gold mining town, he saw a beautiful young woman in black and was enthralled by her.
To his surprise God told him:
"This is the woman l have chosen for you".
Michael had a hard time believing it as the girl was a prostitute at the local brothel.

He'd visited her that night and asked her to go away with him and be his wife.
Sarah thought he was crazy.
He kept coming back over and over. He wasn't like a hundred others who paid and
Played. He wasn't like anyone she had ever known.
She found herself thinking of him at odd times. Sarah didn't want to risk going with Michael Hosea.
He was by far a darker unknown. She rebuffed him over and over.
Frustrated and angry Michael lashed out at God:
"Why do you tell me to marry a harlot? It's not going to work. She doesn't want anything to do with me".

Sarah had been badly beaten by the brothel guard after asking for the gold she'd earned, and suffered many injuries.
Half conscience and delirious, Sarah agreed to marry Michael. He took her to his farm and nursed her.
She'd made it clear to him that she did not want to be there with him. She was just staying because she was injured to leave.

Michael knew Sarah was giving him her body but not her heart and soul and that knowledge was eating up on him. She kept telling him she did not belong there.
Deep down she knew she did not deserve any better than been a prostitute.
She did not know how to love.

She'd run away and got back into being a prostitute. Michael found her and brought her back.
She would leave him two more times.
The last time she had left him, it took 3 years for the two to get back together again.
Each and every time he forgave her transgressions.

Michael and Sarah had a turbulent journey toward love, trust and redemption.
I think Michael was saintly. I am amazed at Michael's patience and perseverance.
He saw her worth and inner beauty right from the start.
Sarah's life was full of unimaginable horrors.
She would eventually find her self worth but it was an uphill self struggle.

The book left me emotionally drained and exhausted as the plot is heart wrenching but at the same time l am glad l read it.
The story is based on, and inspired by the story of Hosea and Gomer from the bible.
This book is not for the faint hearted.