ESTN Library Spotlight

By:  Clarice Grooms/Librarian

BOOK:  Redeeming Love

AUTHOR:  Francine Rivers

The setting of Redeeming Love is California gold county during the 1850's - a time when a women without means would be forced to sell herself for food and shelter.

Sarah is the daughter of a beautiful woman, but is illegitimately born to a wealthy man. Though she is loved by her mother, her father denies her and ultimately stops supporting both Sarah and her mother. In desperation, Sarah's mother turns to prostitution to try to provide for herself and her daughter. When still a child of eight years old, Sarah's mother dies and she is left with her mother's drunken companion who sells her to a wealthy man who in turn prostitutes her. At this point,  Sarah proclaims that God is of no use to her.

Several years later, Sarah escapes prostitution finally by marrying a man named Michael Hosea who truly loves her. But this love is so strange to her and impossible to accept in her mind that she decides to return to prostitution. Much happens meanwhile until Sarah finally understands what love really is and discovers God's unconditional, redemptive, and all-consuming love.

Author, Francine Rivers, gleaned inspiration for this novel from the book of Hosea in the Bible.