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Sarah1984
Aug 03, 2017Sarah1984 rated this title 3 out of 5 stars
What a surprise this book was. I'm a pretty staunch atheist and have been since I was in my teens. I read the first two chapters of the bible when I was about ten simply because it was a 'popular' book and I was interested in finding out for myself what it was all about (I've always been determined to make up my own mind on a topic or book, even when I was a child). All I really remember now is that there were a lot of names that I was constantly getting mixed up and uses of the word 'begat' and even then I was confused how civilisation survived with only one man and one woman as the parents of everyone (are we just supposed to believe that incest was just a fact of life in 'those' days?). I'm more inclined to believe in aliens than an all-powerful being who watches over every single person on the Earth, claiming to love us all no matter what we do, but at the same time lets some people commit the most heinous crimes and lets others suffer through the most terrible things and their only rescue is eventual death. How could a God like the one described in this book allow children to be raped and murdered like happens everyday in every country throughout the world? Anyway, I'm clearly not the target market, which is why I was so surprised by how much I enjoyed it. I had to make a few adjustments in my head while I was reading to make it more believable to me - the 'God' voice and the 'Devil' voice turned into the character's conscience because for me hearing voices is a sign of mental illness, not religious faith. I hadn't heard of the bible story that inspired this book, so didn't make the connection between the two (even after Michael related the original story to Angel/Sarah), but I don't think that impacted on my understanding of the story in any way. I've shelved this as historical fiction, rather than the romance it's marketed as, because I just didn't feel like this was a romance in any sense of the word. There was no chemistry between Michael and Angel/Sarah, and there were no sex scenes. If I had been unable to see an interesting story through the God stuff, this might have ended up as a one star review, but fortunately I was able to just ignore the fact that this was meant to be romantic and enjoyed the story of a woman forced into prostitution and her journey to a better life. Till Paul received his HEA I was giving this four stars, but I just couldn't believe in Sarah's ability to forgive him so easily (another sign that I'm NOT a believer), I wanted some justice for the horrendous way he treated her because of his own failings. An apology on both sides (like she had anything to apologise for!) was not enough for me. The one thing I was disappointed not to see was Sarah and Michael adopting children. Instead of praying a whole lot and then finally becoming pregnant I thought them adopting children who needed a home would have been a much better message to end the book with. I would consider reading another book by Rivers, just not one of her more recent books as I wouldn't be interested in any further religious-themed books.