Monday, January 13, 2014

A Passion Redeemed


Author: Julie Lessman

Genre: Romance

Series: Daughters of Boston

Number in series: 2nd

My rating on a 1-10 scale: 9.5

Type: Fiction

Number of pages: 477 (trust me, the pages FLY by!)

Time period: 1920s

Publisher and price: Revell, $14.99

My overall opinion: Wow. Julie knows how to keep her readers on the edges of their seats! I’m about to start book three and am quite persuaded that the whole series is brilliant and I have NO idea how in the world Julie came up with so many fascinating twists and turns – it’s stunning. My apologies…this review is disorganized. So it goes. I feel like the family situation here is going to be super awkward, and wouldn’t actually work in real life – Faith and Charity were both engaged to their sister’s future husbands at one point or another. Yeah. Awkward. Also, a word up – Julie’s books are on the more passionate end of Christian fiction. Save for older readers. Finally, I don’t always really agree with some of the decision and actions made by or done by the characters, even when the book makes them out to be fine – I feel like they are rather less conservative about some things than they should be. However, despite these few problems, I still managed to LOVE this book and come out giving it a 9.5! Obviously the main character is named Charity (SO COOL), and so this book has been on my to-read shelf for years – only now did I finally get to it! On page 466, I was persuaded that there was no way all the loose ends could be tied up by the end – but by page 477, ta-da! The book was finished and somehow, everything WAS resolved! The whole book was fascinating and impossible to put down. The drama is constant. And can I just say…I love Patrick and Marcy’s marriage (they’re Faith and Charity’s parents) and I want my marriage to be like that when I’ve been married as many years as them. All in all? This book had a few things that I wasn’t entirely on board with. But it’s definitely worth my time and I can’t wait to read book 3 later this week!

4 comments:

Julie said...

Ahhhh, Charity(book Charity, not blogger Charity)sure had me grumpy several times while reading her story! In fact I had to message Julie Lessman and let her know how much I wanted to smack Charity! I found that it was a common emotion! But I also found that it made her redemption so much sweeter. It is always amazing to me what God can save us from and that NOBODY is unredeemable. I too love Marcy and Patrick's relationship! I hope that once you finish the Daughters of Boston that you read A Light in the Window which is Marcy and Patrick's love story. It is my favorite :) You also need to read The Winds of Change series which is a continuation of the O'Connor's story. Love all of Julie's books and am really enjoying her new series set in San Francisco!

Julie @ My Favorite Pastime

Julie Lessman said...

LOL, Charity, talk about "the drama is constant" ... that's how I feel reading YOUR reviews, my friend, because they are as passion-packed as my books!! Thank you SO much for reading them, and I'm glad you liked Charity's story despite your reservations. :) I can't WAIT till you read book 5, (book 2 in the Winds of Change), A Heart Revealed, because that is Sean and Emma's story in which Charity plays a HUGE part. I swear, if you don't absolutely LOVE her by then, then I have failed miserably because she is an absolute HOOT in that book, making me laugh in almost every single scene she's in. :)

Thank you AGAIN for such a great review, and I hope you post it on Amazon and elsewhere, and when you are done with all the books and reviews, let me know where you post them so I can give you the points in my contest, okay?

Hugs!!
Julie

Anonymous said...

I've come to like the 1920's since reading the Tintin books and watching the movie. If this book is set during them, and is as good as you say, I will have to read it. Maybe my library has it.

Julie Lessman said...

Hey, Evy ... I hope you come back to read this, my friend, because I wanted to let you know that this is a series best read in order due to a number of big surprises, and A Passion Redeemed is book 2. BUT ... the good news is that book 1, A Passion Most Pure, is available for FREE DOWNLOAD right now, so I hope you check it out. :)

Oh, and this Irish family saga starts in 1916, but it goes all through the 1920s into the early 1930s with six siblings, so you'll get your dose of the '20s, I assure you, especially in the 4th book, A Hope Undaunted. :)
HAPPY READING!!

Hugs,
Julie