Redeeming Love: Fear

The entire section on "Fear" was entirely jaw-dropping! From Michael's amazing rescue of his wife and his eventual forgiveness: "No matter how much it hurts, and no matter how much I feel like hurting you back for what you've done, I'm not going to..." To the entire struggle between Michael and God as he asked, "What could become of a marriage so fouled by sexual betrayal?" To the unfolding of more evil events in Angel's past and how Michael saw Angel through God's eyes: "Lord... Help me. Open my heart and mind so that I will love her as you have loved me."


To the beautiful description of how Angel is slowly falling in love with Michael:


"She felt a quickening inside her, a soft, warm curling in her belly, yet she felt neither threatened nor used."


"His hands fanned the spark inside her until it was a flame, but he didn't quench it. He gave her space and freedom she thought she wanted and let it burn."


To Chapter 21 that heightened up to Angel's growing love for Michael, which brought me to a journey back to those first few months when Edison and I first fell in love. What great writing! To send me to another place and time just by mere use of words: "[T]he lightest touch made her sense spin. His dreams were becoming her dreams."


But the dark contradiction creeping from Angel's past was what kept me gripping onto this novel: "She wanted to crush the new feelings... [Love] grew like ivy, forcing its way into the smallest cracks of her defenses, and eventually it would rip her apart. If she let it. If she didn't kill it now." So when Angel did decide to tell Michael the most evil thing she ever did (up to this point I was thinking, "Seriously, how much more evil can it get?) - my heart was beating so slowly; it was like everything was in slow motion:

Do it, Angel.

She had to do it. Her palms were damp... When [Michael] looked at her, her heart sank.

And when I read it, I didn't think I was ready for it. And it really made me wonder if there would be any man (in real life), who was like Michael. I guess I just have to believe that nothing is impossible in God, huh? Because I don't think an ordinary man could ever take the pain and the horror of Angel's past. But as Angel described the whole story behind the heart-sinking incident, an even more evil force was revealed: Duke! And I was crushed - I was crying in sorrow and anger at the same time...

I literally couldn't put the book down as the following sequence of events unfolded: from another heart-breaking revelation, to Michael walking out... to their tear-jerking conversation of Michael embracing their marriage as a way for God to strengthen him... to Michael renewing his marriage vow... to their "warm and wonderful, exciting and right" act of love... up to the morning after when Michael found out that "Angel was gone."

My jaws literally dropped and silently I was screaming: "Noooooooooooooo!!! This is freakin' good! Omg! I can't wait to start the next section/chapter!!!"

(Jeez! When was the last time I got hooked on a novel like this???)