I’ll be starting strong with Redeeming Love. Anyone who knows anything about Christian fiction knows this book and the author. While this book draws up some controversy, it features a girl, Angel, sold into prostitution as a child. She remains a prostitute until a farmer, Michael, falls in love with her, pays for her freedom, and marries her. It’s a Hosea and Gomer retelling set in 1850s California during the peak of the gold rush.
I read this book about 5 years ago when I was just getting into Christian fiction. While Redeeming Love is a retelling of the Hosea, it gives hope to those who have been assaulted and their dignity peddled without their consent. God can redeem their lost hearts and give them families and communities to those who feel alone.
This was my first Francine Rivers book. It features Dinah, a beautiful Christian woman engaged to the love of her life and living happily till she gets assaulted one night. The pain of the assault is worsened because she gets pregnant for her rapist. While this book focuses heavily on the sanctity of life, even if those foetuses born from the sin of rape, it gives hope to those women forced to become mothers after being assaulted. It seems like double jeopardy and a punishment for a crime you didn’t ask for, but that child is not a mistake. God has a plan for the child and will work all things out for good if you trust Him.
Defiled and abused by her pastor at church, Mary Ann Uwanna’s story tells a story of choices and redemption. Orphaned at 16, with 3 brothers to care for, Mary feels she has no choice but to give in to the demands of her depraved pastor to be his mistress. She remains his mistress for close to a decade, and this pastor expertly manipulates her life, so she remains in his bondage.
It isn’t until she falls in love that she finds the strength and motivation to step out from under his domination. No child deserves to be placed in a position where they have to choose between their dignity and doing what is right and surviving. While Mary made a wrong choice, God was merciful to her and redeemed her from the mess her choice put her in. It doesn’t matter if you’ve made a choice that put you in a similar predicament, God is able to redeem and restore once you turn to Him, admit your mistake, repent, and trust Him to lead and help you.
Love Me Again is a drama-packed story with a strong message of salvation, even to those who are Muslims. Tahira is a devout Muslim woman who gets caught in a terrorist attack while giving alms. She is not only raped by a militant, she contracts HIV from him, is impregnated and has an injury that leaves her with one leg. Yeah, that’s a lot. Did I forget to add that she loses her memory temporarily? Yeah. While it makes for an emotionally gripping story, it is a story of redemption and salvation and shows the power of God to work miracles. This story is particularly intriguing because it navigates the tumultuous path to dealing with a pregnancy borne from rape as a married woman. This one is a difficult topic, a hard pill to swallow, and it might be easy to say the message of this book is easier said than done, but I’d like to believe it’s the heart of the Father. The message of beauty for ashes is pronounced in this book, and if there’s anyone needing to hear a message like that and a reminder that God can bring beauty from ashes, this is the book I’d recommend.
Similar to Love Me Again, When The Past Came Visiting features Feyisara, another married woman who gets raped and pregnant for her rapist. Only this time, the rapist is someone she knows and trusts and who takes advantage of her husband’s absence. Feyisara hates Eneyi, the child produced from the rape, so much that Eneyi prays to die so she can be with her late grandma who cared for her. When the Past Came Visiting shows the pain and strain such an incident can cause on a happy family and offers encouragement and strength to the men whose partners go through such harrowing experiences.
My Grumpy Editor is on the lighter side, dealing with sexual harassment in the workplace. It features Abi, who is hired at her dream job, but the catch is that the hiring manager assumed she was another candidate with more experience. The knowledge of this fills her with guilt, and when she is harassed by a male colleague, she feels ashamed and is afraid to voice out. This book examines the shame culture and stigmatisation faced by women who are harassed or assaulted. A few other female colleagues at Abi’s workplace had been harassed too by the same person, but no one wants to be the one to tell HR because then the entire office would know what happened, and no one wants to be branded as the one who told or the one who was harassed. I could go on and on about the shame culture, but I’d rather just stick to my JD and point out the takeaway from this book—courage. My Grumpy Editor encourages women to be bold and courageous to speak up and speak out against such actions because silence is an enabler.
Broken is a contemporary Hosea and Gomer retelling featuring a sex addict whose addiction stemmed from being assaulted continuously by her favourite uncle. Similar to Redeeming Love, Broken highlights the power of God to redeem, restore, and reform women broken by the sexual sins committed against them.
Sapphire Ice features three sisters from different fathers born to a drug addict mother. The eldest sister, Robin, is assaulted by one of her mother’s boyfriends. This and having to step up to take care of her sisters and give them a life different from the one they had as children hardens her heart against men and God. This book shows that the sexually assaulted can learn to trust people and God again.
This book is an honourable mention because I couldn’t finish reading past the first five chapters. The reading app I was reading this on closed down, but based on what I’d read, it features Lola, a Christian woman who was assaulted. After her assault, she helps other assault victims, and the story gets a little interesting when a male friend from church falls in love with Lola, only to find out she’s already engaged. I hope to finish this someday soon.
This was the first ever Christian romance novel I read. While sexual assault is not a major theme in the book, it rears its head when a wife, Stacey, is almost assaulted and her husband assumes she was having an affair with the man who assaulted her. Yup, the worst form of miscommunication. This assumption threatened their marriage and caused them to live apart for a while. This story makes me wonder how many women have been distrusted and accused by their spouses when they were victims.
I hope you check out these books and drop your recommendations in the comments. If you know anyone in any of the situations described above and you feel led to bless them with any of these books, please, go ahead. I’ll pray along with you that they find healing and restoration.
Watch out for my next post, where I’ll be having a rich conversation on sexual brokenness
