A Passion Redeemed by Julie Lessman

Julie’s second novel is just as passionate and bold as her first novel (“A Passion Most Pure”). Again, she took risks in portraying real-life characters facing temptation or giving in to sin. While this story stayed within the Christian fiction boundaries on a large scale, there is one scene which may offend some readers’ sensibilities.

On the whole, though, this book is fantastic. Again, Julie's prose shines. She is masterful at creating new phrases, and my copy of her book is filled with sticky notes where I made notes to myself about her writing. (I read as a student, as well as for review and entertainment.)

There are plenty of surprises in this novel, large and small. I could predict some of the larger surprises, but the occasional small surprises were delightful to run into. When you hold this 477-page novel in your hands, you know you’re in for a treat. Julie’s plot kept me turning pages. I never felt uninvolved with the story. She kept the plot moving in interesting ways that were unexpected and made me wonder if she was a seat-of-the-pants writer. (As opposed to one who outlines the entire story before writing.) I wondered if some of the plot elements were a surprise to her as well.

If you enjoy well-written, edgy Christian fiction, you’ll enjoy this story. Julie has again delighted her readers. When I met her face to face in Minneapolis last month at the ACFW conference, she said, “You’ll have to tell me if I redeemed Charity” (the lead female character in the book). Yes, Julie, you certainly did. She not only turned to God with her words, but also with her entire life. This hurting, conniving character learned to let God work out the details of her life.

Great novel. I look forward to Julie’s next offering, book three in her Daughters of Boston series: “A Passion Denied” coming in the spring of 2009.