This just isn’t a recipe for romance, and later on, he gets her to marry him when she’s desperate and physically vulnerable. He even gets angry when she tries to pawn his company off to fellow prostitute instead of dealing with him. Michael, upon discovering that she’s a prostitute, buys his way in to see her, and tries to convince her to marry him. How is this a sign? She’s just a random, gorgeous woman on the street. As he loads up on supplies in town, he spots Angel making her way through the streets, and instantly looks at this as a sign from God, which is mind-boggling. How does it start? Well, Michael Hosea (Tom Lewis), our male protagonist, prays for a partner to share his life with, someone who likes fishing, if possible. There’s so much darkness in Angel’s story, which sets a nasty gloss over everything that the love story is doomed before it even begins. He renames her Angel (Abigail Cowen) – because he owns her and her body – and she grows up there, before she runs away and, through a series of misfortunes, ends up working the same gig for the Duchess (Famke Janssen). She’s brought to a brothel owned by Duke (Eric Dane), and while nothing is ever explicitly shown on screen, the viewer is aware that Duke’s interest in her harbours ill intent. She becomes ill and dies soon after, leaving Sarah motherless and with nobody to fend for her. Soon, the two of them are cut off from his money, and Mae is forced to sell her body so she can provide for her daughter. There’s also a rather disgusting storyline involving said father later on, but the less said about that the better. Mae is the mistress of the man who fathered her child, and despite setting eyes on his own flesh and blood, the man doesn’t soften and is very upset at the inconvenience.

The story begins with Mae (Nina Dobrev) and her daughter Sarah (Livi Birch), set against the California Gold Rush of 1850.

However, this becomes quite problematic when the sinner in question isn’t really a sinner at all, but a victim of child prostitution, and has been exploited her entire life. It has the same concept as the story of the prodigal son, the idea that no matter how far one has strayed or sinned, God is always there to welcome us back with open arms. The love story is basically an allegory of God’s love for us, with God symbolically representing the male protagonist, while the female protagonist represents the human race. Redeeming Love is the adaptation of Francine Rivers’ Christian romance novel of the same name published in 1992, and is a retelling of the book of Hosea.

Redeeming love book