This book was better than I expected it to be. It has been on my TBR list for quite a while, but every time I got close to reading it I would be put off by the fact that it is a retelling of a Bible story. I thought it would be like a new version of Cinderella or some other familiar story -- OK as a movie, but skim-worthy at best as a book. Surprisingly, I was able to push the story of Hosea to the back of mind and enjoy this tale without making frequent comparisons.

Another pleasant surprise was the richness of Rivers' writing. I've only been reading Christian fiction for five years or so, but I've run across a lot of simplistic prose. Like a lot of believers, I tolerated it because I wanted to read something with a Christan slant. This novel shows that a book doesn't have to be written on a 4th-grade level to be "clean".