| From RomanceJunkies.com Historical
When Faith O’Connor was a young child, a bout of polio left her crippled and had claimed her life of her twin sister. Eighteen-year-old Faith has always felt inferior to her younger sister, the beautiful sixteen-year-old Charity. Deeply religious, Faith has loved handsome Collin McGuire ever since he saved her from the schoolyard bully in fifth grade. Wishing to please God in every aspect of her life, Faith has fought the attraction she has long held for Collin since he has shown himself to be a cocky rogue with an eye for the ladies and a taste for the pubs.
Collin McGuire had always been a handsome charmer and he made sure he took full advantage of his good looks. Never one to be at a loss for female companionship, twenty-one-year-old Collin barely even noticed Faith O’Connor. When he began courting her younger and more beautiful sister, Charity, who was much more outgoing and self-assured than Faith, Collin spoke to her on occasion but had no idea she was in love with him. As time passes, he realizes he has fallen in love with Faith, which causes major problems between the two sisters. Collin has difficulty sorting out his feelings for them, so he decides to sign up to fight overseas in the Great War to see if it will help him straighten out his affections.
While Collin is away at war, things back home in 1916 Boston are just as crazy as before he left. Only now life for Charity and Faith isn’t just about fighting over Collin, it’s also worrying for their father and brother’s safety who are also in harm’s way somewhere in France after being drafted. When their mother, Marcy, decides to return to her native Ireland to care for her mother and grandmother, Faith and Charity also go along. Faith soon begins work at a newspaper in Dublin and quickly becomes attracted to Mitch Dennehy, the department editor who commanded attention whenever he entered a room. Is the handsome Mitch the man who can help Faith forget that Collin ever existed and heal her heart with his love?
A PASSION MOST PURE is the debut novel from author Julie Lessman, but readers would never recognize that fact from the seasoned way Ms. Lessman writes. She has already garnered many writing honors, including ten Romance Writers of America awards. I was truly pulled into the story from the very beginning and was kept engaged throughout the whole book. At almost 500 pages, this book’s sheer size may at first be intimidating for some readers, but the pages will turn so quickly that the end is reached before you even realize it.
While this book is considered to be Christian romance, it isn’t the usual fare of boy-meets-girl, they sweetly fall in love and then live happily ever after. The characters in A PASSION MOST PURE are real people with real feelings and real temptations, and their realistic humanness was much appreciated by this reviewer. Just as in real life, there were moral characters who lived to please God, some were wild and gave into their human desires, while others were people who weren’t sure what they wanted out of life yet. This novel is definitely a passionate one, containing some human passion in a marital relationship, some outside of marriage, but most importantly, a passion for God which is a passion most pure.
Unexpected plot twists, jealousy, faith, passion, romance, pain, and heartache—A PASSION MOST PURE has them all and then some. If you are looking for a fabulous read from an excitingly fresh new inspirational author, then this just may be the one to choose. Charity’s turn at her own story comes September, 2008, in A PASSION REDEEMED, which is Book 2 in THE DAUGHTERS OF BOSTON series. I can’t wait to see how Ms. Lessman continues this storyline.
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