A Passion Redeemed by Julie Lessman

From Amazon.com:
From the Back Cover
No man can resist her charms. Or so she thought. Charity O’Connor is a woman who gets what she wants. Her stunning beauty and flirtatious ways have always succeeded with men. Until Mitch Dennehy, that is. Brilliant and dangerously handsome, Mitch is a no-nonsense newspaperman who wants nothing to do with her. Charity burned him once, destroying his engagement to the only woman he ever truly loved. He won’t play with matches again. But Charity has a plan to turn up the heat, hoping to ignite the heart of the man she loves. And she always gets what she wants–one way or another. Or does she? Will her best-laid schemes win his love? Or will her seductive ways drive him away forever? Book 2 in the Daughters of Boston series, A Passion Redeemed will captivate your heart and stir your soul with a story of faith and redemption rising from the ashes of temptation, desire, and shame. Praise for the first book in the series: “Full of romance, humor, rivalry, and betrayal, A Passion Most Pure will captivate readers from the first page.” –Historical Novels Review “Superb! Incredible! I loved Julie Lessman’s A Passion Most Pure from the second I picked it up until the very last moment I stopped reading.” –Armchair Interviews “I devoured this book and loved every single page. . . . This is a thick, juicy read, and one I would pick up again in a heartbeat.” –christianreviewofbooks.com Julie Lessman is the author of A Passion Most Pure and the recipient of ten Romance Writers of America awards. She resides in Missouri with her family.

I loved this book! I’m afraid my review is based upon memory since I finished reading this book weeks ago, before I temporarily shut my blog down due to a self-imposed writing deadline!

Charity O’Connor is used to getting what she wants. Beautiful, flirtateous, and somewhat self-centered, she gets angry when a man doesn’t fall for her feminine charms. When she falls for Mitch, her sister’s former fiance, she feels she’s finally found a man that she wants to spend her life with, however, her lies and deceitful ways are a big turn-off for Mitch since he’s a Christian. However, as Mitch gets to know Charity, he discovers a woman who has been tormented by an early childhood experience that fuels her current, somewhat destructive behavior. Mitch doesn’t know if things can work between him and Charity since she doesn’t share his deep faith in the Lord. However, a traumatic event forces Charity to take a good hard look at her life and her actions, makes her think about how her behavior has affected others, and makes her take a deep hard look at her own faith.

This book was full of lust, passion, and real feelings. There was also a very deep inspirational message. This is the second book in the Daughters Of Boston Series, and as I’d mentioned before, YOU NEED TO READ THE BOOKS IN ORDER. I didn’t read them in order because I “discovered” this author when the third book was released and I read it for a blog tour. All three books are exceptional reads and I highly encourage all of you to check out Julie’s books if you haven’t already done so. Here are the books, listed in order:

I thought the author did an awesome job with the setting. A large portion of A Passion Redeemed takes place in Ireland! She used elements that made me feel that I was in another place and time!

I’m going off on a tangent here and I’m going to talk about Irish food for a minute. While I was reading this book, I noticed that Julie mentioned several Irish dishes. I wondered about these dishes and so I looked them up online and found some recipes. If you’ve ever tried these dishes, leave a comment and let me know if you liked them. Here are the dishes that I was curious about when reading Julie’s book:

Coddle – this was a ham, sausage and potato casserole
Apple Duff – this looks like it’s similiar to apple pie.
Crubeens – Pig’s feet!!! I haven’t had pig’s feet since I was a kid! I know people eat these, though, but I don’t care for pig’s feet!

If you’ve been reading this blog long enough, and if you’ve read my writing, you know that I like to talk about food. I doubt I’d try the crubeens….pig’s feet? Not my favorite, but I would be interested in trying the Coddle and Apple Duff!

~Cecelia Dowdy~