A Love Surrendered Book Review

Winds of Change Series

Book #3

SUMMARY:  She's hoping to find her first true love.  He's hoping to forget his.  Will her secret come between them?

     Orphaned in Iowa, Annie Kennedy has moved to Boston and is embracing the city life, with a new name and a wide-open future.  When she gets involved with a fast crowd at Ocean Pier - one that included the handsome Steven O'Connor - she is pulled deeper and deeper into a world of rule breakers and mischief makers.  She finds herself drawn to Steven and the whole O'Connor family.  But a secret Annie is keeping has the power to destroy her best-laid plans.

     Will Steven ever see her as more than a sweet country girl who needs protecting?  And will he break her heart when he finds out who she really is?

     With heart-pounding romance, intense family drama, and the emotional twists and turns Julie Lessman fans have come to expect, A Love Surrendered will ignite your senses and inspire your spirit.

REVIEW:  I like the development of Annie's faith and character.  After the death of her father and having to move to Boston to live with an aunt, Annie is at a crossroads with her faith.  Aunt Eleanor is not easy to love with her very strict ways and her hard demeanor, so different from her loving father.  But, after a few bad decisions and an incident with Stephen, Annie chooses to live her life the way God intended and makes prayer and restraint a part of her life.  In doing so, she touches the lives of those around her for good.  Aunt Eleanor also has a change of heart and becomes the loving and guiding parent-figure Annie and Glory both need.  Stephen, convinced at first that Annie was still just a little girl wanting to play at being a woman, realizes God has changed her heart and it's the real deal.  When faced with some very difficult decisions, Annie holds strong to prayer and God's Word, trusting that He would lift her up, and walking the high road.  

     This is the third book in the Winds of Change series and the sixth book about the O'Connor family but it stands well on it's own.  Julie's novels are called Passion with a Purpose with good reason.  Though she doesn't go into detail about the intimate relationships of her characters, the author does show what a biblical marriage can look like and the struggles single people have with the feelings and impulses that are intended for marriage. 

This book was provided by Revell for review without compensation.

Available October 2012 at your favorite bookseller from Revell, a division of Baker Publishing Group.

Julie Lessman is the popular author of A Passion Most Pure, A Passion Redeemed, and A Passion Denied, as well as A Hope Undaunted,  which was one of 2010's Booklist Top Ten Inspirational Fiction winners, and A Hope Revealed.  Lessman has garnered several writing awards, including fourteen Romance Writers of America Awards, and was chosen as the #1 Romance Fiction Author of the Year in the Family Fiction magazine 2012 and 2011 Readers Choice Awards.  She lives in Missouri. You can contact Julie through her website at www.julielessman.com.