Review of Katherine’s Arrangement by Blossom Turner

     

Katherine’s Arrangement is about a young girl who decides to enter an arranged marriage with a wealthy man. In exchange, the man will provide for her poor family. But will the two be able to love each other and forgive one another for their mistakes? Or was the marriage a bad decision that might have ruined both of their lives-forever?

I’m going to be honest here that when I started reading this book, I thought it was going to be your typical Christian romance story-which, to be honest, I’m not overly fond of that genre. But as I continued to read the book, I realized that this story was different. And I should have never doubted the author-especially after reading her previous book, Anna’s Secret.

Katherine’s Arrangement is filled with heartache and pain. It emphasizes that marriages aren’t perfect-and they really require patience and love to work. The characters in the book make mistakes, and Josiah and Katherine are blinded by uncertainty, anger, hurt-and ultimately, sin. To be honest, Josiah’s character was hard for me to like. His intentions for marrying Katherine were selfish-even if he did provide for her family. It wasn’t until the end that I really started to like him. I also had a hard time liking Katherine, especially in the beginning. But the more I read, the more she grew on me.

The ending seemed to be a little rushed to me, and I feel like the author threw in unnecessary conflicts to keep it going. But other than that I really did enjoy this book. I both liked and disliked how the author allowed the characters’ sinfulness to shine. While their mistakes made me angry, and just made me want to crawl through the pages and yell at the characters, I understand why the author emphasized their sins. People aren’t perfect and make mistakes. It’s recognizing that sin, feeling remorse for that sin, and being able to forgive others-that’s what really counts.

So I would highly suggest that after reading this review, you go ahead and buy this book as soon as you get the chance. It’s a beautiful story that’s raw and encouraging.

I had received a complimentary copy of this book and was required to give an honest review.