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Arousing Love: A Teen Novel (2009)

by M.H. Strom(Favorite Author)

3.29 of 5 Votes: 3

ISBN

0984827803 (ISBN13: 9780984827800)

languge

English

genre

Romance

publisher

Marstro Press

review 1: Arousing Love by MH Strom is a Christian Romance. It is about young love and the complications of religion and sex. A 16 year old falls madly in love with an 18 year old named Zach, at camp. But Joann's parents were a very Christian family and didn't want to allow her to see him. So they had rules that they couldn't be alone. They snuck behind their backs and ended up getting caught because of a jealous friend telling on them. But they got away with it by Zach bring up his desire to learn more about faith in God. This distracted the parents from the issue and they were more concerned about his faith. There dreams to get married came true after Zach went to college in Wyoming for art. I didn't particularly like the book. I didn't think it would be so wrapped up in the reli... moregious views. I feel like she pushes her beliefs at you through this book. I feel like it all happened too quickly. They met, they fell in love, they wanted to get married. It was unrealistic with the age difference and the quickness that the two teens fell in love. If the parents were so religious I feel like they wouldn't have been okay with the fact that Zach was so much older. The parents that are supposedly very religious, but when they find out that their daughter is seeing a boy 3 years older then her, behind there backs and they don't call the police? Even if Zach brought up his faith the parents wouldn't be that distracted from the fact that their daughter lied to them.
review 2: I was actually pleasantly surprised by this book. Despite the notion that an 18-year-old boy pursues a 15-year-old girl is somewhat frowned upon, the author made it work. The story centers around Zach, who falls in love with a girl over the summer. She's staying at a camping site with her religious family and they develop a sweet little summer romance. As often happens with teenagers, they do of course test boundaries and while some parents will frown upon the content, I very much appreciated the way it was portrayed. One of the issues I often have with reading books involving religion is that it almost always come off as preaching to me. This wasn't the case with "Arousing Love". Sure, we did feel the scolding from Joanna's father as he explained his view, but at the same time we also experience how they're willing to give the boy a chance. I didn't feel like the book was trying to teach me about religion, because if I wanted that, I'd have read something else. But instead, I saw the religious topics as simply being part of the character. As someone who grew up around Jehovah's Witnesses, I could recognize the fact that being religious didn't mean being fanatic. However, the reason this book didn't get five stars was largely due to the ending. I did wish for them to get a happily ever after, but in a way, I just couldn't feel as connected to the ending as I did with the rest of the book. I would recommend this as an easy vacation-read about young love. less

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