She’s found the love of her life.
Unfortunately, he loves her sister.
It’s 1916 and war brews on the horizon, a dark thought in the back of all the minds of the citizens of America, but the O’Connor’s refused to allow fear of the future to hold them back. Faith O’Connor finds herself drawn to a man entirely wrong for her, Colin McGuire, a rogue, who is forbidden by her family and shares none of her morals, who is also secretly dating her sister. All the beginnings of a doomed relationship. However, when Colin’s affections shift, it threatens to break apart the peace and comfort of the O’Connor family. When the draft is enacted many of the O’Connor’s loved ones are shipped overseas, and they return to Ireland, longing for the return of men who are fighting for their country. A Passion Most Pure by Julie Lessman, is a delightfully expansive tale that deals with the realities of family, passion, genuine love, morals, and religion.
I don’t know if I have mentioned to you guys that I have been on a serious kick for a little ooey gooey romance, and I have been gobbling these novels up recently. Probably to make up for the months of not reading and then devouring a bunch of classic tales and writing one too many literary analysis, that or I am trying to caramelize my brain with all the sugary sweetness. However, this tale, while a romance was not just sugary sweetness, in fact, it was quite a bit more, frustrating to say the least, and powerful.
Julie Lessman
Julie Lessman writes strong characters, with even stronger morals, the O’Connor’s are devout Catholics who love each other almost as much as they love the Lord. It was so amazing to read a story where the main character, Faith, had morals and refused to sway from them, the Lord was her rock and she lived her life around Him. If you’re not religious and you don’t particularly enjoy reading about religion, then you will probably dislike this novel, although it is appropriate for the time era. Also, if you’re say a Baptist or Protestant or any other branch of the Christian religion, I think you should know Lessman did a very good job of covering, I think, what’s important to us all, without becoming preachy about the semantics, also there are characters who are Protestant as well as Catholic. So we get a lovely mix. There is obviously a definite religious message, but it’s not forced, a little preachy, yes, but heartfelt and lovely.
The main characters faith and others lack of it played a huge role in this novel. I felt Julie Lessman did a fabulous job with this, novels about religion can often get preachy or feel a little convoluted, and I wouldn’t say that wasn’t true for this book, but her characters were genuine and their relationship with the Lord strong. One main plot of the story is Colin’s lack of religious faith and the barrier that represents for him and Faith having a relationship. Lessman did a brilliant job of making Faith’s emotions on the matter clear and realistic as she wavered between her feelings of love for Colin and her deep need to have someone to walk with her in her faith.
This novel was very upsetting and has my emotions in such a freaking jumble that I had to rant to two separate people for twenty solid minutes about it. This book had many things I dislike, 1) a love triangle, 2) a love triangle with siblings (when the boy likes two sisters or girl like two brothers, I don’t mind if two brothers/sisters like the same girl/boy as long as she/he merely likes one) 3) not one, but two love triangles, by the end of the novel it was beginning to look more like a complicated tangled pentagram (possibly missing a few lines but I think you get the point (ahahaha, that was so bad, and I apologize)). Despite all of that and a few other things I enjoyed this novel, at no point did I feel as if the main character was leading men on or trying to steal Colin from her sister. And honestly, their Father’s reaction to the whole complicated thing may have been my favorite thing about the novel, it was hilarious.
“For years he had possessed her dreams, but she’d been the master of those dreams. Now, he possessed her memory, and there was nothing she could do about it.”
Another point of contention for me was I didn’t get to spend enough time with Colin, and man was he an ass, and yet I liked him. Why? you may ask, because he was real, and confused and broken inside, and struggling so hard to fill the void, the hole in his heart left by the death of his father, and his rejection of God. Colin screwed up a lot and quite monumentally sometimes and did a few things I am not often prone to forgive, but Lessman somehow made me like him despite it. Now I will not go so far to say I loved Colin, in fact, if I am honest I wasn’t particularly rooting for Colin in the race for Faith’s affections. But his feelings towards the O’Connor family and affections towards them was genuine and real and so sweet.
In the contest with Colin was Mitch. I freaking loved Mitch, and if I am honest I think he had more of my support than Colin, though I never got too invested based on the synopsis I read of the book, and the outcome I expected, suffice to say the book kept you in suspense about the resolution to the very end. And I mean the very end! Friends came to visit and I had like ten pages left and I nearly cried because I needed to know! I had to know, but I had guests. Let me just say I told them to make themselves comfortable while I continued to read. I am a horrible person. Poor Mitch though, he went through some rollercoasters dealing with the complexities of the O’Connor’s affection towards Colin.
One of my favorite aspects of the novel was the family relationship of the O’Connors, it was very well done, there was tension and bitterness between siblings, but also genuine love between the whole family, they had their problems, but they so clearly loved each other. I was particularly fond of the relationship between Faith’s parents, their love was so genuine and real, and heartfelt, I adored them and the role they set for their family and others. They fought throughout the book and had their problems, but they always resolved it and came back to each other stronger than before.
The backdrop of the war made for an interesting development in the characters as well as the plot and is part of the reason we didn’t get to spend as much time with Colin as I would have liked to get to know him properly. The suspense and fear that the war brought and the emotions it drug up can also not be underestimated, I cried a few tears, I am not ashamed to say. I am always immensely pleased with an author when they get me to react with emotional tears or laughter, both do me just fine.
Parental Rating: 15 and up. Due to sex, but Lessman goes into no details, other than the desire to have sex and the afterword.
General Rating: 3.5 stars, would be for if not for the complexities of the love triangle that you can only begin to understand once you read the novel.
A Passion Most Pure was an intriguing novel, that covered real life emotions and feelings, as a young woman struggles to grow and find genuine love. Please leave your opinion and thoughts on A Passion Most Pure in the comments below. Feel free to ask questions about the novel or offer a differing opinion. If you are interested in thoughtful Christian/Catholic romance novels purchase a copy, here. If you enjoyed this review read my others, here.
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