Luther and Katharina by Jody Hedlund

Book reviews are subjective. I tend to rate books not according to how “perfect” they are, seem to be, or are said to be in general but rather to how perfect they are to me. Blogging for Books provided me with a complimentary copy of this book for an honest review.

Luther and Katharina by Jody Hedlund

My rating: 5 of 5 stars

So. It may not be completely fair to anticipate reading a book this much, as the book then has quite the expectations to meet. But when the book meets those expectations, meets them famously, and all the prior anticipation has been proven justified—ah, well, then!

In Luther and Katharina by author Jody Hedlund, the passionate man behind the tumultuous Protestant Reformation, Martin Luther, has numerous enemies to face both without and within the movement he’s roused. He could be captured and burned at the stake any day for his outcry against the abuses of the Church, but even so, one of his greatest fears is that he could fall in love, particularly with one tenacious former nun, Katharina von Bora.

I suspect that I might have felt a little lost when I first jumped into the novel if I hadn’t already been familiar with Luther’s story and this period in the Holy Roman Empire, but I was engrossed from the start. Admittedly, I was just a tad doubtful before I began, as the “Novel of Love and Rebellion” label on this book made it sound as if it might play out too much like a “rebellious, forbidden love affair” kind of romance novel. Fortunately, that wasn’t the case, though I would place the romance here on the steamier side of Christian Fiction. Some of the physical effects that Luther and Katharina have on each other become redundant deep into the novel, but their relationship is well-developed and wonderfully expressed overall.

While the author doesn’t shy away from the ugly aspects of the reformation, moments of endearing interaction between some of the characters and the personal growth of Luther and Katharina give the novel its redemptive quality. I’m sure many more historical ChristFic and romance readers will enjoy every minute of this novel as much as I did.