Luther and Katharina: A Novel of Love and Rebellion by Jody Hedlund
A perfect time of year to read about the founder of the Reformation, Martin Luther, and his lovely bride, Katharina von Bora.
I love historical fiction. I’m not a huge fan of romance novels.
My Review:
This book did not disappoint. There was much more history than romance. The few scenes of romantic love were not embarrassing for me to read. I wouldn’t feel strange letting my 15-year-old daughter read this to get a feel for the historical setting and social times.
I appreciate the awkward relationship that a commoner like Martin Luther felt around the noble-born Katharina von Bora. The author well portrays the hostilities and friction of the peasant class and nobles, especially the German princes. Luther’s contemporaries are brought to life as the reader faces the reality of violence, death, the atrocities of the Catholic Church, nobility, and peasant uprisings.
This era was a time of social and religious turmoil. Interesting to review how Lutheranism played a part in ending feudalism after the Thirty Years’ War.
I love how it all intermingles with the love story of Martin Luther and Katharina von Bora at the center.
It was a shock to her that she had to work after leaving a nun’s life. We follow her dismay at her failed expectations as all her fellow nuns are married off and begin new lives but God has something special in store for her – Martin Luther himself!
I long for an entire book series to fill in the gaps before Martin met Katharina and about their later lives together.
The reader’s guide at the end of the book offers thirteen thought-provoking questions to explore with a reading club or friends and family.
I plan to have my daughter read this book to get a better understanding of Martin Luther as a man as well as the religious and historical figure we know him to be.
About the Book:
She was a nun of noble birth. He, a heretic, a reformer…an outlaw of the Holy Roman Empire.
In the 16th century, nun Katharina von Bora’s fate fell no further than the Abbey. Until she read the writings of Martin Luther.
His sweeping Catholic church reformation—condemning a cloistered life and promoting the goodness of marriage—awakened her desire for everything she’d been forbidden. Including Martin Luther himself.
Despite the fact that the attraction and tension between them is undeniable, Luther holds fast to his convictions and remains isolated, refusing to risk anyone’s life but his own. And Katharina longs for love, but is strong-willed. She clings proudly to her class distinction, pining for nobility over the heart of a reformer. They couldn’t be more different.
But as the world comes tumbling down around them, and with Luther’s threatened life a constant strain, these unlikely allies forge an unexpected bond of understanding, support and love.
Together, they will alter the religious landscape forever.
About the Author:
Jody Hedlund is a CBA best-selling author of ten books. Her first novel, The Preacher’s Bride, won the Reader’s Choice Award as part of the RWA Faith, Hope, and Love contest. Hedlund revels in bringing forgotten historic women to life and can usually be found with a book, a cup of coffee, and a piece of chocolate. She lives in Midland, Michigan, with her husband and five children. Jody comes from a strong Lutheran background, having both a father and uncle as Lutheran ministers. She attended Lutheran middle and high school.
Purchase Luther and Katharina: Available in Hardback, Paperback, or Kindle for only $9.99
400 pages, published by WaterBrook Press.
I received this eBook from Blogging for Books for this review.
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