Hi y’all! Today I am reviewing a book called Love Riot. It hasn’t actually been released yet, but I got the opportunity to join the launch team and got a free copy ahead of time. But free or not, it was really good–her passion for Jesus is contagious!
The Blurb
Young people are walking away from the church and those still in the church often struggle with indifference about their faith. But it doesn’t have to be this way. It’s time for a revolution, a holy uprising. A riot.
With passion and authenticity, teen author Sara Barratt calls on her generation to reject apathy and embrace a daring, costly faith. Not content with safe religion that demands nothing of us, Sara shows teens how they can stop giving in to the status quo and devote themselves fully to Christ, following him no matter what their friends do or the culture around them does. She challenges them to give everything over–their comfort zones, their time, their loyalties, their pride–and discover that in losing control they are gaining the life that was meant for them all along. Love Riot is a battle cry from one teen to another to embrace a life of wholehearted commitment and relentless abandon for Christ . . . no matter the cost.
My Review
This book has an amazing and powerful message, and more teens need to hear it! As a teen myself, I loved reading Love Riot. Here are a few of the highlights.
- Its chapters are concise and to the point, and illustrated with many inspiring, real-life examples. Even if you are a bit of a begrudging reader when it comes to nonfiction, it will be hard to put this book down. It is very well-written and engaging.
- The author’s voice is not preachy, but instead is truly passionate about Jesus. Unlike some Christian book authors, Sara Barratt is very humble and quick to admit that she is still growing too. That makes her love for Christ incredibly contagious.
- As far as I could see, it is biblically solid and based on truths in Scripture. I was a little nervous when I didn’t see many verse references in the introduction and first chapter (they were more of “calls to action”), but the rest of the book had Bible verses and examples woven all throughout it.
Prepare to be inspired to live with reckless love for God.
The only possibly negative thing I would mention is that I expected this book to be more focused on the theme of love from its title than it turned out to be. But I was not disappointed by the content that I found instead. The author stresses that a radical love for God changes every part of our lives (much like This Changes Everything by Jaquelle Crowe) and from that point on, she covers everything from Bible memorization to the church to evangelism.
From that description, it might sound like a crazy unorganized mess, but it really is refreshing to read about so many parts of the Christian life all summarized into one book. It definitely helped me to get a thorough look at my spiritual life and see what I needed to work on.
Though the book did not focus on the “Love” in “Love Riot” as much as I expected it to, it definitely fulfilled its subtitle: “A Teenage Call to Live with Relentless Abandon for Christ.”
I highly recommend this book to anyone who wants to live with relentless abandon for Christ.
Interested?
The book doesn’t come out until May 5th, but if you preorder it, you get some extra goodies!
- Fourteen video mini sessions from the author herself, introducing each chapter
- The Love Riot Leader’s Guide with in-depth study questions and guidance for small groups
- Two custom hand-lettered Love Riot lock screens
These could be very helpful for studying the book with a friend or small group! (In addition, each chapter has some very helpful “Going Deeper” questions.) =)
How to get the pre-order freebies:
1) Pre-order a copy of the book from your fav book retailer
2) Take your order # info to https://sarabarratt.com/books/love-riot/ and find the “Claim Bonuses” button in the middle of the page. Click on that button and complete the form.
3) Watch your email for info about how to download your bonuses!
What do you think?
Should I do more book reviews in the future? Are you excited for Love Riot to come out? What have you been reading recently?
This book sounds really good! I’ll definitely be adding it to my Goodreads TBR. 😉 And yes, I really enjoyed your review and would love if you did more in the future! 😀
Awesome! Aw, thanks, Bella! =)
We enjoyed reading your book review. Great job! Although we have not read the book, we will provide one of our observations. We have discovered that living “with relentless abandon for Christ” requires a a passionate, authentic love for Him. Without that, the “doing” part of our Christian life will rarely, if ever, be sustainable. Thus, we see a strong relationship with a growing, radical love relationship with Jesus and a life lived out totally and consistently for Him. (Luke 10:27; Romans 8:28; 1 Corinthians 8:3; 1 John 4:19; Revelation 2:2-5, etc.)
Thank you! That is so true. As Christians, our love for God fuels everything we do. =)
Thank you for this review, Eliana! I’m really excited to read that book!! 😀
You’re welcome! I think you’ll enjoy it. =)
I think you did a great job at the book review and it was interesting to hear about the book also. I hope it blesses many young people! I’m certainly interested in reading more reviews if/when you find books you want to write about.
Thank you! I hope it will too. It is already off to a great start. =)
Eliana, I enjoyed reading your review. I am excited to know that a teenager is writing a book challenging her peers to be radical Christians. It is so needed in our church culture.
May Lord bless her book and use it for His glory.
I would like more book reviews and it is good to hear about good books.
Thank you! I agree–this message is very much needed!
Thank you for this review–my mom just ordered a copy of this book for me yesterday, so I was really excited to see that you’d read it and had a review on it! I’ve been thinking about doing a Bible study with some of my friends, and she suggested using this book, which I’d already wanted to read anyway. Would you suggest using “Love Riot” as a Bible study for teen girls?
Yay! =D Yes, I think it would be a great book to study with friends! It would be more of a book study than a Bible study, but it is great because there are five very thought-provoking questions at the end of each chapter. (Actually, more than five per chapter because some of the “questions” are actually two or three closely related questions.) I think you’ll like it!