Unexpected Love: God’s Heart Revealed in Jesus’ Conversations with Women, is a well-written book by Julie Zine Coleman. Though I had not read anything by Ms. Coleman before I selected to receive this one from BookSneeze in exchange for an honest review, I would definitely read more of her work!

The author takes often-misunderstood stories from Scripture and teaches those of us who are reading her book that Jesus was kind, respectful, and generous in nature to women of His day—and to us. This was not a common practice for men in those days, and the passages Ms. Coleman selects to share are often questioned because we tend to view them through modern-day filters.

Ms. Coleman looks at the following women in the Bible and carefully, honestly, and brilliantly sheds a light on Jesus’ interactions with them: Mary (His mother), the hemorrhaging woman, the sinful woman, the Syrophoenician Woman, the Adulterous Woman, Martha, the Samaritan Woman, Salome, and Mary Magdalene. With a strong emphasis on the fact that Jesus us meets us where we are, the author’s thorough research and her ability to clearly tell the stories in an understandable yet intelligent way make this a book worth using as a group or individual study.