love biblical fiction! I think it is the perfect way to get someone who has never picked up a bible, interested in the stories that the bible holds.
Sarai, by author Jill Eileen Smith is the type of book that does just that,
The first book in the Wives of the Patriarchs, Smith has taken the story of Abram and Sarai and filled in all those missing pieces that makes these biblical characters real and vibrant.
I love how she stuck close to scripture yet was able to use her imagination just enough to fill in those "what if's",
Abram has taken Sarai his halfsister to be his bride, She asks one thing of him to promise never to take another wife as long as she lives, In return, she also makes a promise to her father to give Abram a son and heir, But as the years go by, it becomes quite clear that Sarai will never have a child, When Abram assures her that Adonai has promised him a son, Sarai struggles with belief and makes a mistake that will cost her dearly,
This story follows Abram and Sarai from the land of Ur to the land of Canaan, right up until God changes their names to Abraham and Sarah.
Even though I knew the story, I was very intrigued and couldn't put the book down because the author did a tremendous job of bringing the characters alive and she did her research, which made the reading all the more enjoyable.
Captivating and entertaining, you will want to pick up this book! I give itout ofstars! Jill Eileen Smith wowed readers with her Wife of David series in which she explored the lives of Michal, Abigail and Bathsheba.
Now she is embarking on a new series called the Wives of the Patriarchs that promises to be just as exciting and engaging,
I was so excited to receive a review copy of this book, When I was first introduced to this author it was through the book Bathsheba, which I devoured with great excitement, I expected great things with this book and was not disappointed in the least, In fact her Wife of David series hooked me on biblical fiction as it causes the reader to revisit the biblical accounts and to look deeper than the surface, realizing that these are more than just historical accounts, or stories of legends they are the actual accounts of living, breathing people who impacted their world and continue, years later to impact our world.
Sarai follows the life of Sarah and Abraham and offers a new look at a very well known bible story, My perspective of this woman and her life is forever changed, This book drove me into deeper study of the biblical account of this woman's journey and her story,
A beautiful woman admired by many, Sarai loved her half brother Abram and that love was returned, However, she demanded a promise of her future husband that her father thought was too much she demanded that he promise to have only one wife, In return her father made her promise that she provide Abram with a son and if she could not fulfill her promise that she would release him from the promise she had demanded.
In her human pride Sarai accepted thinking the promise demanded of her was easy to complete, Little did she know that God had a plan much greater than Sarai one that included her learning that in her own strength nothing could be accomplished and that she did not control the events of life.
Old but still a beauty to be reckoned with Sarai can scarce stand the pitiful looks she receives from Lot's young wife who was always bearing another child.
She wilted under Meleh's scornful tone and fought the urge not to bend to Maleh's request that Sarai offer sacrifice to the false gods for favor, The weight of her own rash and prideful promise weighs on her heart and soul as she struggles to understand the God of Abram and to believe in Abram's love Sarai becomes restless to fulfill her promise.
When Abram is called to leave his family and to travel to a place God will show this couple embarks on a journey that will forever change their lives.
This journey will test their faith in the spoken promises of God as well as their knowledge of Him, it will test their love for God and each other, and will drive them into an ever deepening knowledge of who God really is.
Sarai will come face to face with a great and faithful God who outshines any manmade god, who upholds the weak, leads His children and always, always keeps His promises.
I believe that she ultimately learns that we do not have any thing to promise any other nor do we have the ability to keep any promise we make other than through God and Him living in us.
This book is a rich tapestry of the full range of human emotion and frailty and the God who brings all imperfection into a beautiful work of art that screams His glory.
If you have ever struggled with your faith, wavered between the things of this world and the things that are unseen in God find inspiration in Sarai as she too walks this road and in the end discovers the One True God.
If your faith has been tested and the promises of God have grown dim in your sight if you have doubted that He will in fact answer take courage and see the example in this story of just how faithful God is.
Jill Eileen Smith I must give it up to you, This is your talent opening God's word and bringing life to stories that we often do not give enough thought to, You cause readers to stop and really think about these people in a new light bringing life to the characters and a depth that we often do not allow ourselves the luxury to explore when reading the stories in the bible.
Thanks to Revell for this review copy,
Available Marchat your favorite bookseller from Revell, a division of Baker Publishing Group I hate to be mean on these books about influential women of the Bible, but this is the second book by Ms.
Smith I have read and it did not capture my interest either, The characters were great, but they just didn't work for me as a story, This is supposed to be about Sarai/Sarah but it seems like she took a backseat to Abram/Abraham and what he was promised from on High, Melah and her selfish ways, and even Hagar to an extent.
To me there was very little about Sarai and what there was seemed like it was forced to make the story because it was supposed to be about Sarai.
Just didn't work for me,
I am going to be nice and give this a, rounded up from,because of the above. I do have another of Ms, Smith's books at home and hope thatrd time is a charm, This novel brought the Old Testament to life for me, Once again Jill Eileen Smith has given me a greater appreciation for the scriptures, I knew from reading the Old Testament that Sarai was bitter and jealous of Hagar when she felt like she had to give Abram her maidservant at the time she believed she was no longer physically capable of bearing children.
This story shows how difficult it was for her, and for me it created a greater empathy for her plight because I better understood her pain, The culture in her day placed such importance on child bearing, and to have everyone around you bearing children had to be really hard, The scenario shown by the author was a great illustration of how taking matters into your own hands often makes things ten times worse than just trusting God, I pitied Hagar and her situation more than ever once I saw her suffering through the character in the story, I love how the author does this with each novel,
When it came to the whole situation with Abram telling Pharaoh that Sarai was his sister, I always understood the story in part, but this novel gave backing to the many fears that Abram had for his deception by showing the reasons he said those things.
I never understood how deeply it must have hurt Sarai not to be treated as his wife for so long and to be neglected in many ways by her husband in the name of protection.
I could see how this was selfish on Abram's part and at one point I laughed when Sarai asked Abram if he cared if she died and implied he was only worried about his own neck.
So while the novel shows the struggles Abram, Sarai, and Hagar had, it also showed their faith,
I enjoyed the subplot with Lot as well and his family drama, All in all this was an engaging read, I didn't see any inconsistencies with Scripture and feel like the author did a great job filling in the blanks to bring about a clearer picture of the past.
Well done! While this part of the Old Testament is fascinating, this novel didn't capture my interest fully, I first read this book in paperback format from the library in, but they only had the first two books of the series in paperback, so I wasn't able to finish the series back then.
Now, I've found that the library does have ebook editions of all three books of the series through Hoopla, so I decided to reread this book because I wanted to finally finish the series and my memory isn't good enough to jump back into a series after six years.
Then, when trying to do this review, I realized that I had accidentally the book as a kindle edition rather than as a regular ebook edition, and when trying to switch it over to the correct edition, it switched the review of the paperback I did into the ebook edition as opposed to switching my current review from the kindle edition to the ebook edition, which is what I intended.
Anyhow, that's why I had to delete the review fromto get this review straightened out,
This first book of the Wives of the Patriarchs series was a well written and interesting Biblical fiction novel about Sarai/Sarah and Abram/Abraham from the time they leave Ur, as God called Abram to do, up through the time of Isaac's birth.
Appropriately, this novel was slowpaced and emotional I enjoyed this novel and am glad that I read it again, Sarai A Great Biblical Read!
This book tells the Biblical story of Abram and Sarai, If you are a believer and a follower of Christ you will know that this book follows very closely to the writings of Moses, I found this to be a great fictional read, I was so caught up and absorbed in this book that I didnt want to put it down, I picked it up and read it every chance I got,
The author did an awesome job with the dialogue between characters, I felt like I was right there traveling with them on their journey and listening in on their conversations, I experienced their joys, sadness, anger, frustrations, and their hope,
Jill Eileen Smith is a new author to me and Sarai is the very first book Ive read of hers, It wont be the last, I have the Wives of King David series on my TBR list, I am eagerly looking forward to reading these books and the next book in the Wives of the Patriarchs series,
I received this book from the publisher in exchange for a review,
I was not required to give a positive review, but solely to express my own thoughts and opinions of this book, which I have done,
For a book supposedly about Sarai/Sarah, she didn't get as much page time as she should have, There was a lot from Abram/Abraham's, Hagar's, and even Lot's wife's POV, I honestly wish the novel had been about Hagar instead, Or at least that Sarai hadn't been so supremely unlikable, :P Overall, probably my least favorite book from this author so far, I have never read Biblical fiction books quite as engrossing as the books that I have read by Jill Eileen Smith, Her series on the wives of King David was just riveting and now she has started off with the Wives of the Patriarchs and who better to start off with than Sarai, wife to Abraham.
She has done it again by sweeping me away to the past and thrusting me in the middle of the scenario that Sarai lived in, Jill has a gift for recreating the setting and times of that era in such a way that you would think she had lived at that time herself, which would of course be impossible but I would believe it.
I honestly don't know how she does her research but I will just sit back and enjoy her bringing the Old Testament to life for me as I eagerly anticipate her next book in this new series.
I've read several of Smith's books and while I loved the first few I stopped reading "Michal" partway through and was very disappointed with this one's ending, The story itself is wonderfully imaginative and I liked the speculation throughout, At the very end, however, after all this intricate story and sharing of Sarai's heartache of infertility we basically get: a year later Isaac was born, Abraham was happy, the end.
Gahhh! Really No description of how she felt when she figured out she was pregnant Abraham's response to this amazing miracle Nope, just, . . Adonai visited, Sarah laughed, Isaac was born, the end, I was very much looking forward to finding out how Sarah felt, how the news was received in their camp, how her birth went, etc, . . all details we discovered with the other women, Hagar especially, .