TITLE: Bathsheba: Reluctant Beauty
AUTHOR: Angela Elwell Hunt
DATE: August 2015
PUBLISHER: Bethany House
STARS: ***1/2
After sending his army to besiege another king's capital, King David forces himself on Bathsheba, a loyal soldier's wife. When her resulting pregnancy forces the king to murder her husband and add her to his harem, Bathsheba struggles to protect her son while dealing with the effects of a dark prophecy and deadly curse on the king's household.
Combining historical facts with detailed fiction, Angela Hunt paints a realistic portrait of the beautiful woman who struggled to survive the dire results of divine judgment on a king with a divided heart.
This book, while well written, puts a Biblical hero, King David, under a microscope. No rose-colored glasses here; Ms. Hunt’s lens tends to be more in blue-gray shades.
Every Bible scholar is familiar with the story of David’s fall from grace with the beautiful Bathsheba. This story delves deeper into assumptions of intent, guilt and innocence. It is admittedly fictional, and it was the fictional aspects that bothered me the most.
That being said, I did appreciate Ms. Hunt’s descriptions of life in King David’s kingdom in spite of its brutality. The author has obviously researched her topic diligently, and that knowledge shines through her prose.
I wanted to love this book, but perhaps I’m too much of a romantic. Bathsheba: Reluctant Beauty is interesting historical fiction, not a romance. This book earns three and a half stars from me.
The publisher offered me a copy of this book in return for my honest opinion, which I have given.
AUTHOR: Angela Elwell Hunt
DATE: August 2015
PUBLISHER: Bethany House
STARS: ***1/2
After sending his army to besiege another king's capital, King David forces himself on Bathsheba, a loyal soldier's wife. When her resulting pregnancy forces the king to murder her husband and add her to his harem, Bathsheba struggles to protect her son while dealing with the effects of a dark prophecy and deadly curse on the king's household.
Combining historical facts with detailed fiction, Angela Hunt paints a realistic portrait of the beautiful woman who struggled to survive the dire results of divine judgment on a king with a divided heart.
This book, while well written, puts a Biblical hero, King David, under a microscope. No rose-colored glasses here; Ms. Hunt’s lens tends to be more in blue-gray shades.
Every Bible scholar is familiar with the story of David’s fall from grace with the beautiful Bathsheba. This story delves deeper into assumptions of intent, guilt and innocence. It is admittedly fictional, and it was the fictional aspects that bothered me the most.
That being said, I did appreciate Ms. Hunt’s descriptions of life in King David’s kingdom in spite of its brutality. The author has obviously researched her topic diligently, and that knowledge shines through her prose.
I wanted to love this book, but perhaps I’m too much of a romantic. Bathsheba: Reluctant Beauty is interesting historical fiction, not a romance. This book earns three and a half stars from me.
The publisher offered me a copy of this book in return for my honest opinion, which I have given.
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