Wednesday, February 21, 2018

A Passionate Hope

(Daughters of the Promised Land #4) 

Paperback, hardcover, ebook, audiobook

February 6, 2018


  • Paperback: 368 pages
  • Publisher: Revell 
  • ISBN-13: 978-0800720377

Hannah and her husband, Elkanah, share a deep and abiding love, for each other, for their God, and for his tabernacle at Shiloh. Greatly disturbed by the corruption of the priests, they long for restoration and pray for a deliverer. But nothing changes as the years pass. Years that also reveal Hannah to be barren.

Pressured by his family to take another wife, Elkanah marries Peninnah, who quickly begins to bear children. Disgraced and taunted by her husband's new wife, Hannah turns again to prayers that seem doomed to go unanswered. Do her devotion and kindness in the face of Peninnah's cruelty count for nothing? Why does God remain silent and indifferent to her pleas?

Travel back to the dusty streets of Shiloh with an expert guide as Jill Eileen Smith brings to life a beloved story of hope, patience, and deliverance that shows that even the most broken of relationships can be restored.

My thoughts:  A PASSIONATE HOPE is the latest book by acclained, award-winning author Jill Eileen Smith and fans of biblical fiction will devour this latest offering which the story of Hannah, the mother of Samuel. 

I am not a huge fan of biblical fiction, as it is just that, fiction, and as a reader I am not sure what is actually true and what is made up.  Is Hannah's husband really the brother of her best friend? Was Hannah's sister-wife truly not a hateful person but only being that way to Hannah because her mother and mother-in-law told her to be? I don't know. There is a lot of speculation in here, I think, and also some truths because we do know the priests (Eli's sons) were corrupt.  We also know Hannah gave her son to God, to the temple, to Eli to raise. 

I'm sure Ms. Smith did her research and I am not doubting that. I am also sure that biblical fiction fans will love this story as (as far as I know) there aren't any other books out there about Hannah. The authors are delving out of the tried and true and into the known but not so common, and that is probably a good thing.

Ms. Smith is a stellar writer and the story is engaging. If you like biblical fiction read A PASSIONATE HOPE about Hannah and watch her as she grows from a young virgin to a first-wife watching her husband marry another woman to a mother giving up her child to God -- 

Hannah is definitely a woman of courage, of strength, and of honor.

I was given a copy free. All opinions are my own.

1 comment:

Marilyn R. said...

Jill Eileen Smith is a new Biblical Fiction author to this reader.

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