Wednesday, April 23, 2014

The Queen's Handmaiden by Tracy Higley


This is the best historical Christian fiction book by Tracy Higley to date! What a lot of historical research went into this. I couldn't put this book down until I read the last precious page.

Lydia is a servant to Cleopatra in Alexandria when the story begins. She soon is passed on to the visiting Herod who wants to take her back to be the personal servant to his bride-to-be. On the way to Jerusalem, they stop in Rome where for a brief time she is the personal servant of Octavia, wife of Marc Antony. This story takes place in the decades immediately before Jesus' birth. An old Jewish man who has been Lydia's mentor entrusts her with some scrolls from the Prophet Daniel that need to be delivered to a certain person in Jerusalem on a certain date. This story has many twists and turns and it makes all the historical figures included much more real than the history books. But the most compelling part of it is Lydia's growing faith, her quest to find out who her parents were and the faith of the followers of the One True God that she meets along the way. I was especially interested in getting a better picture of all the machinations and political intrigue that went on in the Sanhedrin and between the Pharisees and the Saducees, as well as all the manipulations done by the leaders of Egypt, Rome and Judea.

Tracy gives us a little teaser in her remarks at the end that the next book will follow this one chronologically. I can't wait!!!

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