{A Reluctant Queen by Joan Wolf}

A Reluctant Queen The Love Story of Esther
by Joan Wolf

Overall
How does one review a fictional account of a real event?

First, I must state that I would have been a lot more leniant with the book had the author stuck to the biblical account a lot more. Although I understand that some creative license is necessary if one wishes to base a story off of a biblical account, I was quite surprised at how much the author deviates from the what we do know about the story of Esther.

Plot
Things left out or changed: Esther's second banquet is dropped, the period of time between "Haman's" decree and its designated fulfillment is greatly shortened, Haman's sons are not hung, and Ahasuerus revokes the decree rather than making one allowing the Jewish people to defend themselves.

Characters
Xerxes / Ahasuerus - for some reason, these ended up as separate characters in this book. I'm not quite sure why the author chose to do this, since I have heard before that most scholars consider these two to be the same person. The bible does not really give us a ton of information on the character of this guy, so one must remember that almost everything to do with this character's personality is fictionalized.

Vashti - In the story, the reason that Vashti refused to come to the king was because it was socially incorrect for any women to be out in public - if this was really true, than it means that Vashti was placed in a lose-lose situation by the king. It also serves to demonstrate once again how only in Christian cultures are women truly free.


Mordecai - Of all the character tweaks / changes that the author made, I really dislike what she did to Mordecai the least. He seemed to be almost conniving, which is not something I have ever picked up from the Bible's (infallible) account.

Esther - Quite a bit more 'perfect' than she is in the Bible - which is very likely one of the reasons that Mordecai does not seem to be the greatest guy. Other than that, she does appear to be fairly accurate to the Bible's depiction.

Haman - Another character change I did not at all care for. In the beginning of the book, he appears to be completely devoted to the king, and in no way devious. In the end of the book, he is going against the kings wishes, behind the kings back, etc, etc.

Warnings
Sadly, there is quite a bit of sexual-type content. Not enough for me to quit reading altogether, but enough that the books rating goes way down in my eyes. More on this in the review at Into the Book (Click here).

Conclusion:
If you chose to read this book, I would highly recommend reading the book of Esther (in the Bible) both before and after.

4 out of 10 Stars. ★★★★☆☆☆☆☆☆ Not for Kids

Peek inside: Click Here

I received A Reluctant Queen as a complimentary gift from Litfuse Publicity Group in exchange for my honest review.