A Reluctant Queen: The Love Story of Esther by Joan Wolf

A Reluctant Queen: The Love Story of Esther by Joan Wolf


A Reluctant Queen
The Love Story of Esther
Joan Wolf
Biblical Fiction

An inspiring re-imagining of the tale of Esther, a young Jewish woman thrust from a life of obscurity into a life of power, wealth, intrigue . . . and tender love.

See the story of Esther in an entirely new way-with all the political intrigue and tension you remember, but told as a passionate and tender love story between a young man and woman. Misunderstood by many, King Xerxes was a powerful but lonely man. Esther's beauty caught the eye of the young king, but it was her spirit that captured his heart.

Imagine anew the story of Esther, one of our faith's great heroines, destined to play a key role in the history of Christianity. More here.


About Joan:
Joan Wolf was born in New York City but has lived most of her adult life with her husband in Connecticut , where she raised two children and countless numbers of assorted animals. Joan is the author of numerous historical novels including The Road to Avalon which Publishers Weekly lauded as “historical fiction at its finest.”
For more about Joan and her other books, please visithttp://www.joanwolf.com/. 

My thoughts:  
I think it takes a brave soul to write a fictionalized version of a very well-known story.  This book is loosely based on the book of Esther. In the back of the book there is an author’s note that explains her reasoning for this. Basically she reminds the reader that it is a novel and as such she is allowed to bend the story a bit.

I must say that the writing is superb. I was completely drawn in to the storyline, even though it is well known to me. Towards the beginning of the novel there was a point that I felt was inaccurate so I dug my Bible out to check it and sure enough I was right. After that I just decided to read it for what it was, a work of fiction based on the book of Esther.

I enjoyed the way the author fleshed out the characters and made them living and breathing people. Her writing style is fantastic. I also enjoyed her take on the back story of the novel. She told about Ahasuerus’ becoming king and what his early years of reign were like. She filled in the gaps of Esther’s family history. She also added in some new and delightful characters such as a eunuch named Hathach and a ladies maid named Luara.

My advice to any prospective reader would be to skip the book if you are a stickler on Bible stories being retold accurately. But if you can read this as a work of fiction and enjoy seeing God’s hand at work in the life of an ordinary woman who was asked to do extraordinary things, this just may be the book for you.



A review copy of this book was furnished to me by Thomas Nelson Publishers  andLitfuse group in exchange for my honest review of this work.

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