Review:First, the title is so a propos! I have no Jewish roots, so I was surprised that this story was so compelling. The obvious research necessary to write about the world of European Jews in the 1'660's was fascinating. To think that knowledge, writing during that period was reserved only for men is mind boggling! Here is where we meet young intellectual scribe, Ester, juxtaposed with the aging historian Helen in modern day London. Their male counterparts were the blind aging rabbi and Aron, a ... Read more

Review:Highly recommend this book. Had great reviews so I ordered it and was not disappointed. Couldn't put it down. Very graphic description of life in a Nazi concentration camp. Intriguing idea for a story. Read more

Review:This was an okay book, but it would've been better with more description of what the huts looked like. I was glad there were pictures at the end. Also, it ended quite abruptly and didn't seem really true emotionally. I won't give it away. As I said, it was okay, but not real satisfying. Read more

Review:Not necessarily an easy read, but a worthwhile one - the market is full of WWII books, but not nearly so many WWI books - and not so many that are written quite as well as this one. WHile some of the plot twists and turns are seen so far away as to be visible from 30,000 feet - gee, I wonder if [thing the Lord refuses to do] will direct and tragically affect [lower-class person]? - that doesn't make them any less realistic or interesting. I didn't give the book five stars only because so much of... Read more

Review:A great, well researched historical fiction of the late 1600's in Puritanical Americas and the plight of the Native Americans. You become caught between the two worlds as Mary Rowlandson actually experienced. Read more

Review:More like 3.5 stars.

Like the other Beatriz Williams novels I have read, this one is plot driven. It’s structured like a puzzle. As you read, you slowly assemble different sections of a larger puzzle but don’t see the entire picture until the very end.

It all takes place on a small resort island off New England coast in the years between 1930 and 1970. (The author reveals in the Afterword that the location is modeled on Fisher’s Island. But if you aren’t familiar with that name, th... Read more

Review:If you looking for a clean Christian book don't read this. I don't understand how books like this are put into a Christian category but as I read reviews of so called Christian books I am very grateful to the reviewers that warn about sex and bad language. Read more

Review:Some characters are real and some are fictitious, and they meld together beautifully in this novel. Set in pre-WW1, the writer's thoughts and ideas expressed in the voices of her characters are intelligent and imaginative. A great book for adults. Read more

Review:A wonderful adventure in a historic time of our nation's birth. Thank you, Laura Frantz, once again for sharing your heart. Loved it as I have every other book you've written. Still my favorite author! Read more

Review:I found the quality of the writing disjointed; I was mildly interested for a while, captivated for a bit, then bored, bored bored. I quit reading before I got halfway through the book. I just didn't care about any of the characters, and I was unwilling to keep plodding ahead in the hope that there'd be more interesting glimpses of life in Iran. Read more