Title: Lo, How a Rose
Author: Faith Blum
Series: Tales of the East, book 2 (can be a stand-alone)
Major Themes: Biblical Fiction, Historical Fiction
Synopsis: When a mistreated slave runs away and the village priest goes after him, can either of them survive in the desert—and what will happen when they meet?
Trust and Obey was the first book I read in Faith Blum’s Tales of the East series. Later, I signed up for the Haven of Rest (book 4) blog tour, and realized eventually that I missed out on two books in the series. Well, things must be remedied, so I ended up buying the collection. The first I read was Lo, How a Rose. What a sweet story!
Set sometime after King David’s time, Rapha, a Philistine slave, is treated cruelly by his master. The only ones that seem to take notice of him as a person is the priest of their village, Gabriel, and his daughter Nava. When Rapha’s chance comes for escape, will he be able to take it? What will happen when Gabriel comes after him into the desert—will either survive?
There are many reasons why I enjoyed this story. I loved the setting, and though there was one part I questioned on the historical accuracy, it didn’t distract me too much from the story itself. I’ve long been interested in stories that involve slaves, so I loved that slavery held a portion of this story! I also loved the notes about roses in here—being my most favorite flower, it was extra-special. And the altered history was so sweet!
Overall, Lo, How a Rose was a fun story set in a time period I haven’t encountered much, aside from reading about it in the Bible. I would recommend this to anyone who likes clean Biblical stories, with a bit of a romance intwined in it.
WARNING: A man is whipped badly in ch. 1. Someone lies in ch. 6. In ch. 8, there is a mention that an unmarried man and woman live alone together for a while (nothing happens, but I still didn’t appreciate it, although I understand why the author did it). A girl says she could kill a man in ch. 10. There is a fight in ch. 16, and a kiss (married couple) in ch. 18.
Age levels:
Listening Level—Ages 10 – 12, Family Friendly
Reading Independently—Ages 10 – 12, 12 – 15, 15 and Above
Links to buy this book:
Amazon: Paperback | Kindle
AbeBooks: View Choices on AbeBooks.com
Book Depository: Paperback
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