Tales of the East Series

Title: Tales of the East Series
Author: Faith Blum
Major Themes: Biblical Fiction, Historical Fiction
Synopsis: Adventure stories for children based in Ancient Israel around King David’s lifetime.

I’ve been enjoying the Tales of the East series since I read the first one a year or two ago. They aren’t incredibly gripping books, or all that deep, but each one has had a certain charm about it that has kept me riveted to the page in quite an unexpected way. These are good stories, even though the characters don’t feel as well-developed as they could be, and have fairly predictable plots. I find there are little lessons woven in with the stories that make them worth reading. Historically, they are pretty sound, although I had to wonder at a few different things in some of the books as to what would have actually happened at that place and time.

Trust and Obey is the story of two children taken as slaves by a cruel mistress. With war threatening Israel, and their lives at stake, they must learn to trust the Lord for help in their difficult situations.

Lo, How a Rose is the story of a slave who is forced to choose either to escape or be killed—and by escaping, he is pretty-much cutting himself off from society. When his young friend who has been secretly caring for him discovers his escape, and realizes he’s gone into the desert and has little chance of survival, she tries to follow to help him—and perhaps show him a way of love, instead of hate.

Rock of Ages shares a story of King David’s second-eldest son, and his (likely fictitious) self-appointed task of discovering and bringing a young woman home to her parents. She’s been kidnapped and held captive for five long years, and her skills as a healer are used to bring her masters much gain. A story of faith overcoming fear.

So far, the last of them is Haven of Rest—although I believe there are others on the way. This shares the story of another of King David’s children, his daughter Adah. She must learn to find contentment and trust the Lord in this story, because things don’t always work out the way she wants them to. I loved the musical references in here!

None of these books are particularly amazing, in my opinion, but I thoroughly enjoyed each one. Young and old would find something special in these, I believe. They’re the kind of stories that I dream about sometimes—almost fairy-tales, but they have enough reality (with enough of the real issues we struggle with) to make them relatable. If you’re looking for good, clean Biblical fiction—as I would happily label these—I’d recommend the Tales of the East series. You might not learn a lot about story structure from these, but you may end up finding a bit of encouragement for a struggle you have, or simply discover a lovely story to spend your time reading.

WARNING: See individual reviews.