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breathehopebooks's review against another edition
challenging
dark
emotional
reflective
sad
tense
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.5
I truly do not care one iota for Atretes’s storyline until the very end, and even then only in context to Julia and Hadassah.
And i completely forgot about how historically accurate this story is in its details of Roman/Ephesian culture. It was really hard to read at times but it was very thoroughly researched, and we’ll just leave it at that…
And i completely forgot about how historically accurate this story is in its details of Roman/Ephesian culture. It was really hard to read at times but it was very thoroughly researched, and we’ll just leave it at that…
Content Warnings
Graphic: Violence, Religious bigotry, Murder, Injury/Injury detail, Grief, Gaslighting, Death, Abortion, Domestic abuse, and Dysphoria
Moderate: Abandonment, Confinement, Death of parent, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Genocide, Gore, Infidelity, Physical abuse, Pregnancy, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Slavery, Toxic friendship, Toxic relationship, Trafficking, War, and Antisemitism
Minor: Adult/minor relationship, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide attempt, Rape, Incest, Pedophilia, Child death, Alcohol, and Alcoholism
This is Christian fiction; however, it’s meant to be more evangelical, and I would be hesitant to recommend to more reserved readers because of how intense the content is. I would definitely say it’s accurate in its atrocities and horrifying at how nonchalant many of the characters are by their actions and culture, but such was the time period. Stick around for the character growth and the relationship betweenbones_jackson's review against another edition
adventurous
emotional
reflective
sad
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
5.0
A escrita é muito boa e fluida, nem senti as páginas passando e mal posso esperar pra ler os outros dois da trilogia
Content Warnings
Graphic: Gore, Pregnancy, Alcohol, Animal cruelty, Blood, Cultural appropriation, Emotional abuse, Fire/Fire injury, Gaslighting, Genocide, Adult/minor relationship, Death of parent, Domestic abuse, Death, Injury/Injury detail, Slavery, Trafficking, Xenophobia, Eating disorder, Grief, Physical abuse, Suicidal thoughts, Abortion, Confinement, Toxic relationship, Chronic illness, Deportation, Infidelity, Toxic friendship, Hate crime, Murder, War, Terminal illness, and Violence
Moderate: Rape
emily_grace567's review against another edition
challenging
dark
emotional
hopeful
inspiring
reflective
sad
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: War, Toxic friendship, Abandonment, Child death, Death, Murder, Slavery, Physical abuse, Death of parent, Domestic abuse, Toxic relationship, and Abortion
michellembruhn's review against another edition
challenging
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
2.0
Oh man. I typically avoid posting reviews if I didn't like the book, but this one...some things need to be addressed.
I don't really like historical fiction, but I had heard many good things about this book. When this book was picked for my book club to read together, I went in excited to see why millions of Christian women love this series.
...I don't get it. And it's NOT the genre's fault.
First, THE GOOD
I could not put this book down. I was engrossed while reading. I did want to know what happened next. Part of it was the fascination of needing to know just how badly the train would wreck, but most of it is because Rivers is a good writer. She kept me intrigued, and I would be very interested to see if I like one of her other books. I may be picking up The Last Sin Eater or her series on the forgotten women of the Bible soon.
Atretes' story was my favorite to follow. I was interested whenever he came on the page and I wanted more of him. Enough that I thought maybe I would just skip to reading "his book" in the series rather than following Marcus and Hadassah's story in book two, but then I read some reviews for that book that made me realize that it would ruin him for me. So I'm just going to pretend that at the end of this book he walked away a changed man and call it good.
Julia was a train wreck I had an AMAZING time following. So immature, so manipulable, so arrogant, and such a brat. You'd think that I would hate her, but I actually had a great time watching her implode, feeling sorry for her and at the same time weirdly excited to see what terrible choice she made next. Discipline your children, parents, lest a monster like her be created...
Sigh. And now THE BAD
I'm going to preface this with the fact that I know book was written very early in the author's journey with Christ. She was a secular romance author, met Jesus, and began a path to see how He could redeem her writing. I applaud her for this, because I think all too often Christians decide that since art can be (and has been) used for evil, art itself is evil. They leave it behind as a part of their old life and never pick it back up again. Rivers did not do this, and I think that is so cool. I also heard that she bought back her old, raunchy books from her publishers so that they wouldn't be printed anymore. That has to have been super expensive and a major loss of income, and it shows great integrity.
All of that to say, I think that Rivers is a cool person and, again, I am interested to try another, more recent book by her.
But boy oh boy, do I have problems with this book. First off, the easiest one to write off as a preference thing. Hadassah had no character arc. I mean, she kind of did, but I'll get to that in a minute. The book starts off with everything being taken from her—her family dies by Jewish hands, Roman hands, and starvation until she is the only one left. Jerusalem, her city, is destroyed. Her hair is cut off. She is forced to walk miles and miles as other slaves die all around her. She is the only Christian in this group. And she is taken as a slave to a Roman family. And never once does she question why this is happening or where God is in all of this, and never once do we see any emotional trauma that has come from all of this. Instead, she is the perfect Christian girl, always trusting in God, always loving her masters, always praying for them.
Reading other reviews for this book, Hadassah already being a perfect Christian inspires some people—she is an example of what we should all be. I can see and respect that. But I didn't like it. I wanted her to doubt and question and still choose God anyway. I wanted to see her struggle like so many of us do and then, after all of this, cling to her faith. I wanted Marcus' words to her about how her God must not care for her or must not be powerful enough to save her to be a verbal manifestation of her own doubts that she needed to fight. That would have been inspiring for me. But, again, I see that the way she was written inspired other readers, and I can respect that.
So, Hadassah does have a "character flaw" in that she doesn't share her faith enough and there is an "arc" of her getting better. She berates herself for not speaking the name of Jesus in every conversation, of not trying hard enough to win over her Roman masters for Christ. I, however, would argue that she does exactly what she should do. She serves them as she would serve the Lord, she is kind when they are not kind to her, she prays for them, she does everything she can to show God's love to them in action. Because of this, they notice a difference between her and their other slaves, and when they ask her what that difference is, she does tell them it's because of God and Jesus.
I couldn't help but think of my dear friends who work in the public school system who are not allowed to talk to their coworkers or students about religious matters unless they are straight-up asked. These teachers live Jesus, showing His love every day to their coworkers and students. The difference is noticed, people ask, and then they boldly share about what God has done for them. This 👏 Is 👏 Not 👏 Cowardice! Instead, they serve where God has placed them in a way that allows them to stay where God has placed them, and on the few occasions where God has straight-up told them "speak now", they have done it.
The message of Hadassah's arc is that if we do not speak the name of Jesus in every conversation, we are cowardly and must repent. But if she had spoken Jesus with every breath, she would have been killed for her faith and her masters would never have gotten to the point where they wanted to know about Jesus. If my teacher friends speak the name of Jesus with every breath, they would be fired and lose the opportunity to love their students and coworkers and get them to the point where they want to know more about this Jesus who has so changed their lives. This arc is not a good message.
Finally, there's Marcus and Hadassah's romance. It screams of the toxic romance tropes so prevalent in fiction. The good girl loves bad boy tropes. The abuser will be made better by the right girl tropes. At the beginning of this romance, I just rolled my eyes. Marcus "loves" Hadassah because she is pretty and he can't have her. Hadassah "loves" Marcus for reasons we never see and so I can only assume that it's the same attraction to his masculinity that all of his many lovers have. Eye roll. Moving on.
BUT THEN came the forced kisses scene. The "I know you like me too, Hadassah, so stop fighting me" kissing scene. I liked Marcus up until this point—he was interesting and I wanted to know where his story would go. Then I was like, "I'm supposed to be rooting for this relationship? What??"
Then it happened again, AND THIS TIME THE ONLY THING THAT STOPS HIM FROM RAPING HER IS THAT SHE FAINTS FROM FEAR, snapping him out of it. AND WE'RE STILL SUPPOSED TO ROOT FOR THIS ROMANCE!
Now, yes, things like this happened in Rome. Masters thought this was okay to do to their slaves. I wouldn't have minded this scene being there, amidst all of the violence and sexual perversions we've already seen in this book (Rivers isn't gratuitous, but she doesn't hold back either, which I appreciated). BUT THEN we get the message that "because sex didn't happen, it wasn't assault." We should have seen Marcus' thoughts that this is true (he tells her "Don't cry, nothing happened" when she comes to) but that Hadassah feels hurt, scared, and violated. Instead, we see Hadassah stay in the room and insist that God will bless Marcus for stopping and, oh, what an honorable man he is for stopping before it got too far. We the readers are told by her reaction that Marcus forcing passionate kisses on her while she told him no, laying her out on his couch because "I know you want this too", and tearing her tunic was just fine because actual sex didn't happen. That is not honorable, that is violating, and to have our main character not feel hurt and violated here allows the reader to think that it's all okay. It is not okay. I already wasn't rooting for this couple, and now all I can think of is what a s***-bag Marcus is and how harmful this book might be to those who experience abuse that isn't intercourse. It would have been right for Hadassah to feel scared and hurt here and to do everything she could to leave the room rather than stay there telling Marcus that it's okay because he was "honorable" enough to stop. What Marcus did was wrong. Full-stop.
*breathes*
So, those are my thoughts. I'm sorry, dear friends who adore this book, but I don't understand why this is such a beloved series. I do understand why Rivers is a beloved author and plan to give her another chance, but the messaging in this book was just awful in my eyes. I hope that Rivers' messaging has gotten better as she has matured in her faith and in her writing, and I plan to give some later book a chance. If you have any recs, please comment with them.
I don't really like historical fiction, but I had heard many good things about this book. When this book was picked for my book club to read together, I went in excited to see why millions of Christian women love this series.
...I don't get it. And it's NOT the genre's fault.
First, THE GOOD
I could not put this book down. I was engrossed while reading. I did want to know what happened next. Part of it was the fascination of needing to know just how badly the train would wreck, but most of it is because Rivers is a good writer. She kept me intrigued, and I would be very interested to see if I like one of her other books. I may be picking up The Last Sin Eater or her series on the forgotten women of the Bible soon.
Atretes' story was my favorite to follow. I was interested whenever he came on the page and I wanted more of him. Enough that I thought maybe I would just skip to reading "his book" in the series rather than following Marcus and Hadassah's story in book two, but then I read some reviews for that book that made me realize that it would ruin him for me. So I'm just going to pretend that at the end of this book he walked away a changed man and call it good.
Julia was a train wreck I had an AMAZING time following. So immature, so manipulable, so arrogant, and such a brat. You'd think that I would hate her, but I actually had a great time watching her implode, feeling sorry for her and at the same time weirdly excited to see what terrible choice she made next. Discipline your children, parents, lest a monster like her be created...
Sigh. And now THE BAD
I'm going to preface this with the fact that I know book was written very early in the author's journey with Christ. She was a secular romance author, met Jesus, and began a path to see how He could redeem her writing. I applaud her for this, because I think all too often Christians decide that since art can be (and has been) used for evil, art itself is evil. They leave it behind as a part of their old life and never pick it back up again. Rivers did not do this, and I think that is so cool. I also heard that she bought back her old, raunchy books from her publishers so that they wouldn't be printed anymore. That has to have been super expensive and a major loss of income, and it shows great integrity.
All of that to say, I think that Rivers is a cool person and, again, I am interested to try another, more recent book by her.
But boy oh boy, do I have problems with this book. First off, the easiest one to write off as a preference thing. Hadassah had no character arc. I mean, she kind of did, but I'll get to that in a minute. The book starts off with everything being taken from her—her family dies by Jewish hands, Roman hands, and starvation until she is the only one left. Jerusalem, her city, is destroyed. Her hair is cut off. She is forced to walk miles and miles as other slaves die all around her. She is the only Christian in this group. And she is taken as a slave to a Roman family. And never once does she question why this is happening or where God is in all of this, and never once do we see any emotional trauma that has come from all of this. Instead, she is the perfect Christian girl, always trusting in God, always loving her masters, always praying for them.
Reading other reviews for this book, Hadassah already being a perfect Christian inspires some people—she is an example of what we should all be. I can see and respect that. But I didn't like it. I wanted her to doubt and question and still choose God anyway. I wanted to see her struggle like so many of us do and then, after all of this, cling to her faith. I wanted Marcus' words to her about how her God must not care for her or must not be powerful enough to save her to be a verbal manifestation of her own doubts that she needed to fight. That would have been inspiring for me. But, again, I see that the way she was written inspired other readers, and I can respect that.
So, Hadassah does have a "character flaw" in that she doesn't share her faith enough and there is an "arc" of her getting better. She berates herself for not speaking the name of Jesus in every conversation, of not trying hard enough to win over her Roman masters for Christ. I, however, would argue that she does exactly what she should do. She serves them as she would serve the Lord, she is kind when they are not kind to her, she prays for them, she does everything she can to show God's love to them in action. Because of this, they notice a difference between her and their other slaves, and when they ask her what that difference is, she does tell them it's because of God and Jesus.
I couldn't help but think of my dear friends who work in the public school system who are not allowed to talk to their coworkers or students about religious matters unless they are straight-up asked. These teachers live Jesus, showing His love every day to their coworkers and students. The difference is noticed, people ask, and then they boldly share about what God has done for them. This 👏 Is 👏 Not 👏 Cowardice! Instead, they serve where God has placed them in a way that allows them to stay where God has placed them, and on the few occasions where God has straight-up told them "speak now", they have done it.
The message of Hadassah's arc is that if we do not speak the name of Jesus in every conversation, we are cowardly and must repent. But if she had spoken Jesus with every breath, she would have been killed for her faith and her masters would never have gotten to the point where they wanted to know about Jesus. If my teacher friends speak the name of Jesus with every breath, they would be fired and lose the opportunity to love their students and coworkers and get them to the point where they want to know more about this Jesus who has so changed their lives. This arc is not a good message.
Finally, there's Marcus and Hadassah's romance. It screams of the toxic romance tropes so prevalent in fiction. The good girl loves bad boy tropes. The abuser will be made better by the right girl tropes. At the beginning of this romance, I just rolled my eyes. Marcus "loves" Hadassah because she is pretty and he can't have her. Hadassah "loves" Marcus for reasons we never see and so I can only assume that it's the same attraction to his masculinity that all of his many lovers have. Eye roll. Moving on.
BUT THEN came the forced kisses scene. The "I know you like me too, Hadassah, so stop fighting me" kissing scene. I liked Marcus up until this point—he was interesting and I wanted to know where his story would go. Then I was like, "I'm supposed to be rooting for this relationship? What??"
Then it happened again, AND THIS TIME THE ONLY THING THAT STOPS HIM FROM RAPING HER IS THAT SHE FAINTS FROM FEAR, snapping him out of it. AND WE'RE STILL SUPPOSED TO ROOT FOR THIS ROMANCE!
Now, yes, things like this happened in Rome. Masters thought this was okay to do to their slaves. I wouldn't have minded this scene being there, amidst all of the violence and sexual perversions we've already seen in this book (Rivers isn't gratuitous, but she doesn't hold back either, which I appreciated). BUT THEN we get the message that "because sex didn't happen, it wasn't assault." We should have seen Marcus' thoughts that this is true (he tells her "Don't cry, nothing happened" when she comes to) but that Hadassah feels hurt, scared, and violated. Instead, we see Hadassah stay in the room and insist that God will bless Marcus for stopping and, oh, what an honorable man he is for stopping before it got too far. We the readers are told by her reaction that Marcus forcing passionate kisses on her while she told him no, laying her out on his couch because "I know you want this too", and tearing her tunic was just fine because actual sex didn't happen. That is not honorable, that is violating, and to have our main character not feel hurt and violated here allows the reader to think that it's all okay. It is not okay. I already wasn't rooting for this couple, and now all I can think of is what a s***-bag Marcus is and how harmful this book might be to those who experience abuse that isn't intercourse. It would have been right for Hadassah to feel scared and hurt here and to do everything she could to leave the room rather than stay there telling Marcus that it's okay because he was "honorable" enough to stop. What Marcus did was wrong. Full-stop.
*breathes*
So, those are my thoughts. I'm sorry, dear friends who adore this book, but I don't understand why this is such a beloved series. I do understand why Rivers is a beloved author and plan to give her another chance, but the messaging in this book was just awful in my eyes. I hope that Rivers' messaging has gotten better as she has matured in her faith and in her writing, and I plan to give some later book a chance. If you have any recs, please comment with them.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Sexual assault, Sexual harassment, Toxic relationship, Domestic abuse, Abortion, and War
emilyrosco's review against another edition
adventurous
hopeful
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.0
I can’t tell you how many times the characters smile sardonically…. 😒😒
Content Warnings
Graphic: Abortion, Death, Death of parent, Domestic abuse, Drug use, Genocide, Grief, Hate crime, Murder, Religious bigotry, Slavery, Suicidal thoughts, Toxic friendship, and Toxic relationship
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