A Passionate Hope (Daughters of the Promised Land, #4)

by Jill Eileen Smith

[phyllish]

I am grateful to Revell for giving me a copy of this book. The fact I received this book for free does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.

My review is 3.5 Stars

Hannah's story has always been one that has touched my heart, so when I saw this book, I was very curious to read it.  The author did a great job in describing how and why Elkanah might have had two wives when he clearly loved Hannah more than Peninnah.  Her thoughts as to how the actions of Hophni and Phineas, the corrupt priests, could have grieved other Levites (and Israelites in general) makes perfect sense and ended up being a very interesting element of the book.

The emotions in the book were very intense, and I felt almost as if I was experiencing them myself.  I greatly appreciated the deep love that both Hannah and Elkanah had such a deep reverence and love for the Lord and the way it was evidence throughout the story.

The author's love for the Lord shines clearly in this book, though I won't consider this story to be Christian Fiction (because it does not contain any Christian message other than very subtly).  It is most certainly Biblical Fiction and would be appreciated by all who love the Old Testament.

There were a few places in the book where things didn't seem consistent with other things that had been said.  I hate to give any spoilers and say exactly what they were.  And the overall mood of the book was loneliness, though there were some sweet moments of praise.

There were some serious thematic elements to the story that make this a book best for adults, in my opinion.

This review was originally posted on Among the Reads