Bathsheba: Reluctant Beauty by Angela Hunt

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Oh boy, I like to have positive reviews for the book I read, but I'm just not sure I can on this book.  I'm not a big fan of Biblical fiction for starters, so this book immediately had my bias against it when I started it, but I have read some really good Biblical fiction and thought I would try it.

I would say Angela has a very good writing style and definitely stuck with the facts that we know for sure in the Bible.  It was just some of the fictional liberties she took didn't strike me.  The story is written from Bathsheba and Nathan the Prophet's perspective flipping back and forth between chapters.  To me, while Nathan the prophet was very instrumental in Bathsheba's life as far as correcting David for his adultery, I didn't think writing half the book from his perspective made a lot of sense.  I also didn't care for the idea that Nathan was in love with Bathsheba and had made plans to marry her until God told him otherwise.  I definitely think this could have been the case, but it just seemed weird to me. Angela also had Bathsheba as the granddaughter of Ahithophel and I couldn't find that that was true anywhere.

I think I do appreciate the way that she played Bathsheba as the victim of a royal rape and not as inciting his passion by purposely bathing outside where everyone can see.  From the research Angel had done, it was common for the women to do their ceremonial bath outside because they would bathe in the animals water trough and that generally wasn't located inside the home.

I don't think this book is unscriptural in any way, it just didn't resonate with me and I doubt that I will pick up anymore of Angela's Biblical fiction.

This book was a complimentary copy from Bethany House Publishers in exchange for my honest review.

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