One day, while the girls are in the marketplace, soldiers approach Hannah and Esther and attempt to take Hannah away.
Their friendship blossoms and is a positive relationship for both girls. From that point on, Esther does not have any more nightmares.Įsther soon becomes friends with a girl from the village named Hannah. She finds herself awakening from nightmares almost nightly, crying out in her sleep, “Are you a midwife? I need a midwife!” Mordecai explains to the young girl that it was not her fault that her mother died, and that her father had every intention of being there when the baby was born. Esther’s adjustment after her parents die is quite a challenge. Joanna is especially thrilled to have Esther as her adopted daughter, as she is almost forty years old yet does not have any children of her own. Esther’s mother sends her to fetch a midwife, and while Esther does her best, by the time she returns with one, her mother and the baby are dead.įortunately for Esther, shortly thereafter, she is adopted by her uncle Mordecai, who was Esther’s father’s brother, and his wife Joanna. Her mother’s death is especially traumatic for Esther, as she dies in childbirth, along with who would have been Esther’s baby brother. At age four, Esther finds herself orphaned as both of her parents die. Wilder’s story uniquely merges historical fact with imagined, well-developed characters.
With a fast-paced plot and details that bring color to the story but don’t weigh it down, this is an excellent start to Wolf’s projected series of biblical romances.From veteran author Lin Wilder comes the story of the orphaned Jewish girl Esther in The Reluctant Queen: The Story of Esther. Esther and the king make an appealing couple, and the supporting characters, even the one who comes to play the role of the villain, are three-dimensional and sympathetic. I thoroughly enjoyed this novel by Wolf, a well-known novelist who has recently turned to writing biblical fiction. Esther finally agrees and departs for the king’s harem, comforted by the thought that she cannot possibly outshine her well-bred competitors and will soon be back at home. If the beautiful Esther can become the new queen, Mordecai tells her, she may be able to influence him on behalf of the Jewish people, who need an advocate at the king’s palace. Then Mordecai shocks the half-Jewish, half-Persian Esther with a request: for her to join the multitude of girls competing for the hand of Ahasuerus, King of Persia. A Reluctant Queen: The Love Story of Estherįifteen-year-old Esther, raised by her uncle Mordecai, would like to marry her best friend’s brother someday but is no real hurry to leave her happy home.
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