This stirring account of the Queen of Sheba's search for truth and love paints a captivating portrait of a woman struggling with her passions and responsibilities in the ancient Middle East..
Dorr tells of a beautiful, intelligent, and independent queen who constantly battles the priests and high lords of her kingdom who resent being ruled by a woman. Bilqis, the queen of Sheba, is a woman as modern as her story is ancient.
Disillusioned by her own religion, under pressure to marry but finding no suitor who meets her own high standards, and disturbed by the new fleet of ships on her trade routes, Bilqis travels to Israel to meet the legendary Hebrew king and divert a needless and costly war.
How Solomon finally wins her, and how this beautiful queen resolves the conflicts among herself, her old religion, and the intrigues of her kinsmen, make The Queen of Sheba an exciting, bold novel of love and faith.
About the Author :
ROBERTA KELLS DORR is the author of seven books: six novels, one biography. She majored in creative writing at the University of Maryland and received her master¿s in Religious Education from the Southern Baptist Seminary in Louisville, Kentucky. For seventeen years Dorr lived in the Middle East as the wife of a busy missionary surgeon and the mother of five children. On her return to the United States she carried with her the manuscript of the first novel she had written and researched extensively over the years. She claimed that the years in the Middle East, the exposure to their culture, and the experiences she had while there profoundly influenced what she wrote.
Review :
"I really enjoyed this book, and while it isn't going to go down in history as great, classic literature, it is a very worthy read. It treats the biblical source with respect and dignity, probably because it comes from a Christian author. The character portraits of both Solomon and Bilqis are painted with depth and richness not often seen in much of today's Christian fiction. I often don't finish a lot of these types of books, because their character development is shallow, basic, and predictable, as if each person in the kingdom of God is cut from the same cloth.
For such a short book, it really does pack in a lot of detail, but I don't want to tell you the whole story. If you enjoy historical/biblical fiction, this is a book you might enjoy. I'm sure there are inaccuracies and mistakes in this story-it's not the Bible, after all-but I believe the story holds true, and fits well. It brings biblical characters to life, and reminds us that they were real people, who lived in a real place, at a real moment in history, and had real struggles not much different than we do today. As the wisest man who ever lived once said: 'There is nothing new under the sun.'"
The Faery Inn, http: //thefaeryinn.wordpress.com/, June 16, 2014
