In The Field of Grace

If you have read some of the stories of the Bible, you get a broad sense of what happened. But like so many times we are missing some of the finer points, the motivations and those are found in the details. My newest favorite genre this year is Biblical Fiction. Taking a story we all know and love straight from the Bible and enhancing the details of 'what could of been!' It is never meant to take the place of those beloved stories but simply a way I believe to draw you deeper. To bring you right in the forefront of the action and make you believe you are there actually witnessing the events.

This is my second novel from author Tessa Afshar, and with it comes the retelling of the story of Ruth. If you are familiar with the story than you know that Naomi, Ruth's mother-in-law, decides to return to Israel after losing both of her sons. But before deciding to uproot Ruth from her own family roots, she relives her of any burden to stay with her along her to journey back to her home. Ruth vows that no matter what happens in life, she will always stay by Naomi side and so begins their adventure to Naomi's home. We learn that the harvest has been plentiful and even gleaners, are having success with picking up enough left over grain that they will not go hungry. Ruth decides to venture out to take care of their needs and finds her way into the fields of Boaz.

She first has to learn how to glean and being a Moabite woman, she is considered an outcast in town. With no one to help her, she decides to linger behind and take the leftovers if she can find them. But soon she garners the attention of Boaz, the owner of the field, who is smitten with her looks as well as her quiet presence. When he learns she is the daughter of Naomi, his cousin, he realizes he must offer to help but not in the way to embarrass her. He warns his men to offer her protection while working in his fields and to ensure that each day, she takes home more than enough to feed them both.

While they are both learning lessons along the way, dealing with grief, accepting God's will in both of their lives, and slowly falling in love along the way, we can see the same example being laid out before each of us. How God so lovingly romances all of us and shows us in innumerable ways just how much He loves us. I love the part of the novel where Boaz it trying to describe what the world is like to an unborn baby and he gets a lesson from God in the process in dealing with the grief and loss Boaz feels when he loses his wife Judith and their unborn child.

"Then the Lord asked me, 'Do you think he understands? Do you think he knows what your world is like now?'
"No, Lord,' I replied, 'How could he? He only knows his mother's womb. His world is too small. I could use every word the world has to offer and he would still not perceive our world. He has to be in it to understand it.'
"'No more can you understand My kingdom,' He said to me. 'No more can you perceive where your wife and daughter and newborn son reside now. Yet that world is no less real than your own.'" (pg 124).

I received In the Field of Grace by Tessa Afshar compliments of River North Publishing and Christian Fiction Blog Alliance for my honest review. I did not receive any monetary compensation for a favorable review and the opinions expressed here are strictly my own unless otherwise notated. This is such a beautiful love story not only between Ruth and Boaz but also between God and us.. There are just so many wonderful take aways from this novel I simply can't list them all. For those that have experienced loss and are looking for answers, I would encourage you to check out this novel and then follow it up with the story of Ruth from the Bible. It simply is breath-taking and full of life in many ways. I easily rate this one a 5 out of 5 stars and can't wait to go back and pick up the other novels Tessa has written that I haven't been blessed to enjoy yet.

For more information about In the Field of Grace, Tessa Afshar or where you can pick up a copy of this novel today, please click on the links below:

In the Field of Grace by Tessa Afshar

You can also find Tessa Afshar on Facebook to stay up to date with all her latest novels.

To read more reviews on In Field of Grace, please visit Christian Fiction Blog Alliance's book tour page. 

Harvest of Rubies

Some of the most amazing things I've discovered through Christian Historical Fiction, is the author's talent to weave a story about someone from the Bible in a whole new way through their fictional novel. In fact, sometimes it's so well written it sounds as if we were a part of that story and the character is someone we got to know through their words.

That is just what you, as a reader, will find when you open the cover of Harvest of Rubies by Tessa Afshar. Here you are immediately drawn back into 457 BC to the home of Sarah, Nehemiah's cousin, where we find she struggles to find the attention of her father. Now that Sarah has taught herself to read, something forbidden for women, her father is more than pleased at her new found abilities and offers to help her learn more. However, her Aunt Leah, confronts her father and explains how this might get them all in trouble if anyone finds out. When he isn't willing to give up helping Sarah, Leah confronts Nehemiah who works in the palace as a way of convincing them both of their foolish ways.

When Nehemiah shows up, he reminds them all of Queen Esther's gifts of saving God's people through her beauty, and tells Sarah to continue to pursue her love of reading because no one knows just how God will chose to use her gifts in the future. Now she is able to read Persian, read and write Akkadian, another complicated language practiced only by royal scribes for the keeping of important administrative records but also Aramaic as well. Becoming a proficient keeper of records in an empire that relied on its administrative skill to prosper made Sarah a valuable commodity to her father. By the time she was twenty, she was more scribe than woman. Yet the God that Nehemiah spoke so highly of, was one Sarah now couldn't believe in. He was the one she blamed for her mother's death, believing that he was simply too busy to bother with their daily needs. It was Nehemiah that made certain that Sarah learned Hebrew after discovering her discouragement with God. Once Nehemiah is satisfied that Sarah has learned proficiently enough, he informs her and her father, that she shall now serve as the Queen's senior scribe and live at the palace for such a post.

It is here that Sarah's life will be forever changed and where the book Harvest of Rubies begins the adventure to live in a palace - to be surrounded by beauty and culture and new wonders. To occupy such a high position - one rarely enjoyed by a woman, no less. To have her abilities acknowledged in such a public fashion. Her life will serve a purpose she could never have conceived. This is a door that the Lord has opened for Sarah. God who has called her will also equip her. Everything she lacks will be provided. Now if she can only get over her fear of failure.

I have had the delight to read a previous novel by Tessa Afshar, Pearl in the Sand, and she truly does possess a beautiful gift for words in taking your typical Bible story and weaving a completely different light on it, while still capturing the essence of the Bible. For this reason, I know if you love great Historical Bible Fiction, then you will absolutely LOVE Harvest of Rubies. I received this book compliments of Christian Fiction Blog Alliance for my honest review and have to give this one a 5 out of 5 stars. Here's even more information on this book, the author and even a sneak peek into the first chapter:

This week, the Christian Fiction Blog Alliance is introducing Harvest of Rubies River North; New Edition edition (May 1, 2012) by Tessa Afshar



ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

TESSA AFSHAR was voted "New Author of the Year" by the Family Fiction sponsored Reader's Choice Award 2011 for her novel Pearl in the Sand. She was born in Iran, and lived there for the first fourteen years of her life. She moved to England where she survived boarding school for girls and fell in love with Jane Austen and Charlotte Bronte, before moving to the United States permanently. Her conversion to Christianity in her twenties changed the course of her life forever. Tessa holds an MDiv from Yale University where she served as co-chair of the Evangelical Fellowship at the Divinity School. She has spent the last thirteen years in full-time Christian work.


ABOUT THE BOOK

Remarkable Talent Threatens to Cloud a Life



The prophet Nehemiah’s cousin can speak several languages, keep complex accounts, write on tablets of clay, and solve mysteries. Her accomplishments catapult her into the center of the Persian court – working long hours, rubbing elbows with royalty, and becoming the queen’s favorite scribe.

Not bad for a woman living in a man’s world: so why does Sarah feel like a failure?

A devastating past has left Sarah with two conclusions: that God does not love her, and that her achievements are the measure of her worth – a measure she can never quite live up to.

Darius Pasargadae is accustomed to having his way. A wealthy and admired aristocrat, the last thing he expects is a wife who scorns him.

Can two such different people help one another overcome the idols that bind them?

If you would like to read the first chapter of Harvest of Rubies, go HERE.

Pearl in the Sand

Watch the book video:

In the Bible, the story of Joshua tells us of one amazing lady named Rahab who teaches us all what it truly means to experience the love and forgiveness of God for our past mistakes. In the book Pearl In The Sand by Tessa Afshar, we are taken back to that period in history through a fictional story based on Rahab's life along with some historical facts from the stories in the Bible of her life. It's a perfect blend of the life a 15 year old girl had to make during one of the worst droughts in Jericho's history. Since there was no water and Jericho was mainly a city of farmers, her family made one of the most difficult decisions to save their family, and that was selling Rahab at 15 into prostitution. While being a prostitute in the temple would have offered Rahab and more protective lifestyle, she chose to become her own boss and decide who she would and wouldn't sell herself to. Being a woman of astounding beauty, she had no loss of offers for men willing to pay any price for her. Even though she knew it was wrong and felt betrayed by her father and mother, she knew she was their only hope.

Rahab soon made more than enough money to help her family maintain until the drought was over, she soon moved into her own Inn where she controlled her environment. It is here that we find ourselves learning of Joshua and his armies taking control over the lands all around her city and destroying everything in each one. Hearing the stories of how their God had led their people of Israel out of Egypt and the plagues that followed until Moses could leave the land, she knew deep within her heart, that this was truly the God of the world. Despite all the other gods that Jericho worshipped none of them had been able to do any of the things Israel's God could do. Living in fear that they may soon come to conquer Jericho, Rahab finds herself discovering the truth God of Israel in her own private prayers.

This was such a great book to read even though its based on the Biblical stories of Rahab, just filling in the possibilities of what could have happened in between and the conversations that may have taken place really makes Rahab's life more believable. It's isn't surprising when you go back and read through the books of Joshua, Ruth and Matthew and discover the keys the link her story all together and show us that our past sins are truly forgiven in God's eyes once we place our faith in Him.

If you would like to know more about the book, the author and even a first chapter glance into this remarkable book, please read more below:

This week, the

Christian Fiction Blog Alliance

is introducing

Pearl In The Sand Moody Publishers (September 1, 2010)

by Tessa Afshar





ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

Tessa Afshar was born in a nominally Muslim family in Iran and lived there for the first fourteen years of her life. She survived English boarding school for girls before moving to the United States permanently. Her conversion to Christianity in her mid-twenties changed the course of her life forever. Tessa holds an MDIV from Yale University where she served as co-Chair of the Evangelical Fellowship at the

Divinity School. She has spent the last twelve years in full and part-time Christian work and currently serves as the leader of Women’s and Prayer ministries at a church in Connecticut.





ABOUT THE BOOK

Can a Canaanite harlot who has made her livelihood by looking desirable to men make a fitting wife for one of the leaders of Israel? Shockingly, the Bible’s answer is yes. At the age of fifteen Rahab is forced into prostitution by her beloved father. In her years as a courtesan, she learns to mistrust men and hate herself. Into the emotional turmoil of her world walks Salmone, a respected leader of Judah. Through the tribulations of a stormy relationship, Rahab and Salmone learn the true

source of one another’s worth in God and find healing from fear and rejection.



If you would like to read the first chapter of Pearl In The Sand, go HERE