Harvest of Gold

Harvest of Gold

Tessa Afshar

Rover North

The scribe Sarah married Darius, and at times she feels as if she has married the Persian aristocracy, too. There is another point she did not count on in her marriage-Sarah has grown to love her husband. She has wealth, property, honor, and power, but her husband's love still seems unattainable.

Although his mother was an Israelite, Darius remains skeptical that his Jewish wife is the right choice for him, particularly when she conspires with her cousin Nehemiah to rebuild the walls of Jerusalem. Ordered to assist in the effort, the couple begins a journey to the homeland of his mother's people. Will the road filled with danger, conflict, and surprising memories, help Darius to see the hand of God at work in his life-and even in his marriage?

I came into this novel with rather high expectations, because I really enjoyed the previous book, Harvest of Rubies. However, though this book did have its high points, I can't say I liked it quite as much.

First of all, this book really was a bit too mushy for my tastes (yeah, so the main characters were married, but that didn't really make me less uncomfortable. I skimmed some parts). It took me a while to get into this book. The author's writing style is very direct- her plotlines and characters are very good, but there isn't a lot of "pleasure of the language" itself that makes books such as the classics stand out. Sometimes I felt it was a little too straightforward with "such-and-such did this" or "so-and-so did that" with rather boring sentences. However, as the book went on and I got more into the plot, this didn't bother me so much. My favorite part was in the last half, where Darius really starts to change and grow in his faith. So don't get me wrong: I did like Harvest of Gold; it just wasn't my favorite.

Rating: 7

I received this book for free from the publisher in exchange for my honest review.