Jerusalem's Queen by Angela Hunt

Born in the small village of Modein, a town made famous by the warrior Maccabees, Salome Alexandra knows better than to harbor grand dreams for her future. She pales in comparison to her beautiful older sister, and though she learns to read at an early age, girls are not valued for their intellectual ability. But when her father and sister are killed, John Hyrcanus, a distant relative, invites Salome and her mother to live with his family in Jerusalem, where her thirst for knowledge is noticed and indulged.

When her guardian betroths her to a pagan prince, she questions HaShem's plan. When Hyrcanus finally marries her to a boy half her age, she questions her guardian's sanity. But though Salome spends much of her life as a pawn ordered about by powerful men, she learns that a woman committed to HaShem can change the world. 

Jerusalem's Queen by Angela Hunt is a phenomenal book that reveals an era of Israel's history that I was not at all familiar with. This novel is the third book in Angela Hunt's series, The Silent Years, which covers the time in between the biblical book of Malachi and Matthew when the prophets were silent. While this is the third book in the series, the books can be read in any order (though you will have more backstory if you read the second novel, Judah's Wife, prior to reading this one). This novel takes place a few decades after the Maccabees free Jerusalem and goes until just a generation prior to Jesus' birth (in fact, I love how the author connected Salome's tutor, Simeon, to the Simeon that gets to see Jesus in the tabernacle as an infant). I did not know much about this time in Israel's history, and it was really interesting to learn about the powerful female leaders that existed in the ancient world during this time. The interactions between Israel and the other powerful nations at the time was intriguing, and it was shocking at times to see the pure evil that spilled out between family members, rulers, and nations. 

The plot of this novel was well crafted and alternated between the third person view of Salome and the third person point of view of her slave, Kiera. It was interesting to see their very different perspectives and also to see how they both grew to trust and to believe more fully in HaShem and His plan for their lives and for Israel. I loved seeing Salome Alexandra grow and change as she attempted to guide her wicked husband in order to keep Israel from being destroyed both externally and internally. I was pulled into the disputes, different beliefs, and the tragedies that occurred between the different Jewish religious sects and how these set up for much of what is seen in Jesus' interactions with the teachers of the law in the Bible. Overall, I really enjoyed this novel, and I highly recommend it to anyone who enjoys good historical fiction. 

I received this novel from Bethany House Publishers through Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.