"Jewel of Persia" by Roseanna M. White

I don't read a lot of Biblical fiction, mostly because the idea of fictionalizing the life of a real person from the Bible kind of bothers me.  But Jewel of Persia is about a fictional person living at the time of the book of Esther, more than about Esther herself, so that sounded like a book that I would really enjoy.  And it turns out, I did!

Kasia is a young Jewish woman who catches the eye of mighty emperor Xerxes, who takes her as one of his wives even though she has no dowry.  Theirs is a love match, and Kasia remains his favorite wife even after many others succeed her as newest wife.  The idea of a king with hundreds of wives and concubines, and how they all lived together, was fascinating to try to wrap my head around, and it lent itself to a lot of drama and tension too.  Roseanna M. White clearly did an astonishing amount of research for this book, and she tells you at the end which plot points were historical, and so on.  

Kasia's best friend, before she leaves home to marry Xerxes, is a young orphan named Esther, who's being raised by Kasia's family's neighbor, Mordecai.  The story of Esther that we're familiar with from the Bible really only takes up the last quarter of this book, but the first several hundred pages build very deliberately toward it, showing reasons for Haman to hate the Jews so much, why Queen Vashti would refuse to appear at Xerxes' banquet and then be replaced by a total newcomer, and so much more.

This book was a lot meatier than I thought it would be.  I was expecting it would be mostly a romance set in Biblical times, and it definitely had that going on, too.  I'd say it's one of the most lovely-dovey books I've ever thoroughly enjoyed.  But it had so much else going on too, with the Jewish protagonist, Kasia, constantly battling to be allowed to practice her faith in the pagan household of her husband, Xerxes, who is king of all Persia, etc., etc., etc.  Kasia would be described today as a "prayer warrior," constantly lifting up those around her to God with prayer for his help and guidance.  

This book also has almost a kind of religious magical realism, with characters glimpsing angels and demons that help or impede them.  That was particularly intriguing, as I hadn't expected it, but it did make a lot of sense within the context of the story.

Overall, I very much enjoyed this book, even if parts of it made me a little squeamish (ancient violence can be really extreme, and though White left the gory particulars to our imaginations, some things are just never going to leave my brain...).  I do think I will reread it at some point in the future.

If This was a Movie, I Would Rate It: PG-16.  It never quite crosses over into what I would consider R-rated territory, but this book has a LOT of kissing, petting, foreplay, and content I would not allow my kids to read until they were in their upper teens.  There are multiple instances of adultery, and the damage it can cause is at times severe.  There's quite a bit of violence, though mostly it's implied and not described.

This was my third book read from my TBR shelves for #TheUnreadShelfProject2021.