Title: Isaiah's Daughter
Author: Mesu Andrews
Publisher: Waterbrook Press
Series: Prophets and Kings # 1
Reviewed By: Arlena Dean
Rating: Five
Review:

"Isaiah's Daughter"(Prophets and Kings #1) by Mesu Andrews

My Thoughts....

What a read that was of a young woman who had been the prophet of Isaiah's home and captures the heart of the future King Hezekiah. Even though this was a fictional read in part this author did a wonderful job through Ishma's eyes one is made to see and understand the experience of life that happened in 732 BC Judah.

I enjoyed how well this author was able to give the reader quite a research on biblical and historical facts for this read. The reader will definite get a well written overall story that will keep you turning the pages to see what's coming next. I loved the characters from Isaiah, Aya, Hezekiah, Ishma and her friend Yaira.

This story will definitely be one of many emotions that will keep you turning the pages to see what you will find such as many scriptural quotes, a marriage [between Zibah & Hezi] that wasn't easy all the time, and with many Biblical characters that made this read seem to come alive. Indeed this was a good story of Hephzibah and Hezekiah when 'their faith failed them but then rejoiced with them when God rewarded them for their faithfulness.'

This author really brings to life this beautiful enjoyable read that give the readers a good tale of life in the Biblical times.


Thank you to Blogging for Books who provided this book to me for free in exchange for an honest review.

Actual Rating: 4.5 stars

Since this is an ARC, Luxa and I decided to get away from the lengthy interview review approach. Thus, consider yourself lucky for being spared of Luxa’s err~ cheesy jokes. Right. So if someone asked me right now to describe Crash Into You in one sentence, then it would be this: Crash Into You’s the bookish and more dramatic version of The Fast and The Furious. Oh how I love the said movie series and Crash Into You really had me swooning. The best part is that it is Isaiah’s love story. Cool eh?

Even from the start (Pushing the Limits), I had my eyes on Isaiah. For some reason, he really jumped out on me. Even with his tattoos, he was Noah and Beth’s guide and pillar in times of need. He’s the type who does not judge immediately and would see the two sides of the coin first. So you can say that I was hyping and jumping after I finished Dare You To (TBH, I finished the Pushing the Limits Trilogy in 2 successive days). I was excited to dive into this immediately. I mean, Isaiah + fast cars= WIN!

As what the summary said, Crash Into You is Isaiah’s story. In this sequel, he’s already living with Noah, a struggling college student now. While Isaiah is still mending his broken heart, a new set of problems has come his way which involved going back to his foster parent’s house, reuniting with his dark past and a new girl.

Just like the previous two books (Pushing the Limits and Dare You To), one of the greatest strengths of Crash Into You is its characters and their relationships. As I’ve mentioned, Isaiah’s my favourite among the f**ked up three. Beneath the tattoos and the earrings is a gentle and broken soul. And his loyalty and protectiveness to the people he loves had me crushing all over him. I mean, he really makes an amazing boyfriend because despite his flaws, he always managed to come through for the people depending on him. For some reason, I despise Rachel because of this. I have a love and hate relationship with her. At some point, I admired her boldness, her unconditional love for Isaiah and her family (even if it means getting really sick). BUT her insecurities and her sometimes lack of self-preservation makes me want to cringe. There was this scene in the book where she accused Isaiah of being a control freak and undermining her capability when in fact the latter is just desperate to protect her. That scene got me so worked up that I have to knock off a 0.5 star from this review. I understand her need to prove but it doesn’t mean that she has to be brainless about it. To make the story short, I prefer to see the bold Rachel, the one who doesn’t hesitate to tell Isaiah that she wanted to kiss him back.

Even the antagonist, Eric, has made an impression on me. He is subtle and cunning. I love how his mind worked and how he greatly reminded me of a snake ready to strike out any given moment.

Moving on, Crash Into You’s complex familial relationships felt real that I can already taste them. It reeked of rawness and all the painful stuff in the world. There’s the Young family which gave me a happy and scary feeling. Rachel’s relationship with her dad and mom seriously freaked me out but her relationship with Ethan and West was one of the best. And then, there’s also Isaiah’s issue with his long lost mother. I adored and loathed the woman at the same time. But I wouldn’t tell what happened to her for fear of spoiling you.

Plot-wise, Crash Into You is clearly driven by its romance, the cast and their complicated relationships, and drag racing. Kudos to Katie for adding the latter as a twist to the whole story. It’s definitely conceivable and made me love fast cars more.

And that ending, so neatly wrapped and a perfect happy ever after. I mean not the fairy tale kind but you know, very realistic. My only regret is that Eric didn’t get his comeuppance. Le sigh.

To sum it up, Crash Into You packed a lot of punch despite its predictability. It thoroughly maintained the gritty tone of Pushing The Limits series whilst adding its own flourish. This is another book that deserves a permanent home in my All-Time-Favorites bookshelf.

Note: This review first appeared on http://thoughtsandpens.com. A free ARC was provided by the publisher via Edelweiss in exchange for an honest review.

The first thing that put me off of this book was the foreword where the writer made the statement that Allis should be listened to because of all of the qualifications that he had, and then went on to list those qualifications. Personally, that goes without saying however just because you have a bunch of qualifications and have held a bunch of chairs at various universities does not necessarily mean that you have to listen to what they are saying. Using the writer's logic, we should also listen to [author:Richard Dawkins] and accept what Richard Dawkins say as fact, something that I am sure would send the writer of the foreword into an absolute tailspin, but in writing the foreword that he did, that is effectively what he is saying.

Anyhow, I may listen to these people but I may not necessarily accept what these people are saying as fact, or even talk up their particular writings. I am sure that Dawkins says some things that I would agree with, but he probably also says a lot of things that I don't agree with. I have never read any of Dawkins' works, and really have no intention of reading any of is works, not because I am simply writing them off as rubbish, but because I have no interest in what he is saying. Anyway, I have a lot of other books that I would prefer to read and, to be honest, the Harry Potter series actually sits above (albeit slightly) Richard Dawkins in the list of books that I want to read (which puts them pretty low down the list).

As for this book, well it is a long dry exposition as to why Isaiah was written by one person and not a book that was redacted and edited at a later date. When I first saw it sitting on the shelf at Church I decided to grab it (they were giving away all of the books in the library) because I thought it might be interesting, but now that I have read it all I can say that it hasn't actually said anything that I didn't know (or believe) anyway, and even if the book's job is to argue that a proper Christian has to believe that Isaiah was written by a single person, then I personally believe that it is one of those books that should go back on the shelf and stay on the shelf because I think that there are much better, and more useful, Christian books that people should read.

As I said, I believe that Isaiah was written by one person because, well, I think it is pretty cool that some guy named Cyrus as being the king of Persia two hundred years before he was born, and that Cyrus was to set in motion the process of the Israelites' return to the Promise Land. However for those people who hold to the belief that half of Isaiah was written at a later date, my response is that that is their belief and they are entitled to it. As for me, I like all of the funky things in the Bible, such as the pillar of flames, the world wide flood, and the unicorns. It adds to the wonder and the magic of the world that I live in. If somebody would prefer to live in a dull, dry, world were everything operates on the laws of logic, and that there is no magic beyond what can be measured by science then so be it – my response is have fun in your world, because I'm having fun in mine.

Okay, I can understand the concern that these people have with these beliefs because they see that if we start hacking Isaiah apart we also start to explain away the other miracles of the Bible and then end up explaining away the divinity of Jesus and the resurrection, and thus Jesus just ends up as little more than a reactionary. Further, they end up explaining away sin, judgement, and begin to create a shadow of what Christianity is supposed to be. However, the pendulum can actually swing in the opposite direction as well, because when we begin to insist upon one interpretation of Isaiah, we then begin to insist on one interpretation of the rest of the Bible, and we end up chaining the Bible to our own specific interpretations and thus end up with a pale shadow of what Christianity really is. Personally, I believe in the unity of Isaiah, but if you don't, well, more power to you. I don't believe in a literal interpretation of the first chapter of Genesis, I believe in a poetic interpretation. Further I don't believe in a literal interpretation of the end time prophecies, I believe in a poetic interpretation, however I suspect that there are other books that are on my reading list in relation to the interpretation of the end time prophecies, so I will leave it at that.

Anyway, it is 11:30 at night and I have work in the morning.