Of Fire and Lions // Book Review

Hello darlings!

It has been a hot minute since I've written a book review for you and I am glad to be sharing one today.

I had seen this book getting a lot of hype in the bookish community I am part of on Instagram, so when I saw it sitting on a shelf in the library I decided to give it a go.
This was my first time ever reading a biblical fiction novel and also my first from the author Mesu Andrews.

So what did I think? Let me tell you but first here is what the book is about.

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Back Cover Synopsis
"Belili wears her children's disdain like a heavy cloak. The weight of their contempt threatens to crush her spirit, but she has perfected the art of survival.
She learned it when she escaped death nearly seventy years ago after the Babylonians ransacked Jerusalem and took its finest young people as captives.
Years later she survived among idol worshippers and in King Nebuchadnezzar's court by donning an identity that shrouded her with guilt and shame.

She's kept secrets from Daniel, her childhood friend and love of her life, but as the Medo-Persian army invades, the thread of Belili's deception unravels and her tightly wound secrets begin to unfurl.

When tensions mount in the land of their exile, Belili will do anything to keep her family safe even though each step leads them closer to the truth.
Will Daniel die in a pit of lions before she can make things right between them?
Or will the God who rescued Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego save her husband and replace her spirit of heaviness with a garment of praise?"

• • • •

We are introduced to our main character, Belili, when she is an elderly woman and throughout the book, she has flashbacks to events in her past that link up to her current circumstances.
At first, though I knew they were there, these flashbacks confused me but as I got deeper into the book everything fell into place and made sense.

Mesu's writing was captivating in the first half and then for some reason in the second half of the book I became less engaged.

The book of Daniel is a story I only know vaguely and it was interesting seeing the author link her story to the true events that I was familiar with from the Bible. Like Daniel and his friends being favoured among all the young men as the most knowledgeable, skilful and wise, the men walking in the blazing fire, and Daniel being thrown in the lion's den.

It made me curious about this rather well-known man from the Bible and about the ancient Bible times and the culture.

A note on the sexual content, there were a couple of parts where a comment made me a little uncomfortable but that was it.

Belili or Abigail is Daniel's wife in this fictional glimpse into what might have been what Daniel's life was life.
She is imprisoned by her secrets and the guilt and shame of her past. Her children especially her eldest daughter Kezia cannot forgive her for abandoning them when they needed her.
Belili experiences various trials in her life as well as marvellous displays of God's power but finds it hard to believe that He hears her prayers despite her tainted past.

Rating

So my overall thoughts are that I did enjoy this book, the plot, the setting and the characters. I don't really see myself rereading it in the future though. But I have to mention that I think they did a great job with the cover design!

As for my thoughts on the genre of biblical fiction, I think its quite interesting and cool to imagine what a persons life might have been like.

Keep on blooming (and reading),

xoxo
Hannah