Ginger Garrett's Chosen: The Lost Diaries of Queen Esther ~ Reviewed

Chosen: The Lost Diaries of Queen Esther (Lost Loves of the Bible) [Paperback]
Ginger Garrett
Paperback: 304 pages
Publisher: David C. Cook; New edition (March 1, 2010)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 1434768015


Description

The story of a girl unsparingly plunged into heartache and chaos, who would save a nation … of Esther, who would be queen.

Wrenched from a simple life for her beauty, Esther finds herself at the mercy of King Xerxes. Leaving behind her only relative, her cousin Mordecai, and her first true love, Cyrus, she is thrown headlong into the unrestrained extravagance of palace living. Quick of mind and strong in spirit, she refuses to suffer the fate of her harem sisters and boldly challenges Xerxes to give of his heart before taking his pleasure, thus sealing her place beside him a queen. While conspiracy spins its diabolical web, Esther’s mind and spirit waver, and she is forced to confront the past in order to save her future—and that of an entire nation.

Review:

The story of Esther is one of my favorites.The time and situation is one that horrifyingly fascinates me...so very fairy tale-like…a beauty pageant is held and the long shot wins the big prize. To increase the tension...she then faces the fear of being found a fake and has to risk even more. Good trumps evil only after a few moments of fingernail chewing. Garrett has fictionalized the Biblical account adding flesh and feeling to what might have happened in the details God didn't provide. Esther's triumph is amazing, but the dark side is that she was taken, rounded up, put in a harem where she was trained and prepared for one night with the king.

Garrett's enhanced tale is well written and page turning. Though I knew the end of the story, I didn’t want to skip a word. If you love your Biblical fiction to come alive with three dimensional characters you’ve got to give this novel a shot.

Reviewed by: Kelly Klepfer

Bonus Review:

Chosen is based on lost diaries that were found, and are believe to be written by Queen Esther. They tell the Biblical account from her viewpoint. The book starts out with Esther being a 15 year old girl, living with her cousin Mordecai. The story unfolds as she is taken away to the palace of the king and prepared for nearly a year to be presented to him as a candidate for the new queen.

I hadn’t previously heard about any of her lost diaries being found, but I found this book very interesting. I was obviously familiar with the story already, but I really enjoyed hearing about the events from Esther’s point of view. I’m still a bit unsure as to whether these are actual translations of the diaries that were found or if they’ve been expounded on. However, it was an enjoyable book, and very well written. Once I started it, I had a very hard time putting it down!

Reviewed by: Sarah Porter