I really enjoy Biblical fiction books and this one was no exception. While there is no replacement for reading the true story from the Bible, for me, it is a lot of fun to read the stories with all the added dimensions that the authors bring to them. It is fun to imagine along with the author what the characters may have been thinking, and learning more about the times in which the people lived.

This is the story of Sarai, wife (and half-sister) of Abram. The prologue starts out with the wedding of Lot (Sarai and Abram's nephew) to his wife Melah - then it jumps 15 years into the future. Melah is trying to get Sarai to make a sacrifice to her (Melah's god) to try to help her conceive a child. Sarai gets as far as the temple steps and then turns and runs. She cannot be unfaithful to Abram's God, Adonai.

The theme running through the story is about Abram and Sarai's vows - that Sarai would give Abram a son and that if she did, then Abram would never take another wife. Abram had also received a promise from Adonai that he would have a son and his descendants would be great, but that he needed to leave his father's household and go to a land that He would tell him to go to. Sarai and Abram go through many many years waiting for the promise of a son. They travel through many lands, including Egypt, where Abram almost loses Sarai to the Pharoah because he claims Sarai is his sister, not his wife. He thought he could protect her better that way -- but Adonai sends an illness to the wives and children of the Pharaoh and the truth comes out. Sarai and Abram are sent on their way, unharmed.

I don't think that I would be spoiling this for anyone if I tell them that Sarai does eventually bear a son, Isaac, in her old age, just as God had promised. This is where the book comes to a satisfying conclusion. I hope that I get to read more of the Wives of the Patriarch books in the future.