Friday, February 4, 2011

The Centurion's Wife, by Janette Oke and Davis Bunn

Yesterday I finished reading The Centurion's Wife.  I meant to post about it last night,but discovered I needed more time to think on it before I did.

I've read other books by Janette Oke.  I have found her writing in the past to be somewhat simplistic and repetitive.  While the stories were good, they were not soul-stirring.  The Centurion's Wife did not have that problem.  I was hooked.  I found the story to be thought provoking and very well written.  Of all her books I have read, this is my favorite.  I am looking forward to continuing the Acts of Faith series (this is book one; books two and three are focused on secondary characters from this one).

When I downloaded this, it was a free download on Kobo.  When I went back today to find the link, I found it is no longer free.  I still encourage you to buy this book.  It is available as an ebook on Kobo here and on Amazon here and in print from Barnes and Noble here

Oke used a simple woman in Pilate's household to show a new side of the story of Jesus' death, burial, and resurrection.  Her retelling of THE story is fascinating.  Having the people from Jesus' story brought to life makes it that much more real.  What I liked the most was the fact that Leah and Alban were both looking for the truth of what happened to "the prophet" and neither were followers of Jesus.  Without changing facts from the Bible, Oke created a story that tied so many major and minor characters together to bring it all to life.

Personally, I think this is a great book to read during the Easter season.  I also think it would be a great companion to a Bible study of the same time.  While you can read this book as merely a story and take it lightly, I found that nearly impossible to do.  To me, it was much more than just a story.

I hope that you enjoy The Centurion's Wife as much as I did.  Let me know what you think of it!

Allyson

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