Two women occupy a place in Herod’s court. The first, Salome, is the king’s only sister, a resentful woman who has been told she is from an inferior race, a people God will never accept or approve. The second woman, Zara, is a lowly handmaid who serves Salome, but where Salome spies conspiracies and treachery, Zara sees hurting people in need of understanding and compassion. Powerful and …
Powerful and powerless, Idumean and Jew, selfish and selfless–both women struggle to reach their goals and survive in Herod the Great’s tumultuous court, where no one is trustworthy and no one is safe.
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This is the 4th book in a series, The Silent Years. I did not read any of the previous books and that really didn’t matter. It can be a standalone book very easily. It is a fictionalized history story, but quite true to actual events. It is also a Christian fiction but not overly “Christian” or preachy, less than most of Angela Hunt’s books, but still, God is displayed in Zara’s life. Zara is the handmaid to Salome.
The characters are very well written and quite believable. The story seems very true to history and at times is quite gruesome as Herod could be very cruel.
The story goes back and forth between Salome and Zara and tells the story from two different perspectives. One, Salome the princess/king’s sister, the other, Zara a Jewish handmaid.
I enjoyed the book. Towards the end, I was afraid I would not want to read the ending but I was pleasantly surprised. If you enjoy Biblical or historical fiction you will enjoy this book. Angela Hunt is a gifted author and I enjoy reading her books. This is no exception. I give this 5 out of 5 stars.
I requested and was granted this book through Netgalley to read and review. I was not required to give the review and the review is totally my honest opinion.
King’s Shadow is a fitting end to the Silent Years series, bringing readers to the time of the Messiah’s birth and flight to Egypt. As always with Angela Hunt, the story is well-researched, and seeing Herod through the eyes of a loyal sister gave it a unique perspective.
This is an account of two women in Herod’s court and even though their stories are written in first-person, it was easy for me to follow because the author has labeled each chapter with the name of the person speaking. Salome is the sister of King Herod and she is very loyal to her brother; Zara is a young Jewish girl who is chosen to be Salome’s handmaid at age nine and she remains in this position for many years. It is during these years that we see the intrigue that occurred during this king’s reign, when deceit and murder were commonplace and political unrest was prevalent. Salome was a complicated person who greatly changed during this story but it was Zara that I loved best. Her dedication to Salome remained steadfast and her compassion and loyalty earned her Salome’s respect. It is only when she is offered a chance for love and happiness in her own life that Zara considers leaving Salome. “Years ago I promised to serve you, but the time has come—I am now asking you to free me from that promise.” (p. 266)
It is evident that Angela Hunt devoted a lot of research into these 400 years between the Old Testament prophets and the beginning of the New Testament and she has weaved true facts and fictional details into an enjoyable biblical fiction novel. Hunt does an excellent job with her mentions of Herod’s harem, his willingness to kill even his family, and I was especially intrigued by the detailed descriptions of Zara’s attention to Salome’s hair! In the author notes Hunt reveals that hairbrushes and hairpins had not invented in the first century before Christ so she had to make adjustments in this story. All of these things will make fans of historical fiction appreciate this last book in the The Silent Years series.
I received a complimentary copy of this book from Bethany House and I am voluntarily sharing my thoughts in this review.
This author has a unique way of taking historical facts that I might have overlooked and turning them into the intriguing backgrounds of her novels.. As I began reading the first chapter, I was not quite sure I was interested enough to finish the book. But I kept reading, and I’m glad I did. Angela Hunt brought that time period of Biblical history alive for me. I was caught up in the palace intrigue, but also understood much more clearly the plight of the Jews under Herod’s reign.
Viewing this story through two completely different viewpoints was absorbing. Salome, the sister of King Herod, lives her life to protect Herod and his reign. Zara is a Jewish girl, who, at the young age of nine years old, becomes Salome’s personal attendant. Zara views everything that happens in the palace through the eyes of her faithful Jewish upbringing and the Torah. She quickly learns how to survive in a household that political enemies are literally around every corner and it’s difficult to know who to trust.
As this story follows the years of Herod’s descent into near madness and much tragedy occurs, things become much more dangerous for both Salome and Zara. When the magi come to Herod about the birth of “the new King”, Zara, her husband, and their new baby boy are in harm’s way. The ending to this story was surprising and very special.
The gritty realities of Herod’s reign might make this book a little edgy for some readers. The author handles everything in an appropriate way, but it’s still grisly at times, especially the death of Herod’s wife. This book needs to be read by no younger than the “young adult” category.
I received a copy of this book from the publisher. All opinions are my own.
An intriguing look into the political mechanisms of Rome and Jerusalem during the Silent Years between the two testaments. Angela Hunt not only did her research, she balanced what we know with logical assumptions and created a beautiful story of the power struggle in Jerusalem, Rome, Egypt, and the surrounding governments. She also kept the highly confusing royal persons with the same names under control, mentioning them as appropriate but bringing only the necessary ones to the forefront.
I loved how she balanced Salome, Herod’s loyal sister, with sympathy and doubt, particularly as she aged and saw the results of her and her family’s actions. Her Jewish handmaid added to the sister’s complexity, pouring in biblical wisdom and concern, often without making it obvious that’s what was happening.
Although this is the last book in the series which I purposely picked up to learn more about Herod the Great, I loved it enough that I want to go back and read the other books.
A good book — which seems all too much like our modern times! The palace was full of intrigue, lies and accusations in Herod’s court around the time of Christ. No one could be trusted. I’ve always been confused by all the Herods in that family. I’m still not sure I have them straight, but I learned a lot about the signs of the times.
I love biblical/historical fiction. The Silent Years gave me pause to think about the struggles of the Jewish people trying to keep their faith in God, living among the Roman world, awaiting the promised Messiah. The whole series Is very thought provoking and heart wrenching. Angela always does a stellar job.
WHY I CHOOSE THIS BOOK
In July of 2017, I received the first book in The Silent Years series for review. It’s titled Egypt’s Sister and totally intrigued me. I’d never read a book that took place during the Silent Years before, and I right away set about researching that time period.
Over the last couple of years, I bought books 2 (Judah’s Wife which I gave three stars) and 3 (Jerusalem’s Queen which also got three stars from me) when they were released. The crazy thing I was didn’t even really like the storyline of either of those books, but the writing, world-building, and research were so well done that I kept going with the series. When this book was released I jumped at the chance to review it.
WHAT I THOUGHT ABOUT THIS BOOK
My admiration for the author is strong. I can’t even imagine the number of historical documents she had to shift through to write this book, nor how much notetaking she had to commit to in order to keep everything straight. Considering the sheer amounts of Herod’s, Alexandra/Alexander’s, and Mariamne’s that were mentioned in this book I’m amazed by how smoothly the storyline flowed and how well I was able to understand what was going on. Seriously though, why did everyone use the same names? (Actually, not seriously, I understand why.)
As far as storylines go, I thought the author made a bold (and wise) move by having the story be from the perspective of the “bad guy” – although you never feel like that when you’re reading. Most of the story is told by Salome, the sister of Herod, a person who was very loyal to him. Therefore, as we read about the atrocities that Herod committed, it’s through the eyes of someone who’s only seeing his best and always justifying his actions. If you were reading the book just paying attention to tone instead of content, then it would seem that everything that is going on is perfectly normal and acceptable. It’s only when you stop and consider what is actually happening that you realize how terrible it really is.
This perspective was well done and made the story flow in a way that I’m not used to. Instead of focusing on emotions that you’d normally feel while reading about someone in history doing horrible things, those violent acts were just stated as facts and then you move on. For instance, when King Herod had someone he’d loved very much be executed, he then went crazy for a while. Since we’re reading from the perspective of Salome, we focus on her sadness that her brother is having a hard time, and the way she tries to help him, vs. the fact that the man is a brutal, savage madman.
Because of this lack of emotion and the way Salome merely recites facts (“And then he had 300 Jews killed in a mad fit, but hey – the guy has to protect his throne.”) it made the book a lot more bearable to read than if it had gone into how horrible everything was. If this story was merely fiction I wouldn’t have liked the approach at all, but since it’s based on true facts I appreciated being able to read and learn this way.
The other perspective is from Zara (a made-up character) who is Salome’s Jewish handmaid. Her chapters weren’t very often, but she did provide an interesting balance to Salome’s cut-throat and scheming ways. Since her perspective isn’t really prevalent in the story I felt like we didn’t get to know her well as a character, but I have nothing bad to say about her.
The book covers about a 30ish year period of time, which isn’t something I generally like, but for the sake of this story, I think it was well-done.
I’ve learned so much through this series, and I find myself being satisfied with King’s Shadow as the final book.
CONCLUSION
There’s a lot of horrible stuff that goes on in the book. So much plotting, killing, torture (not in detail) scheming, lying, and un-holy relationships.
But, nothing was written in detail (probably about as much as if you were reading the Bible), and I think the author did a really good job of making the time period come alive without saying too much. I think I would recommend this book to people fifteen and older.
RATING
I’m giving King’s Shadow 4 out of 5 stars. I’m thankful to Bethany House Publishers for giving me a copy so I could review it for y’all.
King’s Shadow takes the reader on a journey with an interesting perspective on the life and rule of King Herod through the eyes of his sister Salome and her handmaid Zara.The level of research that went into this story was highly evident. While creative license was taken to fill in the holes so that a full-length novel could be written, it was easily seen that the author took great effort to be respective of Biblical history.
One thing that stuck out to me in this novel was the emphasis on what motivates people most in making decisions. There were several points in the story that you see Salome reflecting on whether Herod was being fueled by his heart or by fear. You could see that over time his confidence left him and fear started to run his life. It was interesting to me to see this as more of a slow fade rather than something that happened overnight. I think it’s easy for us to look at others and think “I would never do that,” but in this story we see a man who thought he would never do a number of things, and yet the more he felt threatened the more he responded in fear instead of looking to and trusting God.
I was surprised by how emotionally connected I felt to this novel. The characters were impeccably developed and the setting was clearly palpable. While I admit that there were moments that felt like the story dragged, for the most part I found it highly engaging. This is one I’d easily recommend to Biblical fiction fans.
*I received a copy of this book from Bethany House Publishers. Thoughts and opinions expressed are mine alone.
Salome was the only sister of King Herod, and lived with him in his Jerusalem palace. Despite Herod ruling with an iron fist, Salome was his biggest fan. She constantly rationalized his bad behavior saying it was the result of his people not appreciating, and loving their king. Zara, who lost both parents because of their part in an uprising against Herod, becomes Salome’s handmaid—at the tender age of nine!
Although Herod is remembered as a brute, the author humanizes him, and shows him as a misunderstood ruler, at least in Salome’s eyes. But his story cannot be told without the inclusion the many murders he was responsible for, including a number of his family members.
Zara was the one bright light in this tale. She serves Salome well, without blaming her for the loss of her family. Eventually, she meets Ravid whose teachings bring her closer to God, HaShem. Other than the time she spent supporting Herod, Salome was a very self-centered individual.
Herod was a troubled person who lived a disturbing life, which was the over-riding theme of this story. That shines through no matter how human the book tries to present him, even if that was his sister’s opinion. Biblical history fans will enjoy the thorny story in this 4-star book. Bethany House Publishing has provided bookreadingtic with a complimentary copy of King’s Shadow for the purpose of review.
3.5 stars
“Moses called him friend. David called him Lord. What do you call Him?”
Two of the women living in Herod’s palace are subject to his every whim ; his sister Salome and by association her Jewish handmaiden, Zara; who entered into her palatial employ at the tender age of nine years old. While Herod’s reign is fraught with paranoia and family betrayals, Salome is intensely loyal to her brother; going to great lengths to ensure that those around him remain devoted to his sovereignty.
Quietly serving her mistress, Zara is fully committed to Salome’s well-being, even when she is called upon to testify before the king’s court. As she grows and matures, Zara’s head knowledge of her faith takes root in her heart under the tutelage of a young, dynamic Essene teacher named Ravid. What worries her is this, ” Herod did not seem to mind HaShem sitting on the throne of heaven, but if for one moment he thought Adonai wanted to sit on the throne of Jerusalem, Herod would mount a war against heaven itself”.
In spite of the fascinating historical value of this story, it felt weighted with details that at times usurped the power of its words and clouded the intrigue underneath its perspective. What is abundantly clear however, is that God’s timing was perfect; birthing the King of Kings and Lord of Lords into a tremulous period of human history.
I received a copy of this book from the publisher. The opinions stated above are entirely my own.
3.5 Stars
It’s difficult to put into perspective the 400-year time span between the old and new testaments, but in King’s Shadow, Angela Hunt brings some of that time to life. Readers are given a glimpse into King Herod’s reign (leading up Jesus’s birth and his demand that every boy under the age of two be eliminated in order to eradicate the threat to his throne).
Hunt’s research is impeccable and evident throughout the book as historical and Biblical characters cross the pages. Through the eyes of Salome (Herod’s sister) and her handmaid (Zara), readers get a view of the King’s Court through two different perspectives.
While that got confusing at times (even more so because many of the characters had the same or similar names), the scheming, backstabbing, and paranoia are plenty obvious.
I’ve read several of Hunt’s other Biblical fiction novels and enjoyed them a little more. But if you’re interested in this history or what led up to Herod’s demand of killing of an entire generation of boys, this may be the book for you.
Disclosure statement:
I receive complimentary books from publishers, publicists, and/or authors, including NetGalley. I am not required to write positive reviews. The opinions I have expressed are my own. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255.
King’ s Shadow tells a bit of history I knew nothing about. It was obviously well researched and is well written. I did get confused at times with the characters and situations, but I think it’s because I have no reference point. I enjoyed this story and learned a lot about Herod’s Court and the people who occupied it. Really fascinating historical fiction. Thanks to NetGalley for an arc in exchange for an honest review.