This was a wonderful telling of a biblical time. While some biblical fiction books are better than others, this was definitely better. It was well written and edited which are huge issues for me. So, if you like a good biblical fiction story I’d say you should check this one out.

A multi-decade saga of the legacy of Judah's most renown king, Hezekiah, as told through the eyes of his wife.



I love the way that Mesu Andrews brings Biblical culture to life, and this book is no exception, as she shows the struggle of a king to set himself apart from his father before him. I like how this book brought a humanity to Hezekiah, and showed that while he was incredibly faithful in many ways, he was also far from perfect, and fell short.



This book also brought a humanity to Isaiah, God's prophet, showing his struggles, and how following God was far from easy, taking into consideration how it might have affected his family.



I had high expectations for this book and it didn't disappoint, and crazy story but our pastor was preaching over Hezekiah's life for 2 months before I read this book, so I had pretty good background knowledge going in. Well constructed characters, and fantastic storytelling with respect to the history. This book did a great job of imagining the political and spiritual tensions, showing actions and consequence. Zibah struggles with fear, and the pressures of her position. I especially liked the friendship between Zibah an Yaira, as they support and encourage each other through many dark days. I loved the powerful message of God being the only true source of goodness and steadfastness.





I received a complimentary copy of this book. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own.

Mesu Andrews is a superb author and her books never disappoint. Rich in research and lush historical descriptions; the Bible comes to life in these pages.
Young Zibah is adopted by the prophet Isaiah. You follow her life as she comes to terms with the devastation of her family and finds peace.
Andrews includes a character map which comes in handy. While I enjoy her books immensely, they're 'thinkers'....one must pay attention to the story to truly enjoy it. She doesn't write fluff fiction.
I just finished the sequel to this book, Isaiah's Legacy, and highly recommend both of them.

The amount of detail and research that must have gone into the writing of this book amazes me. Ishma and Yaira come into Isaiah's house with nothing. Ishma is an orphan and Yaira has only her brother, who is also a prophet.
Mesu Andrews never gives the reader half the story. In Isaiah's Daughter, we are able to read about Ishma's life from the age of six, all the way up until she is well past maturity. The love story between her and Hezekiah is profound and not at all simple.
Watching the characters grow and mature into the kings and queens of the past creates quite an interesting storyline, and I'm always waiting to see how the entire plot will work out. Although I've read the stories of Isaiah from the Bible, seeing them from this perspective holds a new light to facts I've known for years.
There's a certain amount of vivid detail included in Isaiah's Daughter that I came to appreciate. Seeing the world through the eyes of the characters, feeling the clothing through their perceptions, immersed me in their world. And it was a world I was not ready to leave, even when the book ended.
I requested a copy of this book from NetGalley. I was not required to leave a positive review. All thoughts and opinions expressed are my own.

I love biblical novels because they help me to visualize in my mind what a person is really like when the bible sometimes doesn't always give us all the details about who a person is. This book brought to life the person who is one of the most well known biblical prophets of all time, Isaiah. This book brings the characters we know from the bible to life as real people with the story telling and the way this story is laid out. Well done, and anyone who loves biblical novels will love this one as well!

I enjoy reading biblical fiction and wonder how I could have missed Mesu Andrew's books all this time! Really enjoyed reading Isaiah's Daughter and it has forever changed the way I view King Hezi! I was surprised to learn that the paperback edition of this title is 300-400 pages. I literally breezed through the book without realising how big it is! It was that captivating. (I read on my Kindle.)

I admire the author's ability to write this great story on Queen Zibah though I believe her name was only mentioned once in the Bible. What a wonderful skill of research and imagination! I was totally unaware of the queen’s existence in history until now.

Thank you WaterBrook & Multnomah and Netgalley for the ebook. This is my honest review.

Title: Isaiah’s Daughter
Author: Mesu Andrews
Genre: Biblical fiction
Rating: 4.5 out of 5

After she loses her family to war, Ishma—desolation—is a child grieving and frightened when she is taken in by the prophet Isaiah and his wife. She grows up in their home but fear still lurks when she sets eyes on a soldier. Since Isaiah is out of favor with the king, he has been tasked with teaching the young noblemen, and Ishma is introduced to young Prince Hezekiah when he is traumatized from his brother’s ritual sacrifice.

Ishma and Hezi are close friends as they grow up, but his father’s evil reign separates them for years, despite their love for each other. Until Isaiah adopts Ishma and gives her a new name, Zibah, delight of the Lord, which also makes her one of the nobility—and eligible to marry the prince. But Zibah must overcome her fears and learn to trust in the Lord if she is ever to end up where she truly wishes to be.

I’ve only read two of Mesu Andrews’ books—so far—but I love how she brings stories from the Bible to vibrant, breathing life! As Ishma grows from a frightened, traumatized child to a loving and faithful adult, the reader is drawn along on her journey—and learns truth along with her. I cannot recommend Mesu Andrews and her novels enough!

Mesu Andrews has been writing since her chronic illness over 20 years ago. Isaiah’s Daughter is the first in the Prophets and Kings series.

(Galley courtesy of WaterBrook via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.)

Hepzibah in the scriptures is the adopted daughter of Isaiah, the wife of Hezekiah, Judahs's most righteous king and mother to Manasseh, who becomes Judah's wickedness ruler.
How is it possible to become a Queen when you are but an orphan? Hepzibah and her friend Yaira are all that remain of her household. They are taken to Judah where they ate taken in by Isaiah and his family. Isaiah is a prophet. He has brought prophecy to King Ahaz about worshipping idols. The king didn't like the prophecies so demoted Isaih to royal scholar.
There he teaches the young royalty and other high class boys about the prophecies and worshipping Yahweh.
Hezekiah and Hephzibah met when she is five years old. Hezekiah has been in catatonic state since he witnessed his older brother sacrificed to Molek. Hephzibah was able to bring him out of that state. They study together and play together. They fall in love. The regent king cannot marry someone who is not of royal birth. Isaiah and his wife adopt Hephzibah. Then she is able to marry her best friyand rule by his side.
There is a lot more to this story. You will have to read the book to be able to truly appreciate these characters. Thos is an excellent read. Interesting and mind shattering and it's based on fact.

This was my first Biblical historical fiction read, and I really enjoyed it! I was fascinated with how the author played on the history, and created a character that left me wondering how much of her was truly real. Andrews is such a great story teller and historian it was difficult to see where the fiction was woven into the truth. I loved our characters and their love for God, but also their struggles to stay close to Him. Tragedy’s would hit and our characters would have very human reactions, and because of grace were forgiven. I do wish that there was a trigger warning for miscarriages and infertility. I myself suffer from infertility, and because of that the last part of the book was extremely hard to get through. Overall I really enjoyed this read, and I look forward to reading more from Andrews.

I really enjoyed reading about this in time in history,and it's all true! Wonderful characters in the book and some of people in this story are true to life! The story has you smacking your head on why somethings were done now far as have come since this time in their history! God is present all through this story showing you any thing is possible if you believe!! 😌. You will enjoy this book if you like Christian stories!! This story goes along with the Bible!!

I've wanted to read this book (and try out the author) for a while now, so when I was approved to receive a NetGalley copy of the book, I was pretty pumped. Below I'm going to give three pros and three cons, then let y'all know why I decided to stop reading the book. 

Pros: 
*It made Isaiah's time period in the Bible become so much more alive to me. Recently when I was reading the Bible I was like "Oh! I recognize these names!" and they felt so much more human to me
*The writing really is well done and it seems like the author did a huge amount of research 
*The plot was interesting and the characters likable 

Cons:
*The writing style isn't one I found easy to delve into - I was constantly being pulled out of the story to try and catch up with the style. This is obviously totally personal and therefore something a lot of y'all wouldn't deal with 
*The book is really heavy. There's a lot of bad stuff that happens and I found myself somewhat dreading picking up the story to continue
*The story is 400 pages long, and a lot of bad stuff can happen in 400 pages 

Those last two points in the "cons" list is why I DNFed the book - it was just too heavy for me to want to continue. I want to make sure I note, though, that I don't feel like the book was too heavy. Isaiah's time period had a lot of bad stuff happen, and so this book was realistic. I also don't feel like it went into too much detail. It was just too much and too heavy for me at this time. 

Still, I'm rating the book three stars because I think that it will be a great book for some people. 

I'd be delighted to hear your thoughts - have you read any books by this author? What did you think of them? Should I give her another try? 

Also, do y'all like hearing thoughts periodically on books that I don't finish?

Isaiah’s daughter is a wonderful biblical fiction novel by Mesu Andrews. She brings to life lesser known figures in the Bible while not being afraid to describe the struggles and challenges they faced. This book makes readers want to open their Bible after reading it. I recommend this book.

I received a complimentary copy of this book from WaterBrook & Multnomah through NetGalley and was not required to write a positive review. All opinions expressed are mine.

Once again Mesu Andrews brings us an epic story of prophetic proportions. We're brought into an amazing story of prophecy and God's timing. It even shows that miracles happened more frequently than not in ancient days. God watches his beloved people turn to idolatry and for this they suffer the consequences.

I was immediately drawn into the novel. This is a brilliant new series, and I can't wait for the next book.

I was drawn to and interested in reading "Isaiah's Daughter", Mesu Andrews' latest biblical fiction novel, because I’ve already read a couple of her books, and she has become one of my favourite authors. I enjoy reading biblical fiction by various writers and learning more about the context and the culture of Bible times. I also like to read and study the Bible and I find that Mesu Andrews’ novels help to bring the Bible to life.

Mesu spends time researching for the content of her books. Her book includes what we know from the Bible, what Mesu has learned from the Jewish Midrash and her God-given imagination. She expertly weaves everything together to create an enjoyable and informative read.

The idea of Hephzibah being the daughter of Isaiah comes from Jewish tradition and Mesu expands on this to bring the story of Hephzibah to life.

One of the themes in the book is learning to trust God’s plan for the future, even if present circumstances seem to be telling us the opposite. When Ishma questions God’s purpose for her Isaiah replies, “His plan for you in this moment is to be faithful where you are. That’s a truth we must all embrace.”

As we read through the book we see Ishma grow from a child to a queen, and just as she grows and develops physically, we see her faith in God grow. She learns that real peace can only be found in a relationship with God, not in other things or other people.

In her novel, Mesu gives us some of Isaiah’s prophecies along with their interpretations. Whilst still making it clear that sometimes people, even prophets may not always understand them in the way that they are meant by God. It doesn't mean God's given prophesy to a person is wrong, it just means it has been misunderstood by people. It was interesting to read the interpretations, particularly those which were not familiar to me. It was good to consider their meaning from a different perspective. I found her interpretation of one of the prophesies which pointed to King Hezekiah as a foreshadowing of Jesus the Messiah particularly interesting.

I do find some parts of the Bible, especially in the Old Testament difficult to understand. So I really liked that this book helped me to understand a bit more about the lives of some of the key people associated with the time of the Kings of Judah.

One way I determine whether I think an author has written a good biblical fiction novel is if it gives me a desire to go back to the Bible and read for myself what has been referred to in the novel. Mesu's novel did just this for me. I want to read again the book of Isaiah, and the sections in 2 Kings and 1 & 2 Chronicles which relate to King Hezekiah.

I recommend this book for anyone who enjoys reading historical novels, is interested in Bible times or who enjoys having the Bible brought to life in a fresh way.

I love books set in biblical times and this author always has them perfectly accurate! I loved this book!!!

Another fascinating fictionalized Biblical tale by Mesu Andrews. The story of Hepzibah, King Hezekiah 's wife is brought to life in this dramatic novel. Andrews has woven a story that is rich in emotion, description, and action that leaves the reader anticipating the next chapter. A must read!!

I have not read any books by Mesu Andrews before and I'm glad I read this book. The author writes in a way that makes you feel you are actually there, in the wings, watching the story unfold.

The story is a fictionalization of the life of Hezekiah and his wife, Hephzibah. It is mainly about Hephzibah, hence the title. It takes the story from the Bible and uses that as the basic background. The story flows well and the characters are quite believable. What I especially like about this book is that each chapter starts with Bible verses that help you understand why the chapter is like it is.

If you like historical fiction you will enjoy this. If you like Biblical fiction you will really like this. I requested this book through netgalley and this review is my own opinion and freely given

In Mesu Andrews’ book, Isaiah’s Daughter, Ishma, a war captive, is adopted by the prophet Isaiah during a turbulent time in Judah’s history and has an unlikely meeting with a royal prince. Will this relationship grow into something much deeper? Or will darker forces determine both Ishma’s and Judah’s fates?

Isaiah’s Daughter is an intriguing look at Biblical History through the eyes of an unlikely character. It is well-written, well-researched, and a fascinating look at Hezekiah, one of the greatest kings in Judah’s history. The characters of Ishma and Hezekiah are complex, sympathetic, and provide a perfect backdrop to the biblical story itself. To the author’s credit, the attention to historical detail is profound and worthy of recognition.

The narrative in the novel runs a bit long, and the nickname ‘Hezy” does not seem to fit a biblical character and someone of royal stature. However, Isaiah’s Daughter, the first in the Prophets and Kings Series, is a solid offering of biblical fiction, and I look forward to reading Mesu Andrews’ next book.

I was given a free copy from the publisher in exchange for my honest review

This remarkable book focuses proportions of history and prophecy that are included in Hephzibah(Ishma) and King Hezekiah's story. beautiful blend of Fiction and Facts to create a moving tribute to Hezekiah. The story is told through the point of view of Ishma, a Fictional character.

Isaiah’s Daughter by Mesu Andrews
Little Ishma sees the devastation of Old Testament war first hand when her family is destroyed by Israel’s invading army. She is taken captive and travels to Jerusalem where she is taken in by the prophet Isaiah’s family. Because of Isaiah’s position as royal tutor, she grows up with Hezekiah, the crown prince of Judah. After many years, she marries him, her life-long best friend and sweetheart. She learns more and more to trust her God as she navigates the tension between being married to the king and being the daughter of God’s prophet.
This is a beautifully written love story based on the biblical facts of Hezekiah and Isaiah’s life from the Old Testament. The author has carefully researched the culture and history of the time. She uses the facts to flesh out the story of Hezekiah, Isaiah and Ishma or Hepzibah.
Even though they live in a different time, they face the same struggles as God’s people today. Hepzibah grows in her faith and learns to trust God for his timing. Hezekiah learns to lean on God for wisdom to rule his kingdom in difficult times. Through their lives they come to love others—even difficult people.
As a reader, it was interesting to peek into the marriages of some biblical heroes. Although the Bible doesn’t tell us much about these relationships, the author demonstrates enough knowledge of human nature to be able to present very realistic challenges that Hepzibah, Hezekiah, and Isaiah would have faced. One of my biggest disappointments in reading this book was finding out that Manasseh, the long-awaited son of Hezekiah and Hepzibah, was one of Judah’s most evil kings. Because of this book, I will read portions of the Old Testament with a different insight.
I really enjoyed this book and highly recommend it. I regret that having read it on my ipad, I have no paper copy to share. I received a free copy from the publisher for this, my honest review.