Melissa Rosenberger is a new to me author and I am grateful that I was introduced to her work. She is the perfect combination of Tessa Afshar and Connilyn Cossette to me. She flawlessly blends fiction, historical facts and biblical accounts together to craft and a heart gripping story. This story follows the life of Yeshua through the eyes of his sister Hannah. It shows the familial relationships between the family of Yeshua and how he may have interacted with his younger siblings.

Hannah is the second oldest child of Mary's children but the first born of Joseph's. At the beginning of the story we see an 8 year old little girl yearning for her parents attention. She becomes resentful of her older brother Yeshua and grows to believe things that don't align with God's will for her life. We grow with Hannah to the age of 30 and see her life unfold.

Hannah was so aggravating to me! She mainly irritated me, but I could also somewhat relate to her feelings a bit. Hannah made everything about her at all times. She didn't care to think about others too much. She wanted to be pampered and treated like royalty which in turn made her compromise the law in certain aspects. Seeing her follow her own path even though Yeshua always kept his arms open gutted me. She made her life miserable by running away from him. It wasn't until the end that she began to truly acknowledge the truth of who Yeshua was.

Yeshua was PHENOMENAL! Seeing him from the age of 12 to 33 and hearing of his ministry through friends and family was intriguing. He was a humble person from beginning to end. He was full of compassion and grace for all. He never discriminated or withheld his love from others. He was full of godly wisdom and showed how much he and the Father was one.

Elan was such a humble and loving man! He made me happy. I wish he had a better end romance wise. He was hardworking, caring and his faith was unshakable from a young age. He believed Yeshua was the Anointed One and had no qualms with stating his belief in him. Elan was also wise in his ways. I adored him.

Miryam (Mary) was a mother -- lol. What I mean by that is that you could see her humanity. She got angry and felt hurt by the words of Yeshua, but she also knew he had purposed and who his true Father was. She was hesitant as any mother should be, but she allowed Yeshua to be who he was meant to be. She never held him back.

Olmer and his parents, Gal & Raziela, were all twisted men. They were Sadducees who were concerned with earthly wealth, prosperity and views of man. They feared Herod and the Romans more than God. I disliked each of them from the very beginning.

Ya'akov (James), Yosi (Joseph) Shim'on (Simon) and Y'hudah (Jude) -- the brothers of Yeshua -- were all so uniquely written. There wasn't much of Y'hudah as he was the youngest. Shim'on reminded me of my son in the early parts of the book. As a five year old he cracked me up. I don't remember much of Yosi, but I loved Ya'akov. They all seemed to love Yeshua, but they also didn't fully understand him at the same time.

Shlomit (Salome) the younger of all the siblings was adorable. Like Elan, her faith in Yeshua was amazing. She was only an infant at the beginning of the story, but to see her have more faith in her brother then the older siblings was insane. She was awesome.

The faith within this story was phenomenal. For me, I learned to just trust in Jesus from the beginning. Earthly wealth and riches have no true meaning and will always leave you feeling just as empty as you were from the start. Seeing Yeshua touch many lives in this story and hearing the miracles he performed from others was amazing.

The world-building was just as great. I was pulled into the time and locations each turn of the page.

I highly recommend this book to all!

I have so many feels over this book.

On the one hand, I really didn’t like the main character, Hannah. But on the other hand, I saw a lot of myself in her, my own faults that I dislike so much. I could see where she would make the choices she did. I think the author intended me to feel the way I did.

I’m not a huge fan of books that are based on the Bible, since so often the scripture is watered down and then you are left with a saccharine story. But I give author credit, she did a marvelous job in not doing that. She developed the believable story of what Jesus’ family might have been like. We know he had brothers and sisters, and she captured these people in a way that I could buy. I’ve always sort of thought of James as a “prickly” guy. She captures that. I loved they way she wrote Mary and Joseph. Plus, I appreciated that she used the Jewish names for people, places and holidays.

I’ll be watching for the sequel.