Though I am reasonably familiar with Sarah of the Old Testament and the Bible events surrounding her, I enjoyed reading Orson Scott Card's book about Sarah, her husband Abraham, and their contemporaries. It is to Card's credit that he can tell a story in such an engaging way that you can't wait to find out what is going to happen next (even though you already know!). He lays out the story with details and conversations that are believeable without taking too many liberties.

I so wanted to like this book, becoming thrilled with I found it, wanting to read some of Card’s Christian fiction for a while. But I struggled reading it. The start was very interesting to me, on how Sarai is promised to become a priestess for the goddess Asherah, while Qira, her older sister is to marry a desert prince named Lot. Sarai's thoughts on a life as a priestess change when Lot arrives with his uncle Abram who promises Sarai that he'll come back and marry her.

But, once Sarai marries Abram and moves into the desert, living in a Tent, the story got very boring and tedious for me. Since, it seems in this book, Abrahm is already on his way to becoming a Hebrew, as I always thought it was a great divine revelation that over took him? Also, this story moved too slowly for me, having to wait for all the important parts, since for a few chapters Abram and his wife are in Egypt, which I felt wasn't needed.

I did enjoy the characters, sure may seemed a little one-dimensional, but love how Qira’s, Sarah’s older sister, becomes a big snob and socialite, the opposite of Sarah.
Anyway, I would have cut out, most of the middle chapters, and develop the later chapters a little more, as I felt the end was a bit rushed.

So, yes, a little disappointed with this book. I am sure, there are better books out there, on Sarah, the wife of Abraham, and will try to track them down. As, love the story of Abraham, but not this one.

Did not follow the biblical record hardly at all. Very very loosely based on the actual account. If you are looking for biblical fiction that actually follows the biblical account do not use this author!

I enjoyed getting to read one imagination of who Sarah was and what she really felt. Orson Scott Card does an excellent job of humanizing her. But some of the other characters feel flat and two dimensional - particularly Qira, the character he wrote to give life to Lot’s wife. In his attempt to make clear that the righteous father and mother of the house or Israel are the heroes of the story, the author writes the “villains” to be crueler and less nuanced. The characters consequently become either too good or too evil to be relatable, depriving the story of some meaning and relevancy for the reader.