If you have a sister, you will likely find this book familiar; with rivalries, misunderstandings, drama and resolution. Under all of it there is love.
The story of Jacob and Rachel and Leah and Laban is in Genesis in the Holy Bible. This is a fiction account of how events may have transpired. I, personally, did not care much for the ending. I picked up Genesis and read from Abraham on, and was shocked (after all these years of reading the Bible) at how women were treated. I'm not a feminist, and certainly times were different then, but the status of women was most definitely different than today.
I did enjoy his writing style, however. This is my first Orson Scott Card book, and he mostly writes science fiction, although in the acknowledgments (not so labeled) he mentions a series he has written on women of the Bible.
What I learned most from the book is how often we misinterpret what someone is saying and take offense when none was intended, and how much a conscious change of effort to be positive and not take offense will change everything. If that interests you I would highly recommend this book rather than a self-help book.

This is the third book in a row that I am giving a 3-star rating. I feel so wishy-washy. The actual writing was certainly a 4 for me, but some of the liberties he took with the characters brings my overall rating down to a 3. I am not sure I buy into his wedding night scenario, either. But hey, its the Old Testament--truth really is stranger than fiction. :)

Good, but I didn't like it as much as the first two. Also, kind of disappointing to know that the sequel is not written...

I finished this pretty quickly. It was good. Nothing mind-blowing, but I thought it was paced nicely, although the ending was a bit abrupt.

If you love this... Be sure to pick up 'the red tent'!!

Out of the three stories Card wrote about the biblical women I didn't like this one the most. Two sisters pitted against each other in a fight over love, children and recognition is a real theme but one I do not wish to visit.

I am familiar with biblical Jacob's story. First of all from Joseph and his Brothers, a monumental book by Thomas Mann. Thomas Mann was most interested with complicated relations of Biblical characters with God, women were left as the background.
So I welcomed Rachel and Leah as a worthy addition of woman's point of view.
I was quite pleased with first few chapters, different characters of two sisters, daughters of Laban, Jacob's uncle. I welcomed addition of Bilhah and Zilpah, two women with unfortunate childhood, but with strong characters.
I enjoyed witty dialogues with gentle humor and bits of spite.
But there remained few hundred pages to read, will all be just a lighthearted banter?
No, author introduced a significant element - reading holy books, the word of God.
It looks to me like an author's invention, there is no mention in the Bible of any books passed between Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.
Another point is Jacob, the book pictures him as a man of great depth and faith, it rather contradicts the biblical story.
Anyway, I do not mind some deviation from the biblical path, but as for me there was too much about influence of holy texts on Leah character.
Finally we come to the climax of the story - wedding of Jacob and a daughter(s) of Laban. I was very interested how the author solved this puzzle? Well, again he resorted to God, faith and love. On one hand I do not see any other peaceful solution, on the other it was choosing an easy way out.
Summarizing - I read this book with some interest, but I will not read other biblical stories by this author.

I love reading books that fill out the Bible story and help me imagine what it would have been like to be there!

I appreciate the author trying to breathe life and familiarity into scriptural characters, but I didn't much care for the way he portrayed women as fickle or petty. There was character development and character growth, but in the end I wasn't really satisfied with where the story went.

For some reason Orson Scott Card had decided to split the story of Rachel and Leah into multiple books so he can torture us with endless conversations between one of The Prophets and the four women who eventually provide him with descendants as numerous as the stars. Card projects modern morality and a thin veneer of feminism onto his biblical fanfiction. This story also greatly suffered from Card's tendency to explain every single thing to the reader, often having characters argue with themselves about the possible outcomes of their actions before arguing with their future sister wife about the potential outcomes of their actions, and finally going to The Prophet Jacob to discuss the potential outcomes of their actions.

Similarly to the other stories in the Women of Genesis series, the line of Abraham is Messiahlike in all things, meaning they have never done anything wrong and they're really smart and logical. Any time a son of Abraham appears to have made a mistake or committed an offence, it was only because the womenfolk forced their hand (Rebekah), or the people around them aren't logical and smart enough to understand their true godly motives. The one difference here between Jacob and his predecessors? At the end of this book, Jacob The Prophet marries two women and despite being a shepherd virgin who promised himself to a 12 year old - we learn that Jacob Fucks and He's Really Good At It.

This series had a myriad of challenges, and while I appreciate the half-hearted attempt at feminism and the high stakes of adapting religious text as a public LDS figure, it was overall disappointing. By including the stories of Bilhah and Zilpah alongside their mistresses Leah and Rachel, the narrative starts out promising - making you believe that this is going to be a fascinating slice of social life in the desert. Ultimately, Bilhah and Zilpah (despite their endless and repetitive inner monologues about their place in society: Bilhah is an orphan, Zilpah has no dad and big tiddies) serve as plot devices for their mistresses, along with every single other character in the camp. Rachel and Leah's brothers are reduced to moustache twirling villains that are immediately thwarted by Jacob The Prophet's incredible logic and reasoning before they even become a threat. And Laban, once depicted as a normal human being with normal human flaws when he was the brother of Rebekah becomes an honorary son of Abraham when he becomes a father. Fathers in this series are always depicted as 'way nicer and wiser than other desert dads'. Here, his famous grift of sending his first daughter to marry The Prophet becomes something necessary due Rachel's fear of intimacy.

The ongoing trend in the Women of Genesis series is the ongoing emotional and mental torture of The Prophet's family. Since they are chosen by God, the path they walk is righteous but full of random dangers that can be easily thwarted because they are smarter and more logical than your average man. Women are not as smart or logical though so that's why their torture is more torturous, but also women of The Prophet are gracious and better at withstanding torture than the other girls.

After 7 years of toiling, The Prophet is tricked into marrying and sleeping with Leah, instead of the younger sister he fell in love with when she was 12. Somehow this section of the book comes across as a comedy of errors - the switcheroo occurs but it is somehow also no one's fault. It is devastating that Leah, after her years of coming to terms with being unmarriageable because she's kind of blind and kind of a killjoy - comes to accept her fate as an unwanted bride. Rachel marries The Prophet a week later to allow Leah a single week alone with her husband who clearly loves her sister more than her. There's a small attempt to discuss the lack of sexual education among nomadic historical figures of the desert (notably Card dedicates a paragraph to say that periods are honorable, still icky tho), but in the end, Jacob The Prophet Fucks.

Although the general story line was appealing, I found the characters of Rachel and Leah to be portrayed as very juvenile with great swathes of tedious dialogue between the two main characters. The protracted angst was tiresome. I sometimes felt the story was written for a YA (young adult) audience. I found myself bored and skipped over portions of dialogue simply for these reasons.

Not nearly as good as Sarah (which I gave 4 stars), but much better than Rebekah (2 stars). I did not like the end of the book, either as non-fiction or as fiction. But it was well written and held my interest.