The story ends unsatisfactorily. The story Card weaves is loosely based on the story of Rachel and Leah. I can't help but note for someone who waves his religion like a banner and attacks people he sees as "sinners", he clearly does not see the Bible as God's literal word. I doubt I care enough about this story to read the promised next part if it was ever actually written.


**spoiler ahead**
**Stop reading now if you don't want to read a spoiler**

Card's version of how Leah ends up married to Jacob is original. Card portrays Rachel as complicit in the situation because she is afraid of marriage and the intimacy between a man and a woman. Rachel agrees to have Leah take her place and Leah, after pretending to be Rachel at the ceremony, believes Jacob knows it's her who is eventually led to his tent in Rachel's place and he accepts her.

His Jacob teaches female servants to read and write and encourages Leah to know God's sacred writings that he happens to have with him.

I didn’t intend to begin the series with the third book but having finished it I have yet to decide if I will go back to read the historical- fan fiction stories of Sarah and Rebekah or find volume 2.

I can’t say I enjoyed it. I might say I was compelled to keep reading though when the women displayed their worst characteristics I had to put it down. Except I did appreciate Leah’s personal spiritual growth. I do have a doubt that, in reality, Laban would have deceived Jacob just because Rachel was terrified that making love wouldn’t be loving at all. It seemed Laban had a loving relationship with his wife, why didn’t he help her understand? And perhaps Jacob would end up being the best husband for Leah, but as he said, more than one wife wouldn’t be as easy as other men claimed. I also have to remind myself that people are complex for the camp Jacob as the perfect man and it was mentioned only a few times how he had stolen Esau’s birthright.

I’m also very curious about Card’s research, literary license, and the LDS influence. Jacob as a prophet? A prince? A perfect shepherd? Was not Esau the husbandman? Was Enoch’s book around? Was it considered holy? Because it was consider cannon by Hebrews later on. Did they know the idea of carrying God’s image? Did Abraham share his calling? They did mention Laban defending his statues as of God (which was against the law which they seem to know some of) and not ba’al. He did little to discipline his sons and also didn’t seem to exert much influence over the behavior in his camp.

Time will tell if I decide to immerse myself back into that world. There are many differences but human nature hasn’t changed.

This was a book club choice by Donna Brown. I haven't ready any Old Testament fiction books before, so I was pretty excited to check it out. Orson Scott Card is a pretty good writer. Sometimes things move slowly in the book - but this was set in the deserts afterall and I can't imagine that anything moves too quickly in sheep herds anyhow. It was a good story... but has definitely piqued my interest to find out what the scriptures have to say about Jacob and his wives.

I was bored here and there, felt like it was for a bit of a younger audience. It didn’t help that the main character had an annoying personality. I do like how Card shows goes in depth with psychology on his characters a great way to learn about healthy and unhealthy methods of coping with difficulties without having to read a book by a psychologist. I also loved Card’s imagination on how he makes his stories seem so plausible, no plot holes with him.

Enjoyable historical fiction

Interesting to read the story of the women in the Bible.

I didn't like this book as much as I liked Sarah. Trying to keep up with four women, their personalities and their fights and jealousies was a bit dramatic and emotional for me.

Excellent storytelling! I am a big fan of The Red Tent and this one tells another perspective of the Biblical tale of two sisters and the man they loved.

A charming, pious retelling of the story from Genesis, featuring anachronistic Biblical texts in Jacob's possession.

Fun to read someone's take on what could have been.

It was really good, but I found some parts improbable, like young girls (10 and 12 years old) speaking maturely of serious matters of life. But it gave me more insight to the Bible story.

I've come to really enjoy fiction based on biblical stories. This is actually the third in a series with a fourth in the works to finish the tribes of Israel story. I really enjoyed "The Red Tent" and was interested in how the same story was depicted by a different author. Whereas "The Red Tent" really focuses on life after the marriage to Rachel and Leah, this deals with the years of servitude that Jacob performs in order to marry Rachel. Though there are similarities in the portrayal of events leading up to Jacob's deception, I think that this one is truer to the bible and also much more heartbreaking in a lot of ways. I'm interested to see what the sequel to this book is like.