I received a free copy of the following book from Revell in exchange for writing a review. While I consider it a privilege to receive free products to review, my review is my honest opinion and thoughts of the book.

I usually like historical fiction, although for the past few years I have tried to limit the amount that I read. I do like the reprieve it gives me from the heavier topics that I have been reading of late. I also enjoy reading fictional accounts of a biblical characters. Reading an author’s perception of what life could have been like, had all the details of the character been revealed in the Bible, makes me think more deeply about the character’s life.

Abigail is the second book in Jill Eileen Smith’s series, The Wives of King David. It is a fictional story about the life of a Biblical woman named Abigail. Abigail was first married to a very foolish man and when he died, she married the future King of Israel, David. This book reveals what it might have been like to be one of King David’s many wives.

Jill Eileen Smith does a very good job of depicting what the life of Abigail could have been, had all the intimate details been shared in the scriptures. I believe that Abigail was a very wise woman and that was the character trait that stood out to David upon his introduction to this woman, who so valiantly saved her household from attack after her husband’s foolish decision to be both disrespectful and inhospitable to David and his men. Smith captured this trait of wisdom, as well as the love Abigail had for the Lord Jehovah and King David, which shows throughout the book in how she lives her life. Abigail may have been the only wife David had that shared his faith.

Overall, I really did enjoy Abigail and would probably read the first in the series, Michal, and any others that follow.

“Available February 2010 at your favorite bookseller from Revell, a division of Baker Publishing Group.”