Customer Reviews

Hidden Flame, The (Acts of Faith)

5 star:		(26)
4 star:		(21)
3 star:		(6)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

The setting of this book is fascinating, just as in the first book of the series. Abigail is living among the early Christians, helping Martha every day with her duties taking care of orphans and widows as well as the disciples and their followers, taking on new duties as assigned by the apostle Peter, forming a friendship with Stephen (who becomes the first Christian martyr), and living during a period of time of increasing tension between Jews and followers of The Way, whose numbers are increasing daily. Abigail is at the center of this historic time and these historic events, experiencing God's healing and the beginning of the persecution of the early church.

I also thought the branches of the story that focused on Abigail's suitors were interesting as well. They both were witness to miracles and they both felt the Holy Spirit calling to them, but only one of them came to accept Christ and become one of his followers. The other let his jealousy and anger lead him to a position where he became a vocal opponent of Christ's followers. The different paths the men end up taking are thought-provoking.

I enjoyed this newest book in the series, even though it ended at a bit of a cliffhanger (just like the first book did). I have no idea when the next book in the series is going to be released (or who it is going to focus on), but I am looking forward to it. I don't often read biblical fiction, but I have found this series to be very engaging. It is awe-inspiring to imagine actually living during that historic time and I've enjoyed gaining a better understanding of what life was like then. I have especially enjoyed learning more about what life was like for women in that time and place and what it was like for gentile converts in the early Church. If you have any interest in fiction set immediately following the crucifixion of Christ, you would probably enjoy this series.

**I received a copy of this book from the publisher for review.

I awoke this morning eager to pick-up where I left off on the fourth CD of this 6 CD audio book. Bunn and Oke had me hovering in my kitchen thinking of more tasks that I could do just to stay near the audio drama brought to my ears.

This is the second book of the Acts Of Faith series authored by Davis Bunn and Janette Oke. They have taken Biblical accounts found in the book of Acts and woven them together with the fiction of their imaginations to create a story that brings life into characters of old.

Never before have I thought about how people must have spread rumors saying that Peter killed Ananias and Sapphira; or thought of how the women must have felt when treated with loving respect by transformed men.

This audio book allows you to step back into time and use your imagination to be there when God shows His power through miracles and His peace through a martyr's death.

The account of firm faith, deep betrayal, and overwhelming loss will keep you riveted and give you a great appreciation for what our Brothers and Sisters went through in the early years of the Church.

* * * * *

The original book is published by Bethany House a division of Baker Publishing Group. This audio copy for review has been provided by Oasis Audio.

After reading "The Centurion's Wife" when it first came out, I eagerly awaited the next installment of the series and I regret to say I've been left most disappointed. There is some value in finding out what life was like during the early days of Christianity. But, as far as the characters go, I found Abigail to be most uninspiring. While the motif in historical novels is frequently that the lead female character is daring and steps out of the confines for womanhood of her era, in this book Abigail is presented as a most weak and helpless creature. Most of the novel presents her as helplessly wondering how to get in contact with her brother and her not making any real concrete overtures to do so. Ironically for half the book we are presented with two possibilities for suitors for Abigail and then neither one of them turns out to be the real love story. Which leaves the reader feeling cheated. Not that Stephen, the husband, isn't kind and worthy. It is just that if the reader is supposed to be involved in the story then he should have been presented earlier. While I'm a fan of Christian novels and the message that they present. I found this book to contain a lot of drivel. There is very little real action, just the characters thoughts mostly, for the first half of the book. And the sheer nonentity of Abigail make this book, in my humble opinion, not worth the read. And I rarely write a negative review.

Some books are merely for the pleasure of reading, while others leave you impacted in a lasting way. This book accomplished both for me. Set in the days after Jesus has ascended and the Holy Spirit has filled the believers, the story follows the life of Abigail, a young woman whose hand is sought in marriage by two suitors who couldn't be any more different.

The Hidden Flame excellently portrays the political and cultural setting of the time, while giving a look into life was like for the early Church. What impacted me the most was what it meant then to be a follower, that the cost was truly everything dear in this life. I highly recommend this book, both for its historical and spiritual value. (I received a copy of this book free from Bethany Publishers.)

This book was well written and I equally enjoyed both books in this series of faith. Reading these books really opens my eyes to how I should be living my faith. Loved the culture of the times back then. Kept me captivated.

What a book! Historical fiction at its finest! Every time I picked this book up I felt like I was transported back to Bible times during the birth of the church in Israel. (I also had a difficult time putting it down!) I enjoyed meeting new characters mixed in with actual Biblical figures, Peter, Stephen, and others. They were woven together in an intriguing way. I quickly figured out that this was book two in the series. While the book can stand alone, they do make reference to events that took place in the first book in the series `The Centurion's Wife', which I have ordered and am looking forward to reading. This book helped me make a connection to those long ago days where just getting enough to eat was a daily concern. Where persecution of the young church was a real possibility, Romans were everywhere, and the faith of the Christians was enormous. I hope you as a future reader of this book will be as drawn in and touched by the people, places and events, both real and fictional, as I was.

I would like to thank Bethany House Publishing for the opportunity to review their books and for the free copy that I received.

I loved this book as much as I loved the first one in the series, The Centurion's Wife. I felt I could easily relate to the doubts and fears that Abigail dealt with on an almost daily basis, even though her world is far different from mine. Her humility and compassion are something for me to admire and aspire to, and I sympathized with her feelings of helplessness both in her struggle to work and her imminent betrothel. This book helped me to understand better the differences between the Pharisees and the members of the Sanhedrin, as well as the political climate of that time. I cried twice while reading the book, first while reading about Peter's shadow healing the sick and mamed as he walked and then at the point of Stephen's death. Despite the runny nose, I count this as a mark of well-written literature.
It's exciting to see how all of the names I know so well from Bible scriptures are introduced into the plotline of the novel, and it feels like taking a fresh look at events that I have read and studied over and over again, such as what happened to Ananias and Saphira. I feel like I am looking behind the scenes to what happened in between the lines of scripture, such as the events that led up to Stephen's death, the daily tasks of the members of the fledging church, as well as how the Apostles went about their daily lives, manifesting miracles as easily as shaking hands but still never taking for granted what Power worked through them. I appreciate the delicate nature of interpreting these Scriptures in a fictional text, and while there are some I know that would consider doing such as verging on blasphemous, I feel that such works serve a purpose in the "grand scheme" and hold merit.

Davis Bunn and Janette Oke, set "The Hidden Flame" in the time immediately following Jesus' death and resurrection. They explore the possibilities, and perhaps probabilities, of what life was like during that time for Jesus' followers as well as those people who struggle with the stories of Jesus' resurrection.

I tend to struggle with Historical fiction based on Scriptural events. It concerns me that extra-Biblical tendencies will occur leading the reader to believe it is factual when perhaps it is not. However, in reading "The Hidden Flame," I have noticed many references to scripture and found them to be solid. This book encourages its audience to explore the possibilities. In the end, Davis and Bunn surprise us with something that I have never given much thought, leaving me with the question, "What if . . .?" (I won't spoil it by telling you.)

The history of the early church, Scripture, considerations and possibilities are woven together with ease and fluency that make this a book I wouldn't mind sharing with my friends.

This book was a gift from Bethany House - a thank you for my honest, unbiased, review.)

It is amazing how the authors make the Book of Acts come alive. To know the stories out of Acts and to have studied them before hand was a benefit. The blending of the characters from the Centurian's Wife into this story was done very well. The hardest part about the book was finishing it to quick. I felt as if I was there. When I read this book it transported me back to the very important part of Christian history, had it not been for their faith and the amount of time in prayer they spent where would we be? The faith that was displayed in the book incouraqed me to spend more time in prayer myself and to be grateful for the early Christians who forged ahead.

There must be something to their collaborative chemistry because, having now read two books authored by Bunn/Oke I must say once again that their collaborative writing is much better than their solo works. With The Centurion's Wife (the prior book in this series), I began with low expectations and so was pleasantly surprised that the book was as good as it was. As a result, I had higher expectations for The Hidden Flame; and while it did not exceed my expectations, neither did it disappoint.

The first third of The Hidden Flame is the weakest part of the book, due to the fact that it constantly refers to people and events in the prior book. This essentially prevents The Hidden Flame from being a successful stand-alone book since, if the reader hasn't read The Centurion's Wife, they are going to be totally in the dark. I would even go further and say that the two books need to be read back-to-back; I read The Centurion's Wife seven months ago, and even in that amount of time I'd forgotten many of the details and so felt somewhat lost for the first few chapters of this one. About a third of the way through, The Hidden Flame seems to finally find its own feet as it moves forward and leaves the prior book behind.

There seemed to be some definite inconsistencies in the quality of the writing throughout the book. The passages dealing with Ezra were the strongest; the dialogue, narrative and descriptions were by far the best in the book. The scenes dealing with Linux were a bit weaker, and the scenes dealing with Abigail were the weakest of all. In her scenes the dialogue often didn't feel quite authentic and the emotions and motives weren't "explained" or developed as well. Which is unfortunate, since she was the main character. I didn't notice such a dichotomy in the writing in The Centurion's Wife and I'm not sure of the reason for it, unless perhaps it has to do with the way the two authors divided up their writing.

There were some incidents in The Hidden Flame that stood out to me as incongruous or just plain erroneous. First was the drinking of tea. I discussed this in detail in my review of The Centurion's Wife so I'm not going to repeat it all here, except to say that I have discussed this with other readers/writers of historical fiction, and all agree that tea as we know it was definitely unknown in Judea in AD 34. In The Centurion's Wife this was a huge distraction, as all the characters seemed to be drinking tea all the time. In The Hidden Flame it was less of a distraction because it occurred less frequently; still, it is an error and I'm surprised that the editors allowed it. Perhaps they thought no one would notice or care?

Another incident that was absolutely anachronistic occurred early in the book, when Abigail goes to the door of the bridal chamber to warn her newly-married guardians Alban and Leah that they are in danger. This would NEVER have happened; an unmarried girl would never have gone to the door of a chamber where a just-married couple was spending their wedding night (I don't care how much she was concerned for them), especially when there were plenty of other people around (such as men and older matrons) who could have done it. This was a blatant error and, again, I'm surprised the editors left it in. However, it was a small incident that occurred only once, so it is not affecting my overall rating.

There was another incident that I felt was a definite weak spot, and that was Linux's change of heart on the road back to Jerusalem from the arena. It just seemed to occur out of nowhere; I actually went back and re-read the passages where he was at the arena, and couldn't find anything that would have triggered this major change of heart. It felt to me, therefore, like Linux's conversion occurred because the authors wanted it to, and not because anything in his life happened to bring it about. I am lowering my rating because of this because this event was central to the plot of the book, and because I have a somewhat low tolerance for "contrivances" in books.

As in the first book, the plot of this one is predictable from the beginning and contains no surprises. If you've read the book of Acts, then you know what Stephen's fate is going to be. However, it was a pleasant read and a slightly better book than its predecessor; while not a great book, it is a good one that I would recommend.